Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the deterioration of ecosystems during this period.
17
The ecological foot-
prints of high-income states signi
cantly exceed those of middle- and
low-income states.
18
Together, they accounted for half of the global eco-
logical footprint in 2006, although the states concerned house less than one
sixth of the world
s population.
19
The international community of states has expressed strong concern
over the deterioration of ecological conditions in each of the periodic
meetings convened during the last 40 years to consider how development
can be made sustainable.
20
Most of its members have also negotiated and
rati
'
ed international treaties, such as the Biodiversity Convention,
21
that
encourage participating states to improve their protection of ecosystems
or to preserve speci
c types of systems (e.g., wetlands under the Ramsar
Convention
22
).
23
However, the inescapable conclusion, to be drawn from
17
J. G. Speth, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment and Crossing
from Crisis to Sustainability (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 1
-
9.
18
World Wildlife Fund,
'
Living Planet Report 2012
'
,p.140.
19
World Wildlife Fund,
'
Living Planet Report 2006
'
quoted in Speth,
'
TheBridgeatthe
2.
20
The declaration of the states that participated in the
rst of these meetings, the United
Nations Conference on the Human Environment of 1972, notes in its preamble that
'
Edge of the World
'
,pp.41
-
'
[w]e see around us growing evidence of man-made harm in many regions of the earth
'
including
major and undesirable disturbances to the ecological balance of
the
'
'
biosphere
. See the
Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment
, Stockholm, 16 June 1972, UN Doc-A/Conf.48/14/Rev. 1(1973); 11 ILM
1416 (1972). Principle 7 of the declaration made at the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development of 1992 requests states to
'
co-operate in a spirit of
global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth
'
'
s
ecosystem
, Rio de Janeiro,
13 June 1992, UN Doc. A/CONF.151/26 (vol. I); 31 ILM 874 (1992). Finally, the many
references to ecosystems and their protection in The Future we Want, the outcome
documentoftheUNConferenceonSustainable Development of 2012, illustrates that
signicant concern over ecological conditions remains although many of them are
couched in terms of sustainable use rather than outright protection. One of the stronger
references recognises the
'
.Seethe
'
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
'
'
severity of the global loss of biodiversity and the degradation
of ecosystems
'
, the threats that this presents for food security, access to water and health
for
the
conservation of biodiversity, enhancing habitat connectivity and building ecosystem
resilience
'
the rural poor and of people worldwide
'
, and the corresponding importance of
'
'
.See
'
Report of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development
'
,Riode
22 June 2012, A/Conf.216/16.
21
Convention on Biological Diversity, Rio de Janeiro, 5 June 1992, in force on 29
December 1993, 1760 UNTS 79, 31 ILM 818 (1992).
22
Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat,
Ramsar, 2 February 1971, in force on 21 December 1975, 996 UNTS 246, 11 ILM 969.
23
Accounts of the evolution of international and European law concerning the protection of
ecosystems in this period can be found in: P. Birnie, A. Boyle and C. Redgwell, International
Law and the Environment, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 583
Janeiro, 20
-
-
649;
