Administrator of global biodiversity: The secretariat of the convention on biological diversity

Abstract

The paper presents a case study analysing the effects of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity as an intergovernmental organisation. Within the study, the effects of organisations are measured by their outcome, i.e. the influence on the behaviour of other actors such as national governments. Three forms of outcomes are being distinguished, namely knowledge brokerage and diffusion, capacity building, and negotiation facilitation. In addition, the paper tries to explain the observed effects on the basis of internal and external variables. The CBD Secretariat has been established in 1992 and is now located in Montreal with about 70 employees. As most other secretariats of international conventions, it is the main organiser and facilitator of the convention process. The empirical material shows that the Secretariat has a measurable influence on the intergovernmental cooperative process which can be attributed to the effective internal management processes and the qualities of its leaders. Lacking capacity building functions and highly selective effects with regard to the provision of knowledge are explained by the limited formal autonomy and the structure of the global biodiversity problem.

Traditional knowledge in international forest policy: contested meanings and divergent discourses

“…It was initially criticised by both indigenous peoples (IAITPTF 1996) and some conservationists for its heavy emphasis on commodity interests, but the follow-up processes were designed to allow significant participation by non-state actors, including indigenous organisations, and partly for this reason it has become a major focus for lobbying by these groups (Bilderbeek and Wijgerde 1994;Leake and Traverse 2007;Seibenhu¨ner 2007).…”

Possibilities of enhancing co-operation and co-ordination among MEAs in the biodiversity cluster

“…If the supreme decision-making body (usually the COP) can be likened to the legislative arm of the convention then the secretariat is the executive (Johnston 1999). When compared to inter-governmental organisations such as FAO or the World Bank, the secretariats' formal autonomy as stated in its mandate is rather limited (Siebenhüner 2007).…”

A bottom-up ‘Convention-Check’ to improve top-down global protected area governance

“…At the highest geographic levels, these acts for example include UN-based Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) with a clear focus on sustainable development (French, 2007;Mauerhofer, 2008a). Among these are the Convention on Biological Diversity -CBD (Swanson, 1999;Wolfrum, 2001;Siebenhüner, 2007), the Convention on Migra- * Tel. : +43 699 10165580; fax: +43 1 5951113.…”