International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Special Issue by invitation only: Forests at the Crossroads of International Law

The protection of forests is recognized to be of utmost importance in the agenda of the United Nations (UN), and in particular, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the climate change goals. SDG15 aims to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”. Despite this recognition, forest protection is, in legal terms, rather scattered. In the context of forest environmental and climate governance, a mix of various layers of legal instruments with different goals exists, at the local, regional and global levels. Beyond environmental and climate governance, other areas of law have direct implications for forests, such as human rights or sustainable development.

As a result, one of the main current challenges is to make sure that the interactions between different layers of legal protection run smoothly, enhancing synergies and avoiding conflicts, in order to prevent further environmental degradation of forested lands. It is also crucial to understand how the various areas of international law applicable to forests take shape when implemented in forested lands.

This special issue therefore aims at understanding how the different areas of international law (including transnational and regional law) engage with forests and what these different layers of protection mean for the protection of forests. This line of enquiry will enable us to make sense of the links, tensions and opportunities that the many initiatives from regional, transnational and international entities entail, and provide for an assessment of the impacts of those various areas of law are, not individually, but as a whole.

This special issue displays the main pressure points that exist now across international law, thus joining ideas and areas that would normally not interact with each other. For instance, trade-related issues of imports of deforestation-free products needs to be discussed alongside issues of indigenous peoples’ rights over their forested lands. Despite the law may not be connected between those two issues, the reality connects them when indigenous land grabs take place to convert forested lands to agricultural lands for instance.

Core themes:

The main areas that the various articles of this special issue will address concern:
-    Trade and forest governance
-    Biodiversity and forest governance
-    Climate change and forest governance
-    Indigenous peoples and forest governance

First, the trade of timber, as one of the main drivers of deforestation, is addressed both at the regional and international levels, through the International Tropical Timber Organisation, other bilateral or trade-specific treaties, and the EU new Deforestation-Free Products Regulation. These legal tools all aim at reducing the trade of illegal logging and give a strong regulatory framework for logging.

Second, biodiversity issues are key for forest governance, but not all contained in the same legal documents. The Convention on Biological Diversity has quasi-universal ratification by states, but contains weak obligations. In parallel, laws at the national level have been developed, such as the National Forest Act in India, that treats biodiversity and forests issues more locally. The analysis at different levels of protection is necessary to get a more accurate picture of the actions that forest governance can take in relation to larger biodiversity goals.

Third, the climate change framework, especially since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, has one of the biggest political pulls and raises interest across the globe. Because of this, it has become an even more relevant legal framework for forests. Especially since the early 2000s when REDD+ has been developed, which aims specifically at reducing deforestation and forest degradation. In this context, forest governance has a special meaning, which is not always in line with other environmental issues. This relationship needs further examination.

Fourth, forest governance directly affects people that live or use forested lands for their sustenance, livelihoods or cultural activities. In particular, indigenous peoples have been at the forefront of the forest governance issues, as the main trustees of forested lands. Therefore, the human rights framework is crucial for understanding forest governance at large. 

All these areas have great implications on how forests are understood legally, and a dialogue between those areas must be started. This is the purpose of this special issue.

Guest Editor:

Justine Bendel, Marie Curie Fellow, Centre for International Law and Governance, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Justine.Bendel@jur.ku.dk)

Please note this Special Issue is by invitation only.