Absence Of Borders When It Comes T o Nature: Uniting Nations Through Transboundary Conservation
Absence Of Borders When It Comes To Nature: Uniting
Nations Through Transboundary Conservation
Mallika Dasgupta, Department of Political Science
A few days back, I stumbled upon a remarkably less popular TEDx Talks episode, where the speaker, Jake Brunner who works for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), enlightened the viewers about transboundary cooperation in natural conservation. This topic was new to me and I soon found myself digging deeper about the same. As I explored further, I discovered that while transboundary conservation is often overlooked in academia, its evolution and development are noteworthy and deserve more recognition.
Recognition of a subject starts with the most basic information; what does transboundary conservation mean? Well, to introduce it to you in the most basic manner, transboundary conservation is the process through which two or more nations cooperate to protect wildlife. It is not as complex as it sounds though. Transboundary conservation is done by binding a biodiversity hotspot into one area, regardless of borders between two countries, and this area is called a transboundary protected area.
Again, there can be various kinds of transboundary conservation areas. Alongside Transboundary Protected Areas, there are also Transboundary Conservation Landscapes and Seascapes. These are ecologically connected areas that span one or more international borders and include multiple resource-use zones and protected areas. There are Parks for Peace that promote cooperation and peace between countries. The Transboundary Migration Conservation Area is the most important and the most unique venture out of all of the conservation areas. These are wildlife habitats that span multiple countries and are essential for maintaining the population of migratory species.
Various hotspots are amalgamated into one to make it easier to manage landscapes at different scales through alliances between governments and civil society. The main aim of this alliance is to achieve wildlife goals. These wildlife goals could be anything. It could be promoting tourism in one’s neighbouring country, like Vietnam and Lao are working together to get Hin Namno National Park in Laos and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam recognized as a transboundary World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It can also be a means to foster or try to encourage, peace and cooperation between two countries, like the Khunjerab National Park, located at the Karakoram range is a Park for Peace shared by India and Pakistan. Thus, this can be an effective way to build diplomatic relations. But the most important goal because of which transboundary conservation has gained so much importance in the field of international relations as well, is for the protection of migrant species across international boundaries.
The fourteenth session of The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals was held in 2024. The theme of this session was ‘Nature knows no borders’, and truly so, because a Rosy Pelican has absolutely nothing to do with the internal feud between India and Pakistan, does it? Migration is a natural process that will continue, no matter the socio-economic, political, cultural, etc… situations that prevail.
However, even this natural migration process is facing significant challenges due to biodiversity loss, the extinction of species, and the over-exploitation of habitats. Thus, protecting such species has become a need of the hour because migratory species are important to the environment in several ways. They help transfer nutrients, they are the major contributors to pollination, they store carbon, and they control pests. Still, these migratory species are at a high risk of endangerment because they wouldn't survive without the right habitats and conditions.
The COPCMS14 held in February 2024, in Uzbekistan, was attended by 133 UNO members and 16 UN agencies, along with presentations from renowned bodies like Global Environmental Facility, the World Bank, the IUCN, etc. The meeting concluded with all these organisations forming a set of actions for conserving the migratory species of wild animals. These measures include; 14 new species (the Mediterranean Sea’s Blackchin Guitarfish, the Balkan Lynx, Lahille’s Bottlenose Dolphin, etc…) were added to the coverage of the convention out of which 10 were added to Appendix I that consists of species at the danger of extinction, 11 species were added to the Appendix II that shines light on the species that require international cooperation for their conservation and management, and a Central Asian Flyway that, spans across 30 ranges of migratory birds, would be built along with a coordinating unit in India.
This edition of the COPCMS was called a milestone by the executive secretary of CMS, Amy Fraenkel, because the goals set in this meeting would serve as a clear roadmap of action for connectivity conservation. It would not just fulfil the aims of the CMS, but also Aichi targets, and that is what makes it better.
Aristotle has essentially mentioned that a man and an animal are different because the essence of being a man rests on achieving all pleasures along with survival. Whereas, for an animal, living and surviving is directly proportional. But since humans need to fulfil their needs and quench their greed, we tend to ruin the small number of survival necessities made available to the animals. And because it is an age-old ritual of fixing what you break, it is important that we now come together and start to fix our habits so that wildlife can thrive as well.
Please make yourself aware of your surroundings and your environment, and only then will you know what we, as humans, will miss out on once all of this is gone. Because, as Steve Irwin had once said, “If we can teach people about wildlife, they’ll be touched.”
References
(1) TEDx Talks. (2022, June 6). How transboundary cooperation in natural conservation inspires growth | Jake Brunner | TEDxĐaKaoLive [Video]. YouTube.https://youtu.be/i1ML-cAEwMw(2) Vasilijević, M., Zunckel, K., McKinney, M., Erg, B., Schoon, M., Rosen Michel, T. (2015). Transboundary Conservation: A systematic and integrated approach. Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 23, Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. xii + 107 pp.(3) Trouwborst, A. (2012). Transboundary wildlife conservation in a changing climate: Adaptation of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species and its daughter instruments to climate change. Sustainability, 4(11), 2515-2535. https://doi.org/10.3390/su4112515(4) Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP). (n.d.). Transboundary conservation. Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program. Retrieved November 24, 2024, from https://globalsnowleopard.org/the-snow-leopard/conservation-principles/transboundary-conservation/(5) Transboundary protected area. In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 24, 2024, fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transboundary_protected_area
Absence Of Borders When It Comes To Nature: Uniting
Nations Through Transboundary Conservation
Mallika Dasgupta, Department of Political Science
A few days back, I stumbled upon a remarkably less popular TEDx Talks episode, where the speaker, Jake Brunner who works for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), enlightened the viewers about transboundary cooperation in natural conservation. This topic was new to me and I soon found myself digging deeper about the same. As I explored further, I discovered that while transboundary conservation is often overlooked in academia, its evolution and development are noteworthy and deserve more recognition.
Recognition of a subject starts with the most basic information; what does transboundary conservation mean? Well, to introduce it to you in the most basic manner, transboundary conservation is the process through which two or more nations cooperate to protect wildlife. It is not as complex as it sounds though. Transboundary conservation is done by binding a biodiversity hotspot into one area, regardless of borders between two countries, and this area is called a transboundary protected area.
Again, there can be various kinds of transboundary conservation areas. Alongside Transboundary Protected Areas, there are also Transboundary Conservation Landscapes and Seascapes. These are ecologically connected areas that span one or more international borders and include multiple resource-use zones and protected areas. There are Parks for Peace that promote cooperation and peace between countries. The Transboundary Migration Conservation Area is the most important and the most unique venture out of all of the conservation areas. These are wildlife habitats that span multiple countries and are essential for maintaining the population of migratory species.
Various hotspots are amalgamated into one to make it easier to manage landscapes at different scales through alliances between governments and civil society. The main aim of this alliance is to achieve wildlife goals. These wildlife goals could be anything. It could be promoting tourism in one’s neighbouring country, like Vietnam and Lao are working together to get Hin Namno National Park in Laos and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam recognized as a transboundary World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It can also be a means to foster or try to encourage, peace and cooperation between two countries, like the Khunjerab National Park, located at the Karakoram range is a Park for Peace shared by India and Pakistan. Thus, this can be an effective way to build diplomatic relations. But the most important goal because of which transboundary conservation has gained so much importance in the field of international relations as well, is for the protection of migrant species across international boundaries.
The fourteenth session of The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals was held in 2024. The theme of this session was ‘Nature knows no borders’, and truly so, because a Rosy Pelican has absolutely nothing to do with the internal feud between India and Pakistan, does it? Migration is a natural process that will continue, no matter the socio-economic, political, cultural, etc… situations that prevail.
However, even this natural migration process is facing significant challenges due to biodiversity loss, the extinction of species, and the over-exploitation of habitats. Thus, protecting such species has become a need of the hour because migratory species are important to the environment in several ways. They help transfer nutrients, they are the major contributors to pollination, they store carbon, and they control pests. Still, these migratory species are at a high risk of endangerment because they wouldn't survive without the right habitats and conditions.
The COPCMS14 held in February 2024, in Uzbekistan, was attended by 133 UNO members and 16 UN agencies, along with presentations from renowned bodies like Global Environmental Facility, the World Bank, the IUCN, etc. The meeting concluded with all these organisations forming a set of actions for conserving the migratory species of wild animals. These measures include; 14 new species (the Mediterranean Sea’s Blackchin Guitarfish, the Balkan Lynx, Lahille’s Bottlenose Dolphin, etc…) were added to the coverage of the convention out of which 10 were added to Appendix I that consists of species at the danger of extinction, 11 species were added to the Appendix II that shines light on the species that require international cooperation for their conservation and management, and a Central Asian Flyway that, spans across 30 ranges of migratory birds, would be built along with a coordinating unit in India.
This edition of the COPCMS was called a milestone by the executive secretary of CMS, Amy Fraenkel, because the goals set in this meeting would serve as a clear roadmap of action for connectivity conservation. It would not just fulfil the aims of the CMS, but also Aichi targets, and that is what makes it better.
Aristotle has essentially mentioned that a man and an animal are different because the essence of being a man rests on achieving all pleasures along with survival. Whereas, for an animal, living and surviving is directly proportional. But since humans need to fulfil their needs and quench their greed, we tend to ruin the small number of survival necessities made available to the animals. And because it is an age-old ritual of fixing what you break, it is important that we now come together and start to fix our habits so that wildlife can thrive as well.
Please make yourself aware of your surroundings and your environment, and only then will you know what we, as humans, will miss out on once all of this is gone. Because, as Steve Irwin had once said, “If we can teach people about wildlife, they’ll be touched.”
References
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