The ecological negotiation

Abstract

The question of the biodiversity conservacion cannot be reach without ecological negotiation. The thing is that, those who negotiate already have an interest in destructing or modifying the nature. They are in charge of realizing the environmental impact assessment, and of managing the process to communicate informations to the public. How can biodiversity conservation be negotiated to make sure that its future is decided in an equilibrate relation between all the actors? Our purpose is to show how the implementation of the law and actors actions on the ground can promote biodiversity conservation. Our study case was France. In France, the law applicable to environmental impact assessments has evolved considerably since its creation by the Nature Protection Act of 10 July 1976. From a right based on a segregated nature to a right based on a systemic and dynamic approach of the interrelations between man and his environment, we work in 2017 with a flexible and negotiated right. Knowledge exchange through expertise gradually opens up a space for negotiation where economic interests and scientific reality merge, giving rise to a modernized conception of nature: the assessment of biodiversity by Services it renders to man. However, the complexity of nature surpasses the apprehension that man can have. Therefore, although the legal procedures applicable to environmental impact assessments still reflect the limits imposed by the economic power over nature, the law nevertheless opens up a breach through the development of digital tools that could equilibrate forces. The emergence of an ecological negotiation in which secular scientific expertise, public participation and the creation of a common knowledge of biodiversity would also influence public decision-making may well be emerging.