Can the Sustainable Development Goals Strengthen Existing Legal Instruments?The Case of Biodiversity and Forests

摘要

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted this year to address unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and newly added sustainable development issues. Some of the SDGs target improvements in previously untouched areas such as sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and sustainable cities. Other SDGs, however, will aim to strengthen measures against issues already covered under the MDGs as well as other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Not only is biodiversity covered under the MDGs, it is also covered by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Aichi Targets. Some have argued that including biodiversity under the SDGs is unnecessary duplication which could ultimately confuse the implementation of both the SDGs and other relevant MEAs, especially the CBD and the Aichi Targets. This fear is based on evidence from discussions among UN Member States on how to design SDGs and targets on biodiversity and ensure consistency with existing ones. While this paper fully agrees with the need for consistency, especially with the CBD and the Aichi Targets, which already have functioning reporting mechanisms, it argues that the rapid decline in biodiversity necessitates an integrated approach with other goal areas as well as the elevated status and heightened awareness of issues that the SDGs could potentially deliver. Drawing upon examples of the transposition of the CBD and the Aichi Targets in Japan, this paper argues the SGDs have added value and complementarity to the existing legal instruments in international efforts to conserve biodiversity.