A Quick Trip to Brussels – 18 months of GoJelly to report on!
It is incredible that the crazy fun project GoJelly – a gelatinous solution to plastic pollution – is already done with its first 18 months – and that we are reporting on it too! The report went very well – and I am proud to be part of this team that is looking at how to exploit jellyfish blooms to develop new products – like cosmetics and food – as well as the innovations we are spearheading in also using the mucus from the jellyfish to develop a filter that can capture microplastics from waste water treatment plants. My job in this project is to lead the work on “Socioecological…
As the third round of BBNJ negotiations start in NYC…
The second article that Elizabeth Mendenhall, Elizabeth Nyman and Elizabeth De Santo and I have written about the BBNJ negotiations in Marine Policy is published – and my fourth article about the negotiations in total so far (two more are under review – and we have at least three more on the writing block). This article that we published today – as the third substantive session of negotiations started yesterday in NYC – is a review and our perspectives on the second round of negotiations that took place in March and April of this year – published in Marine Policy. Abstract to “A soft treaty, hard to reach: The second…
An Arctic conference in Hawaii – yes please!
August 14th-16th 2019, I went to the North Pacific Arctic Conference (NPAC), co-organized by the East-West Center and the Korea Maritime Institute, helt at the international Conference Center in Honolulu – to present on the BBNJ treaty negotiations, as part of my GoJelly project. What a place to hold a conference. Granted – its on the other side of the world – so I am still tired from this trip actually (Hawaii is 12 hours behind us in Norway). I got there a day before it started so that I could adjust – but alas – it was tough since I had only gotten back to Norway from Houston two weeks…
Another article on the BBNJ treaty published
Recently, another article on the treaty negotiations for biodiversity protection in areas beyond national jurisdiction was published – this time I was part of a multi-author group from the Environmental Studies Section of the ISA (International Studies Association). The article is published in the Earth System Governance journal, where one of our authors – Frank Biermann – is the Editor in Chief. The blurb of the journal the following: The journal Earth System Governance addresses governance processes and institutions at all levels of decision-making – from local to global – within a planetary perspective that seeks to align our current institutions and governance systems with the fundamental 21st century challenges of global…
BBNJ treaty negotiations
The second Intergovernmental Conferene (IGCII) started on March 25th and lasted until April 5th 2019 in New York City. I once again was fortunate enough to be able to participate in the negotiations as an observer, and along with my colleagues Elizabeth Nyman, Elizabeth Mendenhall and Elizabeth De Santo, we spent two weeks gathering data, interviewing participants, developing a database of delegate and NGO/IGO interventions, and writing on articles together. It was exhaustive – as per usual – but also every rewarding in terms of not only data gathering but also in terms of experience with following negotiations, and learning more about the informal rules of the game – as…
Getting ready for the 2nd round of BBNJ negotiations in NYC
My ISA colleagues and I are planning to attend the second round of negotiations on biodiversity protection in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) under UNCLOS in March-April 2019 – and the planning has started. These are the same women that I have now published in the Washington Posts MonkeyCage as well as in Marine Policy with – we informally call ourselves Rachel and the three Elizabeths 🙂 We are all members of the International Studies Association (ISA), which is an NGO accredited to the ECOSOC. This association allows for the distribution of grounds passes for their members, and they can have their members registered as observers to certain UN meetings…
The Once and Future Treaty – newest published article
This is an article that is written by myself and my now three most favorite co-authors from my BBNJ adventures in New York City earlier this school year and it was available online today November 10th 2018. My coauthors are: Elizabeth De Santo Elizabeth Mendenhall Elizabeth Nyman You can download it for free until the end of the year – so hurry up and get your copy before it is no longer open access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X18307048?dgcid=coauthor The articles abstract is as follows: The current regime governing Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) as a global commons has resulted in overutilization of fisheries resources and patchwork attempts to regulate resource extraction. States are looking to…
Off to New York City, the UN and international negotiations
Part of my job while here in the US is to follow the negotiations of the upcoming treaty on biodiversity protection in areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a special focus (for me) on plastics and the Arctic, with the Arctic ocean being an emerging ocean as the ice is melting and more of it is becoming navigable. The negotiations are taking place for two years in New York City, twice per year, and there was an organizational meeting in April that my friend and colleague Elizabeth Nyman from Texas A&M University at Galveston – where I am affiliated – works, in the Maritime Studies program. The first meeting proper was…
YES – I am going to the UN meeting!
So very excited today – because I just received my approval from the BBNJ conference secretariat to attend as an ISA representatives to the BBNJ conference, being held in New York from 4-17 September 2018. I have even received my individual letters that iterates the details of my approved registration, including guidance to obtain my temporary UN grounds pass. This is an important element in my Fulbright study as well as my work on marine plastics with the GoJelly project financed by Horizon2020 – and it opens the door for my observational study and in-depth interviews! I have spent the morning finalizing the interview guide, and looking over documents from…
