Fri, October 23, 2015 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM UBC Point Grey Campus. In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly decided to develop a new legally binding instrument on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). A preparatory committee will begin work in 2016.
The seminar includes a presentation by Dr. Marjo Vierros, a Liu Institute for Global Issues Visiting Fellow (October 2015 – March 2016), followed by a discussion by panel of Liu Institute faculty and a general discussion with audience members.
The panelists include:
Professor Rashid Sumaila, Faculty Associate, Liu Institute for Global Issues
Professor Daniel Pauly, Professor, Sea Around Us, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries & Department of Zoology
Professor Curtis Suttle, Professor of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Botany, and Microbiology & Immunology
Moderated by Dr. Yoshitaka Ota, Liu Institute Research Fellow.
This event explores the type of input that the academic community could provide to the upcoming ocean negotiations at the United Nations. The discussion goes beyond scientific and environmental concerns to encompass ethics and equity, and their role in international law and policy.
Some of the questions explored include: How are discoveries relating to microbial and genetic diversity in the ocean driving innovation in medicines, biofuels, foods and other areas of biotechnology? Should the commercial use of a common resource for financial gain come with obligations for benefit-sharing? And if so, how can benefit-sharing address inequities, drive conservation, and increase capacities and livelihoods in the recipient country in the long term? And finally, what can we learn about the incentives for caring for a common resource, and the connections between conservation and intergenerational equity from those coastal communities around the world, including Indigenous Peoples, who have successfully cared for their shared resources for millennia?
Everyone is welcome. No RSVP Required.