Commoditization of Nature: Conservation, Preservation and International Regimes

Abstract

"Nature policy typically involves a struggle with the market, which over time tends to extend commoditization to virtually everything ; regulatory logic limiting market dynamics has been a mainstay of environmental protection. Once 'nature' becomes conceptually commoditized as 'natural resources,' conservation competes with development as a frame for defining interests in the biophysical world. The science of ecology later adds the more demanding concept of preservation as a third competing interest. In international negotiations addressed to global commons issues, nation-states represent themselves as agents of societies and as holders of rights in nature. Both claims are typically problematic. States' capacity to assume such obligations is a function of the tenuous and contested nature of their domestic claims. Attempts to exert power through command-and-control systems often further delegitimize the state vis-a - vis users of natural systems and reduce the possiblity of governance. This paper considers three elements of the international nature regime — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the International Tropical Timber Agreement and the World Heritage Convention — and their dynamics in India."