Fair and equitable governance? Procedural justice in the negotiations on the Nagoya Protocol

Coolsaet, Brendan [UCL]

The participation of ‘weak’ states in international biodiversity negotiations faces significant challenges. The complexity of the process and the distribution of resources and (bargaining) power among states generate unequal participation opportunities, fostering distrust and threatening the effectiveness of global efforts to halt the erosion of biodiversity. In 2010, at the tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Parties established the legal foundations of an international regime aiming to facilitate access to genetic resources and share the benefits arising from their utilization in a ‘fair and equitable way’. Given the unbalanced participation opportunities between Parties, the question arises as to the necessary conditions to allow for the latter to actually take place. A first obvious condition lies in a decision-making process that is similarly fair and equitable, or in other words, a process governed by a principle of procedural justice. Building on existing knowledge, this article proposes a consolidated triangulation technique to assess the participation and influence of weak states in international environmental negotiations. The results show that despite significant barriers to their participation, these countries manage to have a certain impact on the debate and its outcome, although not sufficient to guarantee a fair and equitable outcome. By identifying the strength and weaknesses of their participation, this paper fosters our understanding on possible measures to ensure procedural fairness when negotiating new environmental regimes