Some legal aspects on biological diversity

Abstract

Biological diversity, otherwise referred to as biodiversity, refers to the innumerable and various living organisms which inhabit the earth and without which man's livelihood would be impossible. In other words it is the totality of genes, species and ecosystems the majority of which had to undergo climatic and evolutionary adaptations and, until a period of decades to thousands of years ago, even human intervention. This explains the distinguishing gap between the wild genetic resources (endemic species) and breeding lines and cultivars which are a result of genetic engineering. Biodiversity bears three distinct hierarchical categories: A. genetic diversity, which refers to genetic variation within a particular species; B. species diversity, which refers to the variety of species taking into consideration the possibility of their interrelationship (referred to as taxonomic diversity) ; and C. ecosystem diversity, which refers to the variety of habitats, biotic communities and ecological processes in the biosphere. The gradual progress towards the achievement of the objectives of the Rio Convention, however slight the effort of some State may be, paves the path towards the conclusion of future international conventions on biological diversity, possibly containing enforcement provisions and the establishment of an institutional authority (judicial and administrative) for its implementation. The Convention proposes a number of important measures as to how conservation and management of biological resources may be attained by, inter alia, creating specially protected areas or conserving existing ones, establishing storage banks for different genes and species, promoting public awareness, research and training and by encouraging financial assistance to developing countries. However, the objective of conserving biological diversity would be futile unless there exists an element of continuity in the proposed measures and that that implementation in the first place should be preferred to adopting compensation measures in cases of degradation or irreversible loss. As a consequence, this would continue developing an environmental ethos with its accompanying beneficial repercussions on all communities throughout time.