Benefit-sharing Mechanisms Research Articles

Nature-Based Climate Solutions Require Us to Answer the “Where” and the “Who”

The protection and restoration of nature are critical for climate change mitigation. As such, many international initiatives have been launched to champion the implementation of nature-based climate solutions (NBCS) while supporting other societal goals. Given global momentum, it is critical that policymakers proactively define successful NBCS activities to avoid perverse incentives and harmful land-use change. We argue that effective NBCS will support clear goals and make transparent the relative costs and benefits to climate, biodiversity, and human livelihood. To do this, NBCS must be designed based on the best geospatial science and implemented alongside empowered local communities. Specifically, NBCS should be accompanied by strong benefit-sharing mechanisms that involve procedural equity. Further, where changes in land management and land-use are required, land restoration should be accompanied by financial incentives that make such restoration profitable. Carbon markets could be expanded to include land-based carbon, and auction proceeds or tax revenues could be utilized to fund restoration on private land where landowners may be required to forego other profits over the short term. NBCS will help the global community advance important societal goals if policymakers can be specific about where national goals will be implemented and who will be empowered to make decisions about their design.

Consumer Preferences for Labeled Plant-Based Products Associated with Traditional Knowledge: A Study in Protected Natural Areas of Northwest Mexico

The use of plants associated with traditional knowledge by pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agro-food, and biotechnology industries represents a potential source of benefits for indigenous groups and local communities within the access and benefit-sharing mechanisms established in the Nagoya Protocol. We used a consumer-choice experiment to evaluate consumer preferences concerning a cosmetic product with attributes related to the traditional knowledge of local plants (efficacy, price, and information). The results indicate that consumers experience higher wellness levels by consuming a cosmetic product with an information label associated with a plant of traditional use. A rise in consumer income increases the likelihood of consuming products with traditional-knowledge attributes. Higher prices are associated with a lower probability of purchase. The random coefficient reveals mixed preferences related to product efficacy level. This work shows the potential demand, by high-income consumers, of cosmetic products labeled with formulation information based on traditional knowledge associated with local plants growing in Protected Natural Areas of northwest Mexico.

Reforming Benefit-Sharing Mechanisms for Displaced Populations: Evidence from the Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project, Pakistan

Abstract The concept of benefit-sharing has popular focus in numerous discussions concerning approaches with displacement, development, and sustainable livelihood. It is clear that compensation is inadequate to mitigate impoverishment risks and re-build improved sustainable livelihoods. Benefit-sharing is seen to be a vital option for the improvement and development of re-settler’s livelihoods. Subsequently, this study aims to provide evidence of the present state of policy, benefit-sharing mechanism practices, and approaches in the hydropower sector of Pakistan. The benefit-sharing mechanism is present in some form but it needs new endoresements and reforms within the national resettlement framework of Pakistan. The target case in this study is to investigate the implementation level of benefit-sharing mechanisms in the Ghazi Barotha Hydropower project. It shows an example of some necessary elements of benefit-sharing and has provided a possible solution for solving the dilemma of compensation-based resettlement in Pakistan.

Forest tenure and rights: a constraint to community forest management in Cameroon and the REDD+ initiative

The link between Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, with the enhancement of forest carbon stock (REDD+) and Community Forest Management (CFM) as a necessary local action on the forest, is continuously being challenged. CFM has been a suitable option in achieving sustainable forest practices in the tropics. The factors that contribute to its success will likely contribute to the success of REDD+ programs in Cameroon. Nevertheless, the opportunity and challenges in integrating the two concepts to achieve the objectives require careful analysis, considering the challenges facing the country’s tenure system. This article makes use of an in-depth content analysis of several documents concerning the subject matter and tries to examine the extent to which forest tenure and rights are a constraint to CFM in Cameroon and the REDD+ Initiative and assess how these concepts can work together to achieve sustainable forest management and a reduction in deforestation and forest degradation. The assessment shows several bottlenecks and discrepancies concerning tenure rights in the community forest and carbon rights when it concerns incentive-based benefit-sharing mechanisms under the REDD+ process. It reveals that the state may likely maintain centralization of forest tenure if the issues are not clarified. The article concludes with a proposal of an urgent need for domestic legal reforms to secure forest protection achieve the objectives of international forest policy initiatives like REDD+.

Access and Benefit Sharing Mechanism: A Theoretical Framework

The loss of biodiversity became a major concern for the entire world at the end of the 20th century. A series of serious debates were organized across the globe for meeting out a solution with international cooperation to prevent the loss of biodiversity and to conserve it for the future generation and sustenance of the ecosystem. It was well agreed that for the conservation of biodiversity, restriction on the utilization of natural resources might not be the best solution since human existence is impossible without utilizing such resources. This mutual understanding gave birth to the concept of sustainable utilization where resources were to be used in a manner which would not exploit the right of the existing as well as future generations and at the same time will also preserve the natural ecosystem. However, for the application of this ideology, several principles and concepts were drafted at international, regional, and national levels but there seemed to be a lack of conformity between the objectives of such principles and concepts and the targets achieved through their implementation. The main reason was the increasing demands of such resources and the lack of concern for their conservation. At last, the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) system was introduced that aimed for bridging the gap between commercialization and conservation through proper value addition to the resources and distribution of benefits to the actual owners of such resources for their better conservation. This paper will focus on the theoretical basis on which such an ABS is based upon for justifying the parameters required by the legal instruments for achieving the targets sought.

Profitability improvement of a reservoir power station based on virtual reservoir bidding

Abstract Compared with a run-of-river power station, a reservoir power station (RPS), with the capacity of a seasonal regulation function and more, has the unique and irreplaceable attributes of its role in the power grid and society at large. However, under the current power system and market environment in China, these attributes cannot be effectively utilised, resulting in heavy losses to enterprises. It is inevitable for RPSs to participate in the market; therefore, how to improve the profitability of RPS enterprises has become an urgent problem requiring a solution. Based on the control effect on run-off of RPS in a river basin, a new cascade hydropower bidding method and the associated bidding process are proposed. The market entities of the new bidding method are composed of cascade hydropower joints with the RPS as the boundary. The bidding unit benefit-sharing mechanism is constructed, and the accounting method for the benefit-sharing price of the RPS is established, which finally achieves the goal of improving the profitability of the RPS enterprise.

Construction of the National Brain Tumor Registry of China for better management and more efficient use of data: a protocol

IntroductionBrain tumours encompass a complex group of intracranial tumours that mostly affect young adults and children, with a high incidence rate and poor prognosis. It remains impossible to systematically collect...

India: Implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing: Emerging Legal Challenges

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing was adopted to help clarify the existing provisions regarding access to biological resources in the Convention on Biological Diversity. India’s domestic access and benefit-sharing (ABS) mechanism leaves much to be desired in terms of legislative design and with regard to its adherence to the environmental principles of public participation and equity. This article highlights the emerging legal issues pertaining to these aspects of ABS under India’s Biodiversity Act. Its discussion makes a case for revamping the legislative and institutional framework for effective ABS in India.

The Namibian bioeconomy: transformation to a sustainable society?

Worldwide, bioeconomy is promoted as an ‘engine for sustainable development’. However, increasingly, the notion that ‘the bioeconomy’ will facilitate sustainable development per se is challenged. Based on the assumption that when leaving the relations between ‘nature’ and ‘society’ unquestioned, inherent inequalities are rather reproduced than overcome, we draw upon a social-ecological framework to analyse the societal relations to nature in the Namibian bioeconomy. In Namibia, with independence, an array of different benefit-sharing mechanisms have been developed to implement local participatory governance structure, which will be further streamlined under the newly introduced access and benefit-sharing law. Results show that despite efforts to facilitate a diversity-based bioeconomy, separating structures and trade-offs are persistent. Images of ‘nature’, like the ‘eternal Namibian landscape’, that draw upon colonial notions are frequently used to market indigenous natural products. Institutions to ‘nature’ that guarantee fair and equitable terms of trade are often only short-term and/or small-scale, e.g. as shown at the case of Devil’s claw, Hoodia and Namibian Myrrh. Even when perspectives cannot be assigned in a stereotypical way between user and provider, and instead, all actors refer to biodiversity and traditional knowledge as ‘welfare of the people’, ‘cultural heritage’, ‘input for R&D’, ‘community benefit’, and ‘marketing tool’, a rational-instrumental reasoning tends to be favoured of a normative-ethical one. A more diversified awareness towards the dialectics entailed in the conception, making, and management of ‘nature’ potentially inhibiting an inclusive sustainable development is relevant at any theory–practice interface, including development project-management and environmental policy-making.

An Evaluation Strategy for Commercial Precision Marketing Based on Artificial Neural Network

With the proliferation of the Internet and smart mobile terminals, great progress has been made in the precision placement and benefit-sharing mechanism of commercial advertisements. Meanwhile, media marketing has become increasingly in-depth and precise. So far, mature theories have been proposed on consumer value and precision marketing. But further research is needed to mine the value from the big data on commercial precision marketing. To improve the accuracy of commercial precision marketing, this paper presents an evaluation index system (EIS) for commercial precision marketing based on improved attention-interest-desire-memory-action (ADIMA) model, and determines the principal evaluation indices through principal component analysis (PCA). Next, an artificial neural network (ANN) was established to evaluate commercial precision marketing, and optimized through k-means clustering (KMC). Finally, the optimized model was realized on MATLAB. The proposed EIS and ANN were proved scientific and effectiveness through simulations. The research results provide a reference for the application of the ANN in other fields of marketing.

Challenges of Sharing REDD+ Benefits in the Amazon Region

The success of jurisdictional reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) initiatives is entirely dependent on how the REDD+ benefits are distributed among the stakeholders seeking to preserve the native vegetation and is considered one of the main challenges of REDD+. Among the existing benefit-sharing options, the adoption of the stock-and-flow approach to share REDD+ benefits has afforded fair jurisdictional systems in the states of Acre and Mato Grosso in the Brazilian Amazon. This innovative perspective is also the dividing line between inequitable and socially balanced jurisdictional REDD+ initiatives. However, these jurisdictions present challenges to fully implementing a robust benefit-sharing mechanism including the stock-and-flow approach and guaranteeing that resources will be accessible to the relevant beneficiaries. To better understand these challenges, we applied the Options Assessment Framework (OAF), a methodology proposed by the World Bank to evaluate the capacity to implement an effective benefit-sharing mechanism for REDD+, in Acre and Mato Grosso. The results indicated that these jurisdictions need to strengthen their conditions to guarantee the multi-faceted functionality of this mechanism and determine what aspects need more attention and where resources should be invested. Additionally, the results indicated that an equitable benefit-sharing mechanism is, by far, the main challenge faced by jurisdictions. Despite being a more evolved state in its REDD+ policies, Acre still needs to improve its institutional capacities, particularly in its local civil society organizations, to help communities access these benefits. The state of Mato Grosso, on the other hand, is still engaging in its REDD+ initiative and needs its institutional capacities to further mature to better organize its monitoring mechanisms and governance.

Reconfiguration of land politics in community resource management areas in Ghana: Insights from the Avu Lagoon CREMA

This study explores the reconfiguration of land politics in a poor rural area of Ghana following the development of a community-based resource management and market-based conservation initiative. In particular we focus on an eco-tourism site that was developed through the Avu Lagoon Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) in Ghana. We adopt a political ecology approach that combines qualitative and quantitative information from multiple sources to explain the nature, drivers and outcomes of this reconfiguration of land politics. In particular we track how different environmental and socioeconomic narratives were mobilized and utilised to justify the establishment of the Avu Lagoon CREMA, and how this gave rise to a series of unmet expectations. The restriction of access to fertile land fit for sugarcane production (a key livelihood activity in the area), combined with the underperformance of the ecotourism project, led to different land contestations, including illicit land transfers and silent repossession through encroachment. We synthesize the main findings through the theory of access and argue that these dynamics follow the reconfiguration of land access, and are reflections of the weak enforcement of CREMA regulations, elite capture of the process, and a lack of proper benefit-sharing mechanisms. From a policy perspective, it is important to give due attention to community participation, payment of compensation, proper benefit-sharing mechanisms and the balance of power between local elites, external organisations and the local communities. Only then would CREMA processes be able to deliver their dual objectives of biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development.

Payment for What? The Realities of Forestry Benefit Sharing Under Joint Forest Management in a Major Teak Plantation Region of Java, Indonesia

This paper explores the realities of forestry benefit sharing under joint forest management in a major teak plantation region of Java, Indonesia, with reference to empirical information about the uses and effects of monetary benefits in terms of stakeholder power relations. The authors intend to enrich current understandings of the pitfalls of benefit-sharing mechanisms at the local level. The analysis focuses on institutional designs of benefit sharing, recent statistical realities of shared benefits, the uses of monetary benefits in villages, and the livelihood and conservation implications of shared benefits through household surveys. The results confirm that the benefit-sharing system has been neither effective nor equitable economically (ineffective investment, a distribution policy preferring villages’ wants, and a lack of attempts to improve general farmers’ livelihoods and pro-poor arrangements), ecologically (little change in forest protection systems and continuing illegal logging and unofficial forestland cultivation), and in terms of governance (elite capture and a lack of downward accountability). Limited capacity, downward accountability of committee executive members and a laissez-faire attitude of forest administrators were also observed. A laissez-faire policy of forest administration under the frameworks of joint forest management can create room for elite capture as well as ineffective conservation and poor livelihood outcomes and should thus be avoided. Appropriate and supportive facilitation and collaboration from the outside to develop the capacity and downward accountability of village-level decision makers is needed. These issues are increasingly important in the context of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus (REDD+).

How Can Jurisdictional Approaches to Sustainability Protect and Enhance the Rights and Livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities?

Tropical forests are posited to hold up to one-third of the solution to slow climate change. It is estimated that over two-hundred million “forest peoples”- including indigenous peoples and local communities- live within and depend upon the tropical forests in the Amazon, Southeast Asia, Mesoamerica and the Congo Basin. To successfully mitigate climate change, we must find new forms of collaboration that meet the goals of forest-dependent communities for secure land rights, equitable participation in decision-making, and dignified livelihoods in conjunction with meeting commitments to reduce GHG emissions. In 2018, 34 subnational governments and 18 indigenous and local community organizations announced their endorsement of the “Guiding Principles for Collaboration between Subnational Governments, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities”. The Guiding Principles of Collaboration (GPC) are a set of 13 universal tenets, which lay out a blueprint for collaboration between subnational state actors, indigenous peoples and local communities to recognize rights, support livelihoods, strengthen participation of forest-dependent communities in decision-making, and protect indigenous and community environmental defenders within the context of joint action for climate change mitigation. Their implementation would advance the integration of climate justice in subnational efforts for forest conservation. Taking the GPC as a departure point, we explore how approaches to jurisdictional sustainability can protect and enhance the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples (IP) and Local Communities (LC). We develop and apply a suite of indicators to assess existing conditions across 11 tropical forest jurisdictions towards meeting the commitments described in the GPC. Our findings suggest that while Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities rights are recognized within national legal frameworks, implementation and security of those rights is uneven across subnational jurisdictions. Participation of IP and LC is not yet formalized as part of jurisdictional climate change mitigation initiatives in most cases, limiting their potential inform policy outcomes and benefit-sharing mechanisms. Monitoring the implementation of the GPC may foster greater accountability for commitments, as well as collective action and learning to support regional transformations to sustainability.

Access and allocation in global biodiversity governance: a review

Access and allocation is one of the five analytical themes of the science plan of the Earth System Governance (ESG) project. Concerns over access and allocation are at the core of struggles and conflicts brought about by the often ineluctable trade-offs related to biodiversity conservation and the global, national and local governance systems that aim to contribute to global biodiversity conservation. Access and benefit-sharing mechanisms, integrated conservation and development projects, payments for ecosystem services or community conservation programmes have all tried balancing environmental objectives with concerns for the allocation of natural resources and associated rights within society, and for access to basic human needs. As a contribution to this special issue on access and allocation, this paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the relevance of questions of access and allocation to ESG by providing an in-depth review of the literature on access and allocation in biodiversity conservation at different scales. We describe how the concepts of access and allocation have been used and conceptualized in the literature produced between 2008 and 2018, and we discuss the two key issues which dominate the literature (1) benefit-sharing; and (2) the role of local institutions. By drawing on the trends and evidence from the literature, we consider the lessons for the next generation of ESG scholars and draw out some key policy implications to be included in the debates on the post-2020 strategic plan for biodiversity.

Is Post-Soviet water management transformation successful in Kyrgyz Republic? Mapping of perceived problems by water experts

The water management issue in the Kyrgyz Republic has been an unresolved problem for many years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union due to its complex set of issues. The regional cooperation initiatives over the Naryn-Syr Darya river catchment is yet a debate for many domestic and international experts on how to find a win-win solution for all the transboundary states, such as the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. Some of the problems that the riparian states may have are power asymmetries in negotiation and decision-making processes, inequitable use of benefit-sharing mechanisms over the water resources, and non-consideration of multi-year hydraulic fluctuations in the water distribution and allocation scheme. The study aims to analyze the present situation on the water resource management of the Kyrgyz Republic. Sehring’s model of perceived problems is used to analyze water expert viewpoints and determine how decisions taken in the past may adversely affect the current institutional arrangements development in the water sector in the Kyrgyz Republic. The study concludes that in the current context of water management in the Kyrgyz Republic, a coordinated action of a strong single agency (National Water Administration) is needed to design long-term planning and address the existing challenges in the water sector.

Transparency in benefit sharing and the influence of community expectations on participation in REDD+ Projects: an example from Mount Cameroon National Park

ABSTRACT Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) projects have the potential to conserve forest, generate income and attain development targets; but the level of transparency in benefit sharing and the community expected benefits are relatively unknown. Using cluster multi-stage random sampling, data were collected from 259 respondents living around Mount Cameroon National Park REDD+ project site. Results, analysed with SPSS and NVivo, show that community engagement in project interventions is significantly influenced by the perceptions that REDD+ will promote local community development and generate individual income. Although most community members do not know how forest revenues are presently distributed (no transparency) they are expecting more developmental projects and employment. It is belief that, there will be greater transparency in future REDD+ benefits because present benefits earned from the Ministry of Forestry and Fauna for participating in the present conservation initiative are unclear and negligible. Benefit-sharing mechanism and safeguards should be transparent and clearly designed to meet community expectations to enable sustainable development of communities and prevent early failure of REDD+ projects.

政策变动、股权重组与利益共享机制的构建——电网多经企业重组之路

政策变动、股权重组与利益共享机制的构建——电网多经企业重组之路

Internalization of External Benefits Brought by Hydropower Development.

Hydropower development brings a very large number of external benefits which are enjoyed by the beneficiaries for free. These external benefits are defined and the beneficiaries are identified. Models to measure the external benefits are established to reflect their dynamic changes at different periods. To improve the benefit sharing mechanism, a model to internalize these external benefits is established to further compensate those adversely affected. The Z hydropower project in China is taken as the example to calculate its external benefits and their internalization. The external benefits enjoyed by beneficiaries in the surrounding and downstream areas gradually increase from 18 million US dollars in 2006 to 114 million US dollars in 2065, and their compensation standards increase from 4 million US dollars in 2006 to 97 million US dollars in 2065. The external benefits enjoyed by beneficiaries in the power receiving areas increase from 125 million US dollars in 2015 to the maximum of 133 million in 2026, and their compensation standards increase from 38 million US dollars in 2015 to the maximum of 133 million US dollars in 2033. Sharing of external benefits can improve the benefit-sharing mechanism, and properly redistribute the external benefits of hydropower development.

Study to Identify Specific Cases of Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge Associated with Genetic Resources that Occur in Transboundary Situations or for Which it is Not Possible to Grant or Obtain Prior Informed Consent

Article 10 of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (“Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism”) calls for Parties to consider the need for, and modalities of, a global multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism to address the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the utilization of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources that occur in transboundary situations, or for which it is not possible to grant or obtain prior informed consent. The 3rd meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol adopted decision NP-3/13 on Article 10, which requested the commissioning of a peer reviewed study to identify specific cases meeting the aforementioned criteria. This study is the response to that request and identifies three broad groups of cases. The first group, genetic resources occurring in transboundary situations comprises three specific subgroups: (a) shared ecosystems and habitats/species distributed across national boundaries; (b) migratory species which transit through different jurisdictions; and (c) areas beyond national jurisdiction. The second broad group involves genetic resources for which it is not possible to grant or obtain prior informed consent. This group also comprises three subgroups: (a) genetic resources of untraceable provenance in ex situ collections; (b) utilization of samples from large numbers of geographically diverse organisms; and (c) cases involving the use of “digital sequence information” (DSI). The third broad group, traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources that occur in transboundary situations or for which it is not possible to grant or obtain prior informed consent, can be further divided into three subgroups: (a) associated traditional knowledge held by IPLCs across national boundaries, (b) publicly available associated traditional knowledge, and (c) associated traditional knowledge of untraceable origin in ex situ collections. Based on the research presented within, this study concludes that there may be specific cases that fall within the scope of Article 10, while also not undermining the bilateral approach upon which the Convention and Nagoya Protocol are founded.