If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy or review by the BRIDGES staff to Sarah Mohan.
ICTSD Resources
TRADING IN GENES: DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES ON BIOTECHNOLOGY, TRADE AND SUSTAINABILITY. Edited by Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz and Vicente Sanchez (International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, November 2005). This unique book is a collection of leading-edge perspectives from the South on biotechnology, biosafety, sustainable development and trade. By providing knowledge and opinions from a range of experts, it enables readers to bridge the knowledge and communication gaps that separate these fields so as to gain a better understanding of the policy issues that face developing countries. Few scientific developments have given rise to as much controversy as biotechnology: numerous groups are united in their opposition, expressing concern over environmental and health risks, impacts on rural livelihoods, the economic dominance of multinational companies and the ethical implications of crossing species boundaries. Among the supporters of the technology are those that believe in its potential to enhance food security, further economic development, increase productivity and reduce environmental pressures. This book takes up the question of the potential opportunities for development offered by the use of biotechnology, attempts to help stakeholders understand international processes to manage risks and benefits and highlights the flexibilities offered by the multilateral trading system to support biosafety and biotechnology.
DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS: ENSURING MUTUAL SUPPORTIVENESS BETWEEN THE WTO TRIPS AGREEMENT AND THE CBD. Edited by IUCN, ICTSD, CIEL, IDDRI and QUNO, November 2005. This publication aims to provide useful insights with a particular focus on the mandate of the WTO TRIPS Council and its interaction with other global biodiversity and intellectual property regimes and fora. In addition, the papers included evaluate mechanisms and give practical examples on how to implement disclosure requirements at the national level in a manner that is supportive of the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Although with different emphases, legal approaches and expectations, the authors recognise that disclosure requirements could contribute to the process of finding mechanisms and tools for achieving the CBD objectives, and constitute the most visible linkage yet proposed between the CBD and the international intellectual property regime.
Other Resources
WHAT’S THE CATCH? By WWF, December 2005. This report gives an update on the latest state of play in the WTO negotiations and how new WTO rules that support healthy fisheries and sustainable trade are within reach. The question is will governments really come home with their nets full? After years of study and discussion, governments are finally moving towards the adoption of international rules to curtail the practice of subsidizing overfishing. At the WTO, where the negotiations are underway, significant progress has been made towards a positive outcome. But the hardest work, both technically and politically, remains ahead.
BEST PRACTICES FOR IMPROVING LAW COMPLIANCE IN THE FOREST SECTOR. By the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), November 2005. This publication highlights successful efforts to combat illegal logging undertaken in eleven and gives examples of some of the innovative approaches already being used by governments to tackle the problem of illegal logging. The report also highlights four overarching areas where policy reforms can help: making forestry laws and policies more rational, equitable, transparent and streamlined; improving monitoring and information gathering; strengthening national capacities to enforce compliance; ensuring that policies take into account the economic and social dynamics that underlie illegal logging.
THE DIGITAL DUMP: EXPORTING RE-USE AND ABUSE TO AFRICA. By Jim Puckett, Sarah Westervelt, Richard Gutierrez and Yuka Takamiya (Basel Action Network (BAN), October 2005). This report reveals that large quantities of obsolete computers, televisions, mobile phones, and other used electronic equipment exported from USA and Europe to Lagos, Nigeria for "re-use and repair" are ending up gathering dust in warehouses or being dumped and burned, thereby creating serious health and environmental contamination from the toxic leachate and smoke. The report urges consumers of electronics, especially major consumers such as banks, transnationals, government agencies, universities, school systems, etc.to conduct due diligence for their entire waste chain.
OVERVIEW OF THE SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES IN QUAD COUNTRIES ON TROPICAL FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IMPORTED FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. By Ellen Pay (South Centre, November 2005). The proliferation and increasing stringency of food safety and plant health requirements imposed by developed countries have led to growing concerns amongst many developing countries as to their administrative, technical and financial capacities to comply with these requirements and consequently maintain their access to export markets. While evidence suggests that the benefits of complying with SPS requirements seem to outweigh costs for developing countries as a group, these costs and benefits may be distributed unevenly between countries and between operators within countries.
OVERFISHING IN INLAND WATERS. By J. David Allan, Dr. Kirk Winemiller, Robin Abell, Zeb Hogan, Carmen Revenga, Brad Taylor and Robin Welcomme in BioScience 55 (12), December 2005. This paper warns that overfishing of inland waters is a "neglected crisis" that could lead to the disappearance of many species and adversely impact livelihoods. Such overfishing also has the potential to severely impact human health, particularly in developing countries. For example, fish consume the vectors of important diseases such as schistosomiasis. The authors conclude that there is ample evidence of the global importance of overfishing as a threat to inland water biodiversity. They recommend that management of inland fisheries should be guided by sustainability of yields, maintenance of biodiversity, protection from habitat degradation and other anthropogenic stressors, and provision of socioeconomic benefits to a broad spectrum of consumers.
THE DERAILER’S GUIDE TO THE WTO. By Focus on the Global South, 2005. This book argues that the Doha Round negotiations are heading in a direction that will have disastrous impacts on food security and sovereignty, industry, employment, the environment, livelihoods and the access of millions of people to essential services, technology and health-care. In this context, the book provides basic information about the WTO agreements and the issues on the negotiating table for the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. The authors assert that in order to protect our ability to shape development to meet the priorities of our communities and societies, it is imperative that a new trade deal is not reached in Hong Kong or in subsequent negotiations.
WORLD IN TRANSITION - FIGHTING POVERTY THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY. By the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), 2005. The recommendations for action set out in this report are based on an analysis of the systemic links between poverty (income poverty, disease, malnutrition, and lack of education, social stability and social capital) and environmental changes (climate change, lack of water resources, water pollution, soil degradation, loss of biological diversity and resources, and air pollution). This type of integrated analysis is nothing new; what is new, however, is the consistent linking of a holistic approach with the following key questions: which institutional arrangements offer ways of coping with these problems, and where must gaps be closed? To this end, this paper evaluates major international political processes and developed recommendations on policy coherence.
CAPITALISM AS IF THE WORLD MATTERS. By Jonathon Porritt, November 2005. As our great economic machine grinds relentlessly forward into a future of declining fossil fuel supplies, climate change and ecosystem failure, humanity, by necessity, is beginning to question the very structure of the economy that has provided so much wealth, and inequity, across the world. Can capitalism, as the only real economic game in town, be retooled to deliver a sustainable future? Porritt argues that indeed it can and it must as he lays out the framework for a new ’sustainable capitalism’ that cuts across the political divide and promises a prosperous future of wealth, equity and ecosystem integrity.
AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY FOR GROWTH AND POVERTY REDUCTION. By Steven Were Omamo and Anwar Naseem (International Service for National Agricultural Research, November 2005). This paper argues that the largely unrealised potential of agricultural science and technology (S&T) in promoting growth and poverty reduction in developing countries results from deeply rooted incompatibility among policy environments, institutional arrangements, and micro conditions and behavior in agricultural research and development. Achieving growth and poverty reduction based on greater agricultural productivity therefore means achieving greater compatibility among these three dimensions of agricultural innovation systems. Agricultural S&T policy analysis as presented here extends beyond the current boundaries of agricultural economics into such disciplines as public finance, public administration, political science, history, sociology, and psychology.