Project Events

Date: Wednesday, 13 April 2022

Time: 05:00-06:30pm (CEST)

On-going negotiations for a new UNCLOS implementing agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (the BBNJ treaty) are occurring simultaneous to negotiations for a new strategic plan in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, GBF). Although area based management tools, such as marine protected areas (MPAs), are only one item within the BBNJ ‘package’, they were a key motivation for the negotiations. Arguments for extending MPAs to areas beyond national jurisdiction were articulated long before the current BBNJ treaty negotiations formally started, and in 2010 proponents lobbied the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to lead this extension. Although at the time the CBD was disinclined to include the high seas within its mandate, the links between the CBD and the BBNJ treaty are many. In this talk, Lisa Campbell will explore some of these links, including: the CBD’s 2020 target for area expansion of MPAs and the proposed 30×30 (30% of global oceans in MPAs by 2030) target in the draft GBF; the CBD’s work to describe ecologically and biologically significant areas throughout the ocean; and current tensions around access and benefits sharing in both on-going negotiations. She will reflect on what the links reveal and/or reflect about global governance generally and for oceans specifically.

Lisa Campbell is the Rachel Carson Distinguished Professor of Marine Affairs and Policy at Duke University, and is based at the marine lab in Beaufort, North Carolina, USA. Her research is focused on oceans governance broadly, and in relation to diverse issues including: conservation targets, MPAs, small scale fisheries, protected species, and marine spatial planning. She draws on theory form political ecology, political economy, and science and technology studies to understand how science and other values, and state and non-state actors, inform governance processes and outcomes across geographic and socio- political scales.

To register: via email to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at, indicating your name and institution

Downloadable Flyer:

When: April 5 2022, 06:00-08:00pm

Where: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

The event is in German & French

In the seas and oceans there exists a diversity of life that is still largely unexplored today and at the same time an important basis for human life.
Despite this, marine policy is still a little-known field among the general public and to date there is still no regulation on biodiversity in international waters.
However, in 2018, negotiations began at the United Nations for a new treaty on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Science plays an important role in these negotiations, particularly in relation to marine protected areas and environmental impact assessment.
In the context of these ongoing and important negotiations, high-level speakers will talk about the scientific and political challenges of protecting marine biodiversity.

The event is organised by the Ambassade de France Autriche, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Institut Francais Autriche & the erc project MARIPOLDATA as part of the European Green Days in Vienna.

Programme:

Welcoming by Katrin Vohland, Director General and Scientific Managing Director, NHM Vienna & Gilles Pécout, Ambassador of the Republic of France to Austria

Introduction with presentations by Gerhard Herndl, Dean of the Institute for Life Sciences, University of Vienna & Alice Vadrot, Associate Professor, Institute for Political Science, University of Vienna and Head of the ERC project MARIPOLDATA

Panel discussion with Mar Benavides, Researcher at the Institute for Oceanography of the Mediterranean, Thomas Loidl, Head of Unit of the International Economic and Environmental Law, BMEIA & Georg Scattolin, Head of Global Solutions Programmes, WWF Austria.
Moderated by Elke Ziegler, science journalist at Ö1.

More info here.

Date: Wednesday, 30 March 2022

Time: 10:00-11:30am (CEST)

Negotiations for a new legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction have taken place in person again this month after over two years of postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were a number of initiatives to keep the momentum during the extended intersessional period, e.g. a Virtual Intersessional Work by the President of the BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference and informal High Seas Treaty Dialogues, initiated by Belgium, Costa Rica and Monaco and an Alliance of NGOs (High Seas Alliance). Yet, online discussions could not reach the legal status of in-person negotiations and while it served for actors to discuss and clarify contentious topics to get them a step further to consensus, no formal advancements on the draft text could be made. When negotiators convened in New York this time, it was supposed to be the last session of the Conference to finalise the future BBNJ agreement, but pending issues remain that require further discussions and another session of the Conference is planned for August 2022.

In the MARIPOLDATA Ocean Seminar, Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli, Independent international lawyer, former Director of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, United Nations and one of the moderators of the High Seas Treaty Dialogues will give an overview of recent developments in the BBNJ process: How did the informal, virtual exchanges in the intersessional period impact the negotiations at the Conference? How did the COVID regulations, including a limited number of delegates allowed in the building and restrictions to observers, change the dynamics of the negotiations? What were the main outcomes in the different package elements and cross cutting issues after the two-week in-person negotiations in New York? What remains to be discussed in the coming months? And how can the time until the upcoming Conference be effectively used to further align positions and form a good negotiation basis?

Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli worked in the United Nations on ocean issues for almost 30 years, including as Director of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs. Since her retirement, she has moderated several informal dialogues among states and other stakeholders on BBNJ issues, amongst other activities.

Downloadable Flyer here:

Date: Wednesday, 16 February 2022

Time: 05:00-06:30pm (CET)

The United Nations is currently in the final stages of negotiating a new UN Agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). Because of its potential for customising global agreements to specific geographical regions, the regional level is being considered as an important vehicle for implementing the emerging BBNJ Agreement. This article uses lessons from regional ocean governance and polycentricity theory, combined with a prior analysis of resilience principles, to reveal that many of the key enabling conditions for a functional polycentric governance system are absent in ABNJ governance.
This includes lack of overarching rules for biodiversity conservation, mechanisms for cooperation and conflict resolution, and mismatches in jurisdictional scale. Taken together, these missing elements could hinder achievement of the objectives of the BBNJ Agreement to improve biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and hamper integrated ecosystem-based management. On this basis, the article explores how the emerging BBNJ Agreement could improve the effectiveness of institutions and arrangements governing BBNJ in coping with growing uncertainty and rapid change as well as strengthen the resilience of ocean ecosystems and biodiversity.

Kristina M. Gjerde, J.D., is Senior High Seas Advisor to IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Programme.
Kristina received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law with a focus on
comparative and international law, and practiced admiralty law for several years in a New York City
law firm. For the past 30+ years, Kristina has focused on the nexus of law, science, and policy relevant
to sustaining marine biodiversity. Kristina has co-founded four science-policy partnerships: the
Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative, The Sargasso Sea Project, the High Seas Alliance and the Deep
Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI). In addition to advancing a new UN treaty for marine life beyond
boundaries, she has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications. Kristina is an Honorary
Fellow of the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences, an adjunct professor at the Middlebury
Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Siddharth Shekhar Yadav is the Advisor (on Climate Change, Oceans, and the UN High Seas/ BBNJ
Treaty) to the Ambassador/ Permanent Representative of the Republic of Vanuatu to the United
Nations, New York. Since 2018, Siddharth has supported decision-making in a number of multilateral
negotiations at the UN, including the BBNJ Treaty. Siddharth has represented Vanuatu at the UN
General Assembly, the UN Climate Action Summit, and the Youth Climate Summit at the UN
Headquarters. Siddharth has also represented Vanuatu at the 6th ‘Our Ocean Conference’ in Oslo,
Norway, and at the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) Regional BBNJ IGC Workshop in
Pohnpei, the Federated States of Micronesia. Siddharth is committed to building resilience to climate
change and other pressures on biodiversity and ecosystems.

Downloadable Flyer:

Date: Wednesday, 26 January 2022

Time: 10:00-11:30am (CET)

Dr. Fran Humphries, has specialised in aquatic biodiversity, biotechnology and marine law/policy over the past 20 years. She is a chief investigator on a maritime artificial intelligence project at the Queensland University of Technology Law School, Australia. Her recent research consultancies include aquaculture, agriculture and forest genetic resource access and benefit sharing (ABS) projects for WorldFish, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the ABS Capacity Development Initiative. She was on the International Council of Environmental Law delegation for the negotiations of the proposed United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea internationally legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. She has a background in government, working as a legal and policy advisor in the areas of biosecurity, fisheries management and aquaculture, and she is an Australian accredited mediator for maritime/marine disputes.

Traceability infrastructure for monitoring the use and movements of marine genetic resources (MGRs) from areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) will be a key component of the proposed biodiversity (BBNJ) treaty under UNCLOS. Traceability is important for determining origin of MGRs after they are collected from ABNJ and linking origin with the chain of custody of the genetic materials as they pass through national jurisdictions, whose access and benefit sharing measures may apply to the MGR unless they fall outside scope. Traceability infrastructure may help to ascertain whether proposed benefit sharing provisions under the BBNJ draft text will be triggered by the use of MGRs for research, development and commercialisation. The most recent draft text proposes infrastructure including notification, identifiers and a clearing house mechanism. There are important positive and negative lessons to be learned for the BBNJ agreement from the implementation of traceability infrastructure under the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention of Biological Diversity, which applies to MGRs within national jurisdiction. This talk aims to highlight some of the lessons learned, explain implications for the BBNJ context and promote discussion on a range of other options for traceability that may accommodate the unique geo-political conditions of ABNJ.

If you are want to join, please contact Ina Tessnow-von Wysocki (ina.tessnow-vonwysocki@univie.ac.at) indicating your name and institution.

Downloadable Flyer here:

Date: Wednesday, 8 December 2021

Time: 10:00-11:30am (CET)

Dr. Robert Blasiak, is a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, where he co-leads the Centre’s “Human Ocean” research theme and leads the FORMAS project “The marine biotechnology industry and equitable governance of marine genetic resources”. In the context of marine genetic resources, he has co-led several international collaborations, including for the Blue Climate Initiative, the World Ocean Assessment and the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. He is a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo and was previously a NEREUS research fellow funded by the Nippon Foundation.

How could you not be interested in marine genetic resources? In recent decades, our capacity to understand the ocean at a genetic level has been advancing at light-speed: new sequencing technologies, exponentially growing databases of genetic sequence data, and a suite of new applications for exploration and conservation. At the same time, marine biotechnology is a diverse and poorly quantified pillar of the blue economy, ranging from high-profile uses in the development of pharmaceuticals to lesser known uses as industrial enzymes for biofuel production, food additives and antifouling compounds. Yet tapping the full potential of the ocean genome for science, conservation and commercial uses depends on addressing core issues surrounding capacity, equity and biosafety. As a result, marine genetic resources are a key element of multiple ongoing negotiations and processes, most notably with regard to biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). This seminar will describe the concept of the ocean genome, the benefits it provides, the threats it faces, and prospects for increasing equity in the context of ongoing international processes.

A summary of the session here.

Downloadable Flyer:

Date: Wednesday, 10 November 2021

Time: 5:00-6:30pm (CET)

Cymie Payne is Associate Professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey. She researches global governance of the environment and the consequent evolution of international law, with a focus on climate change, ocean resources and protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict. She has special expertise in the international law of responsibility, liability and compensation for environmental damage, and nonmarket environmental damage valuation. She participates in the BBNJ negotiation with the IUCN delegation. She has participated as counsel and expert in cases before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the International Court of Justice, and was legal officer with the environmental reparations program at the UNCC. She holds a MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers and a member of the International Law Association Committee on Sustainable Natural Resource Management For Development.

Legal rules for the ocean where it lies beyond the jurisdiction of individual sovereign states have significant defects. This was due to the primitive state of scientific information about the ocean’s physical properties and life forms, although the UN Law of the Sea Convention, agreed and codified in 1982, brought important advances to ocean governance.
Years of discussion at the United Nations led to a preparatory conference (2016-2017) followed by an intergovernmental negotiation of a new legally binding instrument mandated for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity (BBNJ) (2018 to the present). The new agreement should operationalize the Convention’s article 192, states’ obligations to the international community to protect and preserve the marine environment.
This seminar will explore how a modern agreement for the ocean could respond to the needs of Earth governance in the Anthropocene.

If you want to join please contact: ina.tessnow-vonwysocki@univie.ac.at

Downloadable Flyer:

Date: Wednesday, 20 October 2021

Time: 10:00-11:30am (CEST)

Daniel Kachelriess is Senior Policy Specialist at Sea Shepherd Legal and has previously served in several roles at the interface between science, policy and law, including as Marine Species Officer at the CITES Secretariat and as Advisor to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Maldives. In 2018 he attended the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy.

The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, short CITES, enjoys a reputation as one of the most effective international conservation tools and with 183 Parties, it is also one of the most universal agreements of its kind. CITES mandate is to regulate international trade in species listed on its Appendices to ensure that such trade is “not detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild”.

When CITES was negotiated and subsequently signed in 1973 its drafters clearly recognized the potential application of the Convention for marine species and included provisions specific to that context. The most notable of those is “Introduction from the Sea” (IFS), which effectively gives CITES a mandate to regulate some high seas activities.

Despite this, CITES saw limited use in the international fisheries context with the exception of a few regionally important fisheries such as Queen Conch in the Caribbean. CITES CoP16 (Bangkok, 2013) proved to be a game-changer when Parties agreed on how to implement “Introduction from the Sea” in practice and decided to add several species of commercially exploited sharks and manta rays to the CITES Appendices. This trend was continued for subsequent CoPs (CoP17, Johannesburg, 2016; CoP18, Geneva, 2019), accompanied by dedicated capacity building from a range of actors to assist Parties to implement CITES for marine species.

This presentation will start off with a brief overview of key CITES’ provisions, the history of marine species listings and insights from the related implementation support and capacity building activities. The second part of the presentation will discuss lessons learned from CITES against the backdrop of current policy processes and draw on two examples, a proposed wildlife protocol under the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), and the new agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ).

A summary of the session here.

If you want to join please contact: ina.tessnow-vonwysocki@univie.ac.at

Deep-Sea Mining and the International Seabed Authority:
Recent Developments, key outstanding issues and contrasting narratives

Date: Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Time: 5:00-6:30pm (CEST)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Pradeep Arjan Singh, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Bremen, Germany and an independent research consultant. His areas of expertise are public international law, the law of the sea, international environmental law, climate policy, and ocean governance. Pradeep has spent the last five years working on legal and regulatory aspects of deep seabed mining and the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Recent years have witnessed a rapid increase in interest to exploit the mineral resources of the deep ocean. Deposits located at depths greater than 200 m, such as polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulphides and ferromanganese crusts, are known to consist critical and valuable metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese. Minerals in seabed areas beyond national jurisdiction, designated as the common heritage of humankind, are currently at the centre of attention as negotiations on regulations to facilitate exploitation activities are ongoing at the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

This presentation is divided into two parts. The first part will highlight recent developments at the ISA, whereby the recent invocation of a treaty provision known as the ‘two-year’ rule by the Republic of Nauru has necessitated the Council of the ISA to make haste with the negotiations of the exploitation regulations and complete the same by July 2023. In this respect, the presentation will discuss some of the key outstanding issues that remain unresolved as the Council of the ISA sets out to meet this seemingly insurmountable task before the deadline.

The second part of the presentation will delve into some narratives on deep-sea mining that have recently found their way into the ISA. This includes the discourse that deep-sea mining is essential to achieve the clean energy transition or that it is socially beneficial and environmentally friendly (at least when compared to terrestrial mining) and therefore sustainable on the one hand, and weighing some of these portrayals against marine conservation concerns and increasing calls for a moratorium on the other hand.

If you want to join please contact: ina.tessnow-vonwysocki@univie.ac.at

For the summary of the session as PDF click here.

Downloadable Flyer here:

Photo credits: Jet Kim on Unsplash

Date: 23 June 2021

Time: 17:00-18:30 (CEST)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Kahlil Hassanali, PhD student at the World Maritime University, Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute presented his work on CARICOM and his article “Internationalization of EIA in a new marine biodiversity agreement under the Law of the Sea Convention: A proposal for a tiered approach to review and decision-making” ( Hassanali, 2021).

A summary of the session here.

Photo credits: Diogo Hungria on Unsplash

Date: 19 May 2021

Time: 17:00-18:30 (CEST)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Dr. Harriet Harden-Davies, Ocean Nexus postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) and Guest Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute reflected on the topic of capacity building in the development of a new treaty for marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ).

Recommended readings for the session:

• An article by Harden-Davies and Snelgrove: Science Collaboration for Capacity Building: Advancing Technology Transfer Through a Treaty for Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction.Frontiers in Marine Science (2020): Frontiers in Marine Science, 2020-02-28, Vol.7.
• The summary for policy-makers of the recent Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) report on Capacity Challenges and Options relating to Marine Genetic Resources of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. https://www.aosis.org/reports/international-framework-for-laws-governing-deep-sea-depends-on-the-technological-readiness-of-small-island-states/
• A recent book chapter on Capacity Building in Marine Science in relation to the BBNJ negotiations: Hoel, A. H. (2021). Chapter 11: Capacity Building in Marine Science–Added Value of the BBNJ? In Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Nijhoff.

A summary of the session here.

Date: 21 April 2021

Photo credits: NOAA on Unsplash

Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CET)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Nichola A. Clark, presented her recent article “Institutional arrangements for the new BBNJ agreement: Moving beyond global, regional, and hybrid” (Clark 2020).

Nichola is an Officer on the Protecting Ocean Life on the High Seas team at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she follows the negotiations for the new high seas treaty. Nichola is also a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong’s Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) where her research focuses on area-based management tools and institutional arrangements for the BBNJ agreement. She is particularly interested in thinking about how the BBNJ Agreement will interact with existing regional and sectoral organizations without ‘undermining’ them. Nichola is also a member of the sixth cohort of Homeward Bound, a global leadership program for women in STEMM.

The summary of the exchanges here.

Date: 24 March 2021

Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CET)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Photo credits: Patrick on Unsplash

The MARIPOLDATA team had the pleasure to discuss ocean infrastructures with Prof. Kimberly Peters and her article “The territories of governance: unpacking the ontologies and geophilosophies of fixes to flexible ocean management, and beyond“(Peters 2020).

A human geographer by training, Kim’s work takes place in the context of the seas and oceans. Her work sets about exploring how power operates in the marine environment and how governance works (and fails). She has explored this in the context of pirate radio ships, prison hulks, deep-sea mining to vessel traffic management. She is also interested in theoretical approaches to understanding our (geo)political relations with sea and ocean spaces. Kim has published various books and papers on these topics. She was formerly a Reader in Human Geography at the University of Liverpool where she continues to hold an Honorary Fellowship. She is now Professor of Marine Governance at the HIFMB, a new research institute combining the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University Oldenburg.

The summary of the exchanges here.

Date: 24 February 2021

Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CET)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The Ocean Seminar Series welcomed Christian Bueger, Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen. He is also an honorary professor of the University of Seychelles, a research fellow at the University of Stellenbosch and the Co-Director of the SafeSeas network. His research draws on ideas from practice theory and the sociology of science to understand changing patterns of knowing and governing the oceans. He is the author of International Practice Theory (Palgrave MacMIllan, 2018, with Frank Gadinger). For further information and papers see his personal website.

The summary of the discussion available here.

Photo credits: Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash

Date: 27 January 2021

Time: 16.00 – 17.30 (CET)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The MARIPOLDATA Team introduced the new Ocean Seminar Series this month. In the first session, we welcomed Konrad Marciniak, PhD in law and Director at the Legal and Treaty Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. He presented his recent book chapter on “The Legal Status of Marine Genetic Resources”.

Summary of the exchanges here.

Photo credits: Maryna Yazbeck on Unsplash

Date: 16 December 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CET)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Klaudija Cremers, Research Fellow in International Ocean Governance at IDDRI presented the article Strengthening monitoring, control and surveillance of human activities in marine areas beyond national jurisdiction: Challenges and opportunities for an international legally binding instrument (Cremers et al., 2020).

The summary of the discussion here.

Photo credits: Ines Álvarez Fdez on Unsplash

Date: 25 November 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CET)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The MARIPOLDATA Reading Group welcomed Prof. Dr Achim Schlüter, Department Head (Social Sciences) and Working Group Leader (Institutional and Behavioural Economics) at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research and Professor for Social Systems and Ecological Economics at Jacobs University to present his article Broadening the perspective on ocean privatizations: an interdisciplinary social science enquiry (Schlüter et al., 2020).

Summary of the exchanges here.

Date: 28 October 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CEST)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

During this reading group session, we discussed how science meets policy for the question of how to regulate the use and protection of our ocean in the future.

We were happy to welcome Christine Gaebel, iAtlantic & ATLAS Policy Project Manager at the University of Edinburgh, to present her recent paper Recognising Stakeholder Conflict and Encouraging Consensus of ‘Science-Based Management’ Approaches for Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ).

Summary of the exchange here.

Date: 23 September 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30 (CEST)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The MARIPOLDATA Reading Group had the opportunity to engage with Dr. Carl Safina, ecologist and founding president of the Safina Center, to discuss our ethical responsibility towards the ocean.

Summary of the exchanges here.

How do practitioners view our work? A transdisciplinary debate about the relevance of (studying) intergovernmental negotiation sites

Conveners: Hannah Hughes, Alice Vadrot

Date: 15 September, 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30

The central objective of this innovative panel is to facilitate an inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue between scholars studying intergovernmental environmental negotiation sites and the various actors (including national delegates, representatives of NGOs, treaty secretariats, youth movements and local and indigenous communities) in the field.

The panel will be organized as a roundtable, inviting participants 1) to share their experience and expert knowledge on the current state and development of environmental agreement making and so-called mega-events and 2) to reflect on scholarship using these sites for empirical research. The aim of the session is twofold: firstly, to provide an interactive space, where practitioners reflect on the relevance and value of empirical research and give feedback on current efforts to innovate methods for studying negotiation sites. Secondly, we aim to trigger a debate on the significance of those negotiation sites from the perspective of both, the practitioners that engage in agreement making processes as well as scholars of Global Environmental Politics and Earth System Governance studying them.

More information about the event here

With Guillermo Ortuño Crespo

Date: 19 August 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The MARIPOLDATA Team welcome expert Dr. Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, to present his paper on “High-seas fish biodiversity is slipping through the governance net” and engage in the discussion afterwards.

Fisheries affect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and a fragmented and incomplete ocean governance framework is currently charged with ensuring sustainable fisheries in the High Seas.

With the BBNJ agreement’s objective to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity in ABNJ, the connection between the BBNJ agreement and fishing practices in the High Seas has to be considered.

How is fishing affecting marine biodiversity in ABNJ?

What is the role of existing regional and sectoral organizations currently responsible for sustainable fisheries?

And what does it mean for marine biodiversity in ABNJ if fish was excluded from the BBNJ agreement?

Summary of the exchanges here.

Date: 22 July 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30

Venue: Virtual Meeting

This week´s reading group focused on two articles:

• a paper considering how a Rights of Nature perspective might inform the BBNJ agreement

• a paper discussing the integration of the traditional knowledge of indigenous Peoples and local communities into the BBNJ instrument

Clement Yow Mulalap from the Permanent Mission of the Federated States of Micronesia to the United Nations in New York City presented one of his recent co-wrritten article Traditional Knowledge and the BBNJ instrument.

Summary of the exchanges here.

How to protect marine biodiversity? Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the High Seas

Date: 17 June 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30

Venue: Virtual Meeting

After discussing the complexity of ocean governance last session, we turned more specifically to ocean protection in form of MPAs. The discussion was based on two readings :

• a paper on ecological connectivity of our oceans and resulting implications for MPA design

• a policy-relevant short forum article, which calls for mobile marine protected areas to be discussed in the upcoming BBNJ negotiations

This was an opportunity to reflect on current marine conservation and gather ideas for future ocean protection.

Summary of the exchanges here.

Photo by vivek kumar on Unsplash

The complexity of global ocean governance: Actors, instruments and international agreements

Date: 6 May 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The team chose 2 readings which served as a basis for discussion.

The first one was an an introductory reading to the complexity of ocean governance, especially for persons who might not be so familiar with the topic.

The second text was an academic article on maritime political ecology: How can we study the relations of these various actors regulating our oceans, what are implications for them and for the protection of marine ecosystems?

In the reading group we connected  this perspective to BBNJ issues and discussed the text in the light of the ongoing negotiations for the new BBNJ instrument.

Photo by Andras Kovacs on Unsplash

Topic: Politics of the international negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction

The team chose 2 readings which gave an insight into the ongoing negotiations and provided a basis for discussions.

Date: 8 April 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.00

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The first one was a viewpoint piece and described conflict lines and outcomes of the latest conference of these negotiations.

The second article was a short piece, offering insights into debates on how the new instrument might affect the conduct of marine scientific research.

Are you new to the topic of this UN agreement and are wondering what it is about?

The United Nations are currently negotiating a new agreement for regulations of marine biodiversity in areas outside of national jurisdiction. This new legally binding agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) includes topics on conservation (through marine protected areas and other area-based management tools, as well as environmental impact assessments) and seeks to find a mechanism to share access and benefits from marine genetic resources among the different states, as well as to guarantee capacity building and marine technology transfer to developing countries, where financial and technical means are missing for marine scientific research in the depths of our oceans.

The Shifting Context of Sustainability: Growth and the World Ocean Regime

Discussant: Dr. Monika Berg (Orebrö University)

Date: 11 March 2020

Time: 18.00 – 19.30

Venue: Conference Room – Neues Institutsgebäude (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna

In the framework of the MARIPOLDATA seminar series and the IPW Lectures (Department of Political Science, Vienna University) we welcomed  Peter Jacques from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, USA.

Please contact us via email if you would like to access the recorded talk of Peter Jacques : maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at

The World Ocean Regime is not an official treaty agreed to by states in some formal process, but it probably governs the marine world. This talk discussed how this regime was discovered and the nature of the economistic values and norms that are the main feature. This includes how the idea of sustainability has changed over time in discourses about the ocean to become more growth-oriented in a way that is not actually sustainable.

Peter Jacques is a Professor of Political Science and affiliate faculty of UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research. He has extensive experience in the field of environmental politics and sustainability. Prof. Jacques is the President of the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences for the term June 2018- June 2020. His research interests include Global Environmental Change, Sustainability Science, Indigenous Sustainability Issues, Ocean Conservation, Climate Change and Political Ecology/Green Political Theory.

Monika Berg is a senior lecturer in sociology and has a doctoral degree in political science. She is part of the Environmental Sociology Section at Örebro University. Monika is a guest researcher at the department of Political Science of the University of Vienna and in MARIPOLDATA in March 2020.

How Evaluation shapes Ocean Science – A Multi-Scale Ethnography of Fluid Knowledge

Date: 23 January 2020

Time: 17.00 – 18.30

Venue: Wächtergasse 1, Top 5, 504, 1010 Vienna

In the framework of its seminar series, the MARIPOLDATA team had the pleasure to welcome in Vienna Sarah de Rijcke from the University of Leiden and director of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CTWS) in the Netherlands.

In 2018, Professor de Rijcke received an ERC Starting Grant for the project ‘FluidKnowledge – How evaluation shapes ocean science’. The ERC project will run from January 2019 until December 2023. On the occasion of the MARIPOLDATA seminar serie, she spoke about the progress of the FluidKnowledge project.

The FluidKnowledge project investigates the past, present and future of evaluating ocean science. Ocean science, like many fields, is under great pressure to be both scientifically excellent, and relevant to industry, and relevant to the future of the planet. How do steering efforts toward interdisciplinary engagement and societal relevance relate to other norms and criteria of scientific quality (e.g. excellence, global competitiveness) in actual practice? The team examines the intricate epistemic consequences that evaluation might have on concrete practices of knowledge creation by combining longitudinal quantitative analysis with rich ethnographic studies in different national contexts. They will also develop concepts to theoretically grasp the constitutive potential of research evaluation, based on such multilevel approaches.

Sarah de Rijcke is professor of Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies and director of CWTS, where she leads the Science and Evaluation Studies research group. Her current research program examines interactions between research governance and practices of knowledge production. Sarah is a member of the editorial board of Science, Technology, and Human Values (ST&HV), Science and Technology Studies, and Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. Professional memberships include the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S), the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Dutch National research school for Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC).

More information about the ERC project FluidKnowledge here.

Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at

Biodiversity collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Date: 12 December 2019

Time: 16.30 – 18.00

Venue: Wächtergasse 1, Top 5, 504, 1010 Vienna

In the framework of the MARIPOLDATA seminar series, Paolo G. Albano, researcher at the Department of Paleontology at the University of Vienna gave a talk about the biodiversity collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The Levantine basin in the easternmost Mediterranean Sea is well known for hosting hundreds of non-indigenous species introduced after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. A still insufficiently recognized but equally dramatic phenomenon is the disappearance of native species. We have quantified this decline using intense sampling on the Israeli shelf targeting mollusks, and using death assemblages, the accumulation of empty shells in the sediments, to reconstruct the baseline.
On soft substrates, our sampling intercepted only 24% of the historically recorded species. On rocky substrates, our preliminary results show even fewer native species in respect to the baseline (ca 5-7%).
The talk will then discuss the potential explanations of this massive biodiversity loss pointing at the locally rapid climate warming as the most likely culprit.

Paolo G. Albano is a senior post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Paleontology of the University of Vienna and principal investigator of a project to explore the rapid changes occurring in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. His research focuses on the patterns and processes of biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems, with a special focus on the Mediterranean Sea.

Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at

Whose Climate for What Politics? Attempts of a Political Ecology and Economy Analysis on Contemporary Brazilian Environmental Politics

Date: 12 September 2019

Time: 17.00 – 18.30

Venue: Wächtergasse 1, Top 5, 504, 1010 Vienna

In the framework of the first edition of its seminar series, the MARIPOLDATA team was very glad to welcome in Vienna Marcela Vecchione Gonçalves from the Federal University of Pará.

Fires, violence and intense political debates have been heating the political climate in Brazil lately. From within the Ministries and Presidential cabinets, reaching out to the rainforest animated by heated declarations amid the Parliament as well as within the broad political and civil society, environmental and climate politics, alongside with land and indigenous politics, have never been as much in the spotlight as it is currently the case in the country. It is well known fires and changes in tone and directions in policies related to rainforest protection and conservation contribute dramatically to global warming and loss in biodiversity. Nevertheless, what lacks reflection, particularly internationally, is how these changes also affect local and regional lives – including those at the Pan Amazon region, not just in Brazil, sparking violence through empowering a few who concentrate and use land disrespecting environmental, agrarian and labour legislation. Frequently, such violence is as much political as it is the disregard for other ways of living and for the rights to land accessed through a safe and collective natural environment; principles democratically coined by the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. In this sense, debates and global negotiations around the “Amazon issue” and its globality cannot afford to be also a debate about which environmental and climate politics we are talking, for whom and in which basis it is being carried on through international negotiations based on principles of an equitable and sustainable development. In what terms, the Brazilian case can prompt us in research, as well as in action, to relate resource politics to global political ecology? In other words, how do internal political change and its relation to land and resource politics in terms of positioning in global politics can help us reflecting on the connections between ecology and democracy? Human Rights and Rights to Development? Global Political Economy and Global Political Ecology? Violence, Autonomy and Resistance? At the same time, how an interconnected analysis can also provide us with elements to think on the nature of politics and the politcs of nature at the present history by bringing on its centrality to the possiblities of a radical democracy. We believe such points are essential to analyze the crisis in Brazil and why the crises in Brazil is turning into a diplomatic crises on the environment.

Marcela Vecchione Gonçalves is the head of the Graduate Studies Program on Sustainable Development at the Humid Tropics, hosted by the Centre of Advanced Amazonian Studies at the Federal University of Pará, Eastern Amazon, Brazil. She holds a PhD in International Relations and have been researching and teaching on Amazonian Political Ecology, Indigenous Peoples as well as Global Development in the last 12 years. Marcela is also a member and contributor of a number of Brazilian land and environmental movements.

Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at

Conducting research at global environmental negotiations

Date: September 10 – 11, 2019

Venue: University of Vienna

This workshop will bring together scholars experienced in global environmental negotiations and contributing to the development and application of conceptual and methodological innovations. The aim is to further develop these innovations and produce a guide for those new to the study of environmental meetings. To achieve this, the workshop will integrate the needs and perspectives of postgraduate scholars so that together we can explore how a new generation of research can be catalysed, the aim of which is to transform how we collectively study global environmental agreement making.

This workshop responds to the need for greater practical methodological guidance and is part of a series of events that are designed to facilitate in-depth discussion between experienced, early career and postgraduate researchers in order to develop appropriate research tools and frameworks.

The workshop builds on work by Hughes and Vadrot as published in a recent special section in Global Environmental Politics on Methodological Innovation in the Study of Global Environmental Agreement Making, edited by Hannah Hughes, Kimberly Marion Suiseeya and Alice Vadrot.

The workshop also draws on and informs research conducted in the ERC Project MARIPOLDATA directed by Alice Vadrot.

More information about the programme HERE.

Date: 25 June, 2019

Time: 13.00 – 17.00

Venue: Cambridge Judge Business School

Dr Alice Vadrot, principal investigator of the ERC funded research project MARIPOLDATA (which investigates the politics of marine biodiversity data), and the Centre for Science and Policy hosted a workshop on the role of oral histories in understanding science-policy interrelations.

Context

In order to protect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) governments are currently negotiating a new legally binding treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Marine biodiversity science plays a central role in supporting intergovernmental efforts to identify, protect and monitor marine biodiversity. This field will also inform governments on particular aspects of marine biodiversity, including its economic use and contribution to biosecurity. It will also shape the practicalities of certain policy options and the potential effects on ocean science conducted in ABNJ.

Mapping the overall field of marine biodiversity science, the leading scientific experts, how they are connected and how they are involved in international negotiations, is a necessary research step for understanding science-policy interrelations more broadly and why they matter in current intergovernmental negotiations for protecting marine biodiversity. Given that biodiversity science represents a heterogeneous bundle of research activities, interests and methodologies, individual scientists provide an important entry point for assessing and analysing how marine biodiversity has emerged as a key issue within ocean politics.

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When: Tuesday, 21 May 2019, 17:45-21:30 CET
Where: Mezzanin7, Liechtensteinstraße 12/2/7, 1090 Vienna

The MARIPOLDATA Kick-off meeting took place on May 21, 2019 in Vienna.

After input from Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hajo Boomgaarden, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Prainsack, Dr. Julien Rochette and Julie Rigaud, Ass.-Prof. Dr. Alice Vadrot and her team presented MARIPOLDATA and opened the floor for questions and debate. The event was open to the interested public.

Programme

Please confirm your participation via e-mail to maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at