Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
environment interactions and environmental geography (e.g., Rigg, 2003). The latter
addresses the spatial dynamics of genetic introgression, for example, which is a major
topic in the treatment of invasive species (Blumler, 2003).
Biodiversity: Human Geography and Related Fields
The economic valuation of biodiversity is owed in substantial part to the rise of its
usefulness and potential promise as genetic raw material to the biotechnology indus-
try. Chronologies have coincided closely in the growth of these two spheres of
interest since the 1980s. Legal frameworks, such as property laws and intellectual
property rights, as well as technological innovations, such as DNA banking, have
continued to offer new facets to the biodiversity-biotechnology relation. The eco-
nomic signifi cance of biodiversity is also incorporated into the valuation of ecosys-
tem goods and services. These modes of valuation are best understood as not merely
environmental and economic but also broadly social and political as well. Contem-
porary economic geography has generated numerous insights into the powerful
human social dynamics surrounding and infusing biodiversity issues.
The predominant modes of biodiversity valuation belong to the current economic
philosophy, policy frameworks, and politics of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism espouses
market-based rationales for the protection and conservation of nature and, more
specifi cally, for the valuation of biodiversity. The extensive capacity for valuation
of biodiversity through marketing under neoliberal policies has led to critiques
within economic geography that demonstrate the scenario of 'saving nature to sell
it' (McAfee, 1999). Markets have gained the status as possible saviours, in addition
to still serving as threats, to biodiversity. In biodiversity-rich places worldwide,
particularly in the Global South, economic valuation is also distinguished by costs
that are incurred among local residents who may lose access to land and other
resources as a result of Protected Areas (PAs) designated for the purpose of bio-
diversity protection and conservation (Adams et al., 2004; Neumann, 2004).
Potentially the economic value of biodiversity can be used to provide local and
national benefi ts through such agreements as bioprospecting and the commercialisa-
tion of biodiverse genetic material. Indeed this 'geography of hope' has stimulated
diverse works on market-based conservation through the lens of cultural and politi-
cal ecology, with focus especially on the people and resources of the 'Global South',
(e.g., Coomes et al., 2004). Recent global and international agreements on biodi-
versity such as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which was adopted in 2000 in
order to regulate agricultural biotechnologies internationally, also offer potentially
hopeful developments. The Cartagena Protocol illustrates the increased role and
infl uence of regulations involving the global valuation of biodiversity along with
the place of the countries and citizens of the Global South in this regulation. A dis-
tinct yet generally related example, set in the Global North, is the new framework
of the new Agri-Environmental Policies (AEP) of the European Union. The treatment
of biodiversity issues within this EU framework reveal that new regulatory
approaches can be vital, and that market-based mechanisms do not represent all-
encompassing avenues for environmental management.
Politics of biodiversity issues range from national resource concerns and identity,
on the one hand, to international treaties and relations, including the processes of
globalisation, on the other hand. The politics of nations is central to many biodi-
versity issues; for example, biodiversity is commonly viewed as a feature of national
