Exeter Centre for Environmental Law Blog -

The legal flexibility associated with UNESCO Biosphere Reserves has helped communities to become more involved in conservation, new analysis shows.

The focus on less prescriptive regulations allows these Biospheres to promote a more harmonious existence between people and nature.

The use of “soft law” instruments supports local responses and fosters community collaboration in environmental management, in contrast to rigid conventional frameworks that often struggle with adaptability and local relevance.

The study, by Dr Tiago de Melo Cartaxo, from the Exeter Centre for Environmental Law, University of Exeter, says the statutory framework associated with these Biospheres helps to promote collaboration, sustainable development, biodiversity conservation and communities’ wellbeing.

The research says this use of adaptive governance and regulation models anchored in soft law and collaborative approaches will become increasingly relevant as the world struggles with pressing environmental challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Dr de Melo Cartaxo said: “As the global community faces increasingly complex environmental and climate challenges UNESCO Biospheres serve as models for enhancing local governance in sustainability and social-ecological resilience.

“UNESCO Biospheres have an important role in applying and innovating sustainable practices within real-world contexts. They provide a promising pathway forward, blending ecological objectives with human aspirations, thus improving a more harmonious existence between people and nature.

“They demonstrate how valuing local voices can drive more sustainable and equitable outcomes. They are not THE only solution, but they certainly can be part of the solution.”

UNESCO Biospheres are designed to support cultural and natural heritage, together with people’s wellbeing. The concept is rooted in the need for regional solutions to global environmental challenges, whereby local communities engage in practices that reflect both local needs and international sustainability goals.

Dr de Melo Cartaxo said: “By empowering local communities and facilitating stakeholder dialogue, UNESCO Biospheres demonstrate that fostering local agency can lead to more effective environmental stewardship. This participatory approach contrasts sharply with many hard law frameworks that often overlook local knowledge and perspectives.

“The adaptability ingrained in the governance of UNESCO Biospheres can inform potential reforms to reduce bureaucratic rigidity found in hard law frameworks. Regulations should be more adaptive, allowing for modifications based on ongoing ecological assessments and community feedback.”

Dr de Melo Cartaxo examined the work ongoing in UNESCO Biospheres around the world and found it greatly benefits from inclusivity, local adaptation, and collaborative frameworks.

In the study he shows how creating feedback loops between their governance structures and local practices will be vital for preserving ecological integrity and enhancing community resilience and adaptive capacity.

The members of ExCEL Caroline Keenan and Tom Baycock have been awarded a grant from the Association of Law Teachers for a project named ‘Revaluing Nature’: Using bi-cultural law and craftivism in transformative environmental law learning.

For the last four years, Caroline and Tom have delivered active learning activities on an inter-disciplinary cross-campus environmental law module, focussing on a type of bi-cultural law legislation granting legal personhood to natural entities in New Zealand. These statutes incorporate common law legal personhood with Tikanga Maori (law), ‘visions for knowing and caring’ for nature ‘in its own right not as a possession’. The Acts are drafted to include poetic declarations of the ‘identity’ of a natural entity, reflecting long established relationships and understandings. Students choose a species, space or natural entity and write their own ‘identity sections’ of statute in the form of a preamble to an act granting legal personhood to their entity, before analysing the benefits and disadvantages of a range of legal mechanisms to their choice in their assessment project. Students consistently rate this process as a highlight of their degree.

The ALT grant enables the team to develop and disseminate this work in 3 ways:

(i) Development of learning activities using craftivism methodology to surface values and measures of justice in relation to the natural world.

Currently a bi-cultural legal format is used, divorced from an equivalent identifiable cultural basis. Caroline and Tom will use this grant to work with Open the Box Arts to develop ‘craftivist’ learning practices, those which support students to connect with their inherent values and sense of justice by the process of making.

(ii) Demonstrate how and why activities combining affective and psychomotor learning with cognitive learning of law can be effective tools.

This work will include a study using student ‘friendship conversations’ between two friends, one who completed the original learning activities on the module and one who completed both the original and newly developed activities. (iii) Open Access ‘Playbook for Educators and Learners’ designed by SigneLDesign, setting out step by step guides to achieving the intended learning outcomes, by delivering these learning activities.

Caroline and Tom hope to enable other legal educators to deliver these types of learning activities in their own modules and for other learners to benefit from them, using the format of an accessible playbook.

Many congratulations to Caroline and Tom!

Environmental Regulation Open Lecture

Next week we have an Environmental Regulation Open Lecture at our Cornwall Campus, with Kate Tandy, Head of Litigation & Casework in the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP). This is an independent public body established under the Environment Act 2021 to protect and improve the environment by holding government and other public authorities to account. It is part of the new environmental governance arrangements introduced by the Environment Act following the UK’s departure from the EU.

Monday, 21st October 2024

• Open Lecture with Kate Tandy, Head of Litigation and Casework at the Office For Environmental Protection. Venue: DdM Lecture A, 2.30 – 4.00 pm
• Post-Lecture Afternoon Tea & Coffee Chat with Kate Tandy. Venue: PL Seminar 9, 4.00 – 5.00 pm

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly “ideal candidate” for becoming a UNESCO Biosphere, ExCEL experts say

Cornwall has been experiencing significant biodiversity decline

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly would be an “ideal candidate” to become a UNESCO Biosphere, experts have found.

Researchers found widespread support for the region to be awarded the prestigious status and believe this could help to boost sustainable development and protect threatened environments.

Cornwall has been experiencing significant biodiversity decline.

UNESCO Biosphere status will help secure funds and other resources to enhance conservation and improve community wellbeing. It is designed to improve the relationship between people and their local environment, and act as testing grounds to put into practice new approaches to managing ecosystems sustainably for future generations.

In a new study researchers say Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly already meets much of the criteria for designation in Article 4 of the World Network of Biosphere Reserve Statutory Framework. All other criteria were found to be feasible, and current sustainability initiatives align with the United Nations and UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals.

The research was carried out by experts at the Exeter Centre for Environmental Law, who produced a comprehensive feasibility study, and policy brief by Dr Tiago de Melo Cartaxo, Stephanie Hirtenstein and Norah Alkhattaf from the University of Exeter. The research and drafting of the initial feasibility study also had the support of PhD researcher Faruk Divarci and the two undergraduate interns Iona Allen and Rebecca Simmons.

Tiago said: “We believe the time is right for Cornwall Council and the Council of the Isles of Scilly to start discussing the process of application to UNESCO officially, with the support of a wide number of local actors and organisations.

“The region’s continuing landscape fragmentation and biodiversity degradation calls for local collaborative efforts to safeguard the unique ecological and heritage value of the area while boosting sustainable development.”

The report recommends a working group of interested stakeholders should be formed to increase collaboration with local and national governments, businesses, local community organisations in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

A core team should be appointed who are responsible for acquiring possible funding. Local universities could be partners for further research and collaborations.

Cornwall Council and the Council of the Isles of Scilly are currently implementing the region’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy – a statutory commitment that establishes the layout for Nature Recovery Strategy which increases conservation areas and ensures wildlife’s prosperity.

The region’s unique cultural heritage and biodiversity is recognised through several statutory designations which include Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty – now rebranded as National Landscapes –, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, National and Local Nature Reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Marine Conservation Sites and Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas.

Researchers evaluated the potential impact of the region gaining UNESCO Biosphere status on local communities, regional economic practitioners, environmental organisations, and policymakers at local, national, and international level. They held workshops with the local community and potential stakeholders.

Welcome to the Exeter Centre for Environmental Law Blog! Here you will find updates on all the work our teaching staff, researchers, and students do in the field of Law and the Environment. Stay tuned!

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