Negotiating Life: International Biodiversity Agreements

• In Event: Dynamics of International Organizations

Abstract

Recent years have seen a proliferation of international conservation agreements designed to prevent deforestation in which a foreign conservationist pays a forest owner to preserve their forests. In this paper, we ask why conservation agreements have not expanded to additional issue areas, such as the protection of biodiversity (e.g. the protection of endangered species). We argue that protection of biodiversity faces two forms of uncertainty. First, is that while the value of forests is standardized according to their rate of carbon capture, measuring the value of biomass is not such that the conservationists valuation is unknown. Second, is that the stock of the resource is often difficult to measure, implying that the conservationists don't know how much they are paying to conserve. Using a formal model, we demonstrate that these problems can make reaching agreements more difficult.

Authors

• Kristopher W. Ramsay, Princeton University

• Noam Reich, NYU Abu Dhabi