Three new multilateral cooperation alliances for promoting a global land-use transformation 4.5
4.5 Three new multilateral cooperation alliances for promoting a global land-use transformation The WBGU is convinced that – over and above existing international cooperation and coordination, which needs to be intensified – institutions need to be strengthened and overarching governance mechanisms developed in order to implement the guiding principles for sustainable land stewardship (Chapter 2). In order to develop a coherent, overarching and systemic form of governance that addresses the trilemma in an integrative manner and at the global level, the WBGU proposes a new governance mechanism: the establishment of multilateral cooperation alliances. They could (1) implement integrated landscape approaches across national borders as alliances of sub-national regions, (2) advocate a global land-use transformation as supranational alliances of globally networked states, or (3) protect valuable ecosystems as global conservation alliances in multi-stakeholder partnerships. All three types of cooperation alliance would make sustainable land stewardship their common task and promote an integrative landscape approach. Following the example of so-called ‘club solutions’, which have been suggested especially in climate-policy discussions in recent years, (Nordhaus, 2015), pioneer countries could lead the way and successively expand the circle of participating states and shared policies. Based on the vision of globally networked sustainable landscapes, a coherent and overarching form of systemic governance for land as global commons can be developed step by step, thus contributing to gradually overcoming the trilemma of land use outlined above (Section 2.2). All three alliances could help overcome existing national and international blockades, or at least provide incentives for overcoming them. Internally, the necessary transformative change can be vigorously supported by promoting corresponding pioneering activities (Section 4.1) and by the countries involved setting favourable framework conditions (Section 4.2). Mutual advantages can be generated in the joint network, and these can also trigger positive consequences and imitation effects in the current international network of states and in the existing institutional landscape. Such new, state-sponsored initiatives for sustainable land stewardship can set an example and lead to global awareness-raising and civil-society support for the protection of land and its functions.
The WBGU recommends the establishment and context-specific advancement of three categories of such cooperation alliances (Fig. 4.5-1), which are outlined below and subsequently presented in detail. 1. Regional alliances for the cross-border implementation of integrated landscape approaches: These alliances link sub-state regions which, as neighbours in a geographically coherent area, test and implement sustainable land stewardship in an integrative way across borders. In their internal relationship, the participating regions – usually supported by the respective higher level (federal state/province or nation state) – strengthen the landscape-specific implementation of multiple-use strategies (from cross-border protected areas to joint ecosystem-restoration projects to the regional cascade use of locally produced biomass), make a regionally integrated circular economy possible, and promote trade within the alliance in goods produced under sustainable land-use conditions. Externally, in close cooperation with the state level, they advocate a common trade policy oriented towards sustainability principles. Such regional alliances, which also draw economic benefits for their member regions from increasing integration, can build on historically evolved landscapes (e.g. Alpine countries), breathe new life into weak groupings (e.g. Mediterranean region) or generate fresh inspiration for regional integration (e.g. sub-Saharan Africa). 2. Supranational alliances for a global land-use transformation: Member states of these alliances do not necessarily share a contiguous territory; they can also be spread over different regions of the world. They jointly and forcefully represent a sustainability-oriented approach to land stewardship, as well as corresponding values and regulations. This kind of alliance is also focused on the conservation of global commons (climate, biodiversity, soils) and can achieve tangible joint benefits for its members across global regions through increasing integration. In this context, alliances between industrialized and developing countries and emerging economies can reciprocally strengthen the internalization of ecosystem services worldwide, e.g. by organizing intra-alliance trade accordingly, by direct financial support or by supranational law. Supranational alliances are created by pioneer states, but much of their attraction comes from the fundamental reciprocity of their policies. 3. Global conservation alliances for ecologically valuable landscapes: These are alliances of states and other stakeholders that join forces with the aim of preserving and restoring valuable ecosystems in third countries – which should also become
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