IDDRI at the heart of the Global Forum on Oceans (Paris, 3-7 May)

Created in 2001 in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002), the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands is the most important informal forum for discussion on marine and coastal issues. From 3 to 7 May this year, the fifth edition of the Forum, held in Paris, brought together over 800 participants from 80 different countries.

The theme chosen for this edition — Oceans, Climate and Biodiversity: from Copenhagen 2009 to Nagoya 2010 — provided the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues, from the fight against marine pollution to the impact of climate change on ecosystems, and from the challenges of protecting the high seas to issues concerning financing adaptation in coastal areas. Scientists and representatives of international organisations, national administrations, non-governmental organisations and the private sector were thus able to discuss these different subjects during the numerous workshops, conferences and round tables organised on 3, 4 and 5 May. The plenary conferences held on 6 and 7 May then mobilised political decision-makers and high-level representatives.

As co-organiser of this event, IDDRI was particularly involved in the scientific coordination of the Forum. IDDRI’s Biodiversity and Climate team thus organised and contributed to several workshops on different subjects: implementing integrated coastal zone management (ICZM); including marine issues in post-Copenhagen discussions; the relevance of using carbon market mechanisms in financing the protection of marine and coastal ecosystems; and the vulnerability of small island developing States and challenges linked to population movements, etc. IDDRI’s recent work on the integrated management of seas and coasts on the one hand, and on the future role of the potential IPBES platform (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) on the other, was also presented during a plenary session.

This fifth edition of the Forum therefore enabled the marine and coastal community to debate the issues involved in the sustainable management of this environment, to mobilise political decision-makers to this end and to prepare the upcoming international meetings (the Nagoya Conference on Biodiversity, the UN General Assembly session on the law of the sea, and the Cancun Climate Change Conference, etc.).

Through its activities concerning ocean governance, integrated coastal zone management and the "adaptation" and "mitigation" elements of climate change, IDDRI will play an active role in these future events by providing the expertise needed to inform the debates.

[Find out more on the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands]

>> Find out publications related to oceans and coasts issues:

* Feasibility Assessment of an ICZM Protocol to the Nairobi Convention, de Raphaël Billé et Julien Rochette

Produced at the request of the Nairobi Convention Secretariat, this study assesses the feasibility of creating a protocol on integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region. Presented during the First Conference of National ICZM Committees in the WIO (Mombasa, Kenya, 24-25 March 2010), the study was then discussed during the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Nairobi Convention (Nairobi, Kenya, 29 March - 1 April 2010). The debates then gave rise to a COP decision, requesting the Secretariat to launch the process to develop a regional legal instrument specifically focusing on ICZM. [Read and download the publication]

* Towards a new governance of high seas biodiversity - A review of the international seminar organised in the Principality of Monaco, 20 and 21 March 2008, Collections Iddri - Idées pour le débat 08/2008

This text, drawn up after consulting the contributors, presents, workshop by workshop, the main viewpoints discussed during the seminar for a new governance of high seas biodiversity. [Find out more]

* ICZM and climate change, by Raphaël Billé and Julien Rochette

Background document for workshop 2 of the international seminar on "Integrated coastal zone management in the Mediterranean, from local to regional: how to stop the loss of biodiversity?", organised within the framework of the French Presidency of the European Union, 18-19 December 2008, Nice, (France). [Read and download the publication]

EVENTS

* L'évaluation économique de la biodiversité et des services écosystémiques pour les décisions publiques : que retenir du « Rapport Chevassus » ? [Economic evaluations of biodiversity and ecosystem services for public decision-making: lessons from the "Chevassus report"], a session of the Séminaire Développement Durable et Economie de l'Environnement (SDDEE), led by Jean-Michel Salles and Jean-Luc Pujol
Tuesday 25 May, Sciences Po (Paris)

Acknowledging the impact of collective choices on ecosystems and biodiversity has thus far remained a qualitative issue. Following the Grenelle de l’Environnement (French environmental round table), the Centre d’Analyse Stratégique (French strategic analysis centre) set up a working group tasked with examining the current state of knowledge and proposals for a quantified approach to the socio-economic assessment of projects. The economic evaluation of biodiversity raises a number of conceptual problems and practical difficulties to which the group strove to find practical solutions. [Find out more]

* Définition des principes de la mutualisation logistique et évaluation de la réduction des émissions de CO₂ dans la grande distribution [Defining the principles of logistic pooling and assessing carbon emissions reductions in mass distribution], a session of the Rendez-vous Franciliens du Développement Soutenable, led by Shenle Pan
Wednesday 26 May, Sciences Po (Paris)

The aim of this research is to assess the performance that would result from a different logistic organisation: pooling. Several research projects show that grouping goods at the operational level is one possible solution, which is nevertheless difficult to implement. It responds to an opportunist yet limited approach by carriers. This is why we suggest pooling flows, which is an emerging strategy aimed at improving logistics performance. It consists in transferring the operational coordination effort to group the flows of independent operators towards a sustainable organisation. This organisation is designed to share the means of transport and logistics centres used to serve a group of clients. Performance is assessed at the environmental level through carbon emissions and at the economic level by measuring operational costs. [Find out more]

* Gouvernance du risque climatique et pastoralisme mobile sahélien : actualité et ambiguïté de la notion de savoir local [Climate risk governance and nomadic pastoralism in the Sahel: current state and ambiguity of the concept of local knowledge], a session of the Rendez-vous Franciliens du Développement Soutenable, led by Chloé Gardin
Wednesday 9 June, Sciences Po (Paris)

Using the tools of development anthropology, natural anthropology and sociology of sciences, this session will analyse the dual ethnography of Senegalese institutions and rural populations on the issue of implementing climate risk governance. The case of Ferlo, situated in the semi-arid Sahel region (Senegal), shows how a convergence develops between nature conservation policies and development policies in a region that is suffering desertification, and where the extensive livestock farming of the Fulani people, which is moving ever closer to the Sudanian regions, presents some considerable environmental challenges. These particularly result in the progressive establishment of a form of environmental engineering based on the development of environmental monitoring mechanisms that are added to public policies which focus especially on “rationalising” the regulation of access to pastoral resources. [Find out more]

* Climate Adaptation Futures: Preparing for the Unavoidable Impacts of Climate Change, international conference
Tuesday 29 June to Thursday 1 July, Gold Coast (Australia)

IDDRI’s Vulnerability, Risk and Adaptation team from the Climate Programme will take part in one of the first international conferences to focus exclusively on issues relating to the impacts of climate change and adaptation to this change. [Find out more]

VIDEOS

* Développement durable, transfert de technologie et droits de propriété intellectuelle (Sustainable development, technology transfer and intellectual property rights), a session of the Séminaire Développement Durable et Economie de l'Environnement, led by Claude Henry and Emmanuel Guérin

During this session, Claude Henry and Emmanuel Guérin analysed industrial strategies towards low-carbon technologies. As a matter fo fact, hesitating between a cooperative attitude (to reach the critical size, minimise risks, etc.) and a non-cooperative attitude (to gain market share, maintain a competitive advantage, etc.), industries use intellectual property rights with different purposes to serve these diverse strategies. Following this review, the speakers then studied how international cooperation (public-public and public-private) can encourage and accelerate the dissemination and development of low-carbon technologies. [View seminar session]

* Dommages causés à l'environnement : de l'indemnisation à la réparation intégrale (Damage to the environment: from compensation to full reparation), a session of the Séminaire Développement Durable et Economie de l'Environnement, led by Jean-Pierre Mignard and Sébastien Mabile

During this session, Jean-Pierre Mignard and Sébastien Mabile analysed the evolution of the concept of environmental loss, which has been steadily gaining ground in litigation since the first major oil spills of the 1970s. Through specific examples including that of the Erika oil spill which resulted in over 10 years of legal proceedings, several questions were addressed by the speakers:
- the definition of environmental loss (should it be human and/or environmental, who is the victim);
- its assessment (which uses complex and varied economic calculations)
- and its compensation (the original administrative enforcement regime resulting from the environmental responsibility act of 1 August 2008 was presented as an alternative to the hitherto dominant litigation solution). [View seminar session]