K2SP 3645 - Ecosystem governance : from global assessments to public policies

Beside climate change, ecosystem degradation is the other major dimension of the ecological crisis: tackling both together is both an urgent imperative and an immense challenge.

The scientific and economic communities have produced distinct, sometimes divergent diagnoses of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity protection has a long history of public intervention and a track record with some successes and many limitations, because of the difficulties faced in triggering systemic transformation across sectors and societies.

This course opens by examining how scientific and economic frameworks assess the crisis differently, and what follows from their convergences and divergences. It then explores transformation scenarios, with a focus on agri-food systems. Finally, it surveys the track record of concrete policy instruments across sectors, from protected areas to agriculture, fisheries and water, identifying lock-ins and entry points for more transformative action.

N/A

Courses will be based on presentations by professors or invited speakers, followed by a discussion with students. For each session, a group of students will synthesise the main messages and main discussions in a short group presentation at the beginning of the following session.

Group recap presentations (30%). Starting from session 3, each session opens with a 10-minute group presentation recapping the previous class. Each group is assigned a specific session and delivers its recap at the beginning of the following one. Assessment criteria: clarity, relevance, understanding of key concepts, ability to engage peers.

Strategic biodiversity policy memo (60%). Individual paper. Each student assumes the role of advisor to the environment minister of an EU member state of their choice and drafts a proposal to bring biodiversity back onto the EU agenda. The memo should outline a strategic plan: which alliances to build (with states or stakeholders), which priorities to set, and which political, methodological and institutional approaches to adopt. Students may reflect on an existing policy (proposing its reform or replacement) or focus on an entirely new one. The memo must also consider whether it is more strategic to strengthen a biodiversity-specific policy or to transform a sectoral policy (e.g. the CAP) from having a negative to a positive impact on biodiversity. Assessment criteria: quality of analysis, feasibility, strategic coherence.

Class participation (10%). Engagement in class discussions, ability to ask questions, contributions outside of class.

Students will be asked to prepare for each session by reading the key references that will be presented during the course. The history of European environmental policies, that is the object of authoritative publications, will be the object of only one summary session, for which students will be expected to have assimilated the major corresponding publications, that will not be presented in detail. Based on this good knowledge of past policy experiences and of their path dependency, students will be accompanied to develop an innovative/disruptive policy proposal on a specific sector/theme.