Can small players make a difference? A multilevel governance assessment of the Swiss contribution to the establishment of an international regime on Biodiversity (SWIC)

• Research unit: COST
• Project number: C09.0162

Key words (English)

Swiss foreign policy; international biodiversity negociations; global environmental governance; Access and Benefit Sharing; Biosafety

Research programs (English)

COST-Action IS0802 - The Transformation of Global Environmental Governance: Risks and Opportunities (TGEG)

Short description (English)

See abstract

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise: Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement

Partners and International Organizations (English)

AT, BE, BG, CH, DE, FR, GR, LT, NL, NO, PT, SE, SK, UK

Abstract (English)

This project seeks to address this neglect by analyzing the multilevel process of policy formation and norms-building, taking the case of Switzerland as a marker. In spite of its modest size, Switzerland has been an important contributor to global environmental governance. It was an initiator of many international conventions and it is home to many international organizations, secretariats and other organizations or coordination mechanisms related to the environment. But there is no systematic analysis of these processes. This research project thus aims to understand and explain: 1) at the national level the process through which the Swiss positions in international negotiations are elaborated; 2) at the regional level, the processes of interaction and coordination with European countries and the EU regarding these issues; and 3) the role played by Switzerland in international negotiations. To address these, this project builds on the theoretical literature on policy formation, governance, organizational sociology and international relations. It will reconstruct historical information from documents as well as conduct qualitative interviews with former and current representatives of different organizations involved in negotiating a biodiversity-policy at the national, regional and international level. The analysis will examine the most salient negotiation rounds that have triggered position formation processes at the national level and the opportunities for national position formation processes that are independent of the international context. The results will contribute to the understanding and theoretical development of multi-level environmental governance, in line with COST IS0802 and to draw lessons to help improve the effectiveness of Swiss foreign policy on biodiversity matters.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: COST-DB of the State Secretariat for Education and Research Hallwylstrasse 4 CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland Tel. [phone] Swiss Project-Number: C09.0162