ALBERT

Description: Diverse agricultural land uses are a typical feature of multifunctional landscapes. The uncertain change in the drivers of global land use, such as climate, market and policy technology and demography, challenges the long-term management of agricultural diversification. As these global drivers also affect smaller scales, it is important to capture the traits of regionally specific farm activities to facilitate adaptation to change. By downscaling European shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) for agricultural and food systems, combined with representative concentration pathways (RCP) to regionally specific, alternative socioeconomic and climate scenarios, the present study explores the major impacts of the drivers of global land use on regional agriculture by simulating farm-level decisions and identifies the socio-ecological implications for promoting diverse agricultural landscapes in 2050. A hilly orchard region in northern Switzerland was chosen as a case study to represent the multifunctional nature of Swiss agriculture. Results show that the different regionalised pathways lead to contrasting impacts on orchard meadows, production levels and biodiversity. Increased financial support for ecological measures, adequate farm labour supplies for more labour-intensive farming and consumer preferences that favour local farm produce can offset the negative impacts of climate change and commodity prices and contribute to agricultural diversification and farmland biodiversity. However, these conditions also caused a significant decline in farm production levels. This study suggests that considering a broader set of land use drivers beyond direct payments, while acknowledging potential trade-offs and diverse impacts across different farm types, is required to effectively manage and sustain diversified agricultural landscapes in the long run.

Description: Many studies have explored farmers’ perspectives on biodiversity and ecosystem services, but fewer qualitative and cross-country comparisons exist. We develop a socio-ecological system to analyse agricultural landscape services, biodiversity, and drivers that have affected these services in recent decades. Via a systematic stakeholder mapping and 49 semi-structured interviews, we identify stakeholder perceptions of this system. We compare the perceptions across four regional case studies (Austria, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland), and two stakeholder groups (land managers and administrators). The case studies share certain commonalities in perceptions (e.g., provisioning and regulating services discussed in all of them) but also show differences (e.g., changes in biodiversity and landscape services more often perceived in the Swiss and German cases, but less in the Austrian and Estonian case studies). Across all case studies, typical land use change can be attributed to multiple drivers of various strengths, with climate change being the most often perceived driver directly affecting landscape services, followed by policies and market-based drivers, which affect services and biodiversity indirectly via land use. Compared to the administrators (e.g., decision-makers, scientists), the managers (e.g., farmers, NGOs) discuss more often the drivers, like various biodiversity and landscape service categories, as well as climate change, markets, and technologies. However, the administrators focus more on cultural services, policies as drivers, and consider more often links between drivers and landscape services and/or biodiversity. Hence, both of the groups’ (administrators and managers) perceptions partly complement each other. Since policy making should be based on the best knowledge of different stakeholder groups, active knowledge exchange between managers and administrators should be supported and outcome considered in decision making. The resulting regional differences in stakeholder perceptions of the drivers and their respective impact on agricultural landscapes suggest that future agricultural policies need regional targeting and the consideration of landscape-specific characteristics.

Description: The marine environment is under increasing threat from the cumulative effects of human activities. This chapter examines and elaborates on some of the important challenges facing international marine environmental law today. To situate the discussion, the chapter begins with an overview of the background to and development of international marine environmental law and the principles and processes that form the corpus of this body of law. It then turns to an examination of legal frameworks relating to some of the most pressing current challenges, including biodiversity loss, plastic pollution, climate change and the role of science and technology. The chapter concludes that international marine environmental law alone cannot protect the marine environment. Rather, cooperation between sectors and with other legal regimes such as the climate, biodiversity and waste regimes is now essential.

Description: This wholly new edition of the Handbook provides an authoritative examination of international law relating to the protection of the marine environment. Chapters critically engage with current legal issues surrounding activities that harm the marine environment, including marine pollution, seabed activities, exploitation of marine biodiversity and climate change, and with the different legal tools and mechanisms, including environmental impact assessments and compliance and dispute settlement mechanisms, used to protect the marine environment. New chapters also address legal issues relating to the role of technology and marine scientific research as well as the application of principles such as public participation.

Description: Preface xi PART I MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW IN THE 21ST CENTURY 1 International marine environmental law in the 21st century 2 Rosemary Rayfuse, Aline Jaeckel and Natalie Klein 2 The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea – still relevant to protection of the marine environment? 33 Robin Churchill 3 Fragmentation and coherence in the legal framework for the protection of the marine environment 57 Alexander Proelss PART II LEGAL FRAMEWORKS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT 4 Basic principles of international marine environmental law 81 Yoshifumi Tanaka 5 Compliance mechanisms under treaties relating to protection of the marine environment 104 James Harrison 6 Resolving international disputes concerning the marine environment 124 Natalie Klein and Millicent McCreath 7 Mapping progress and challenges for the UNEP Regional Sea Programme for the Mediterranean 150 Nilufer Oral 8 The Indian Ocean region and marine environmental law 172 Erika Techera PART III POLLUTION AND THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT 9 Vessel-source pollution – some key developments 196 Henrik Ringbom 10 Regulating shipping under conditions of uncertainty: The Arctic Ocean and knowledge-based decision-making 218 Tore Henriksen 11 From ocean dumping to marine geoengineering: The evolution of the London Regime 240 Karen N Scott 12 Ocean acidification 264 Ellycia Harrould-Kolieb and Tim Stephens PART IV PROTECTING MARINE BIODIVERSITY 13 Protecting the marine environment of the deep seabed 289 Michael Lodge 14 Protecting marine biodiversity and vulnerable marine ecosystems 311 Rosemary Rayfuse 15 Marine mammals and migratory species 333 Richard Caddell PART V MECHANISMS AND TOOLS FOR PROTECTING THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT 16 Public participation in the governance of deep-seabed mining in the Area 361 Jeff Ardron, Hannah Lily and Aline Jaeckel 17 Marine scientific research and the protection of the seas and oceans 385 Anna-Maria Hubert 18 New technology and the protection of the marine environment 409 Hilde J Woker, Rozemarijn J Roland Holst and Harriet Harden-Davies 19 Implementing environmental impact assessment in areas beyond national jurisdiction: Epistemic, institutional and normative challenges 428 Neil Craik and Kristine Gu 20 Enhancing marine protected areas and marine spatial planning through an ecosystem approach 451 Vasco Becker-Weinberg Index 467