From consent to consultation: Indigenous rights and the new environmental constitutionalism

Abstract

International biodiversity politics is traced from the Brundtland Report (1987) to the Paris climate agreement of 2015. While continuously expanding in scope, international biodiversity regulations are gradually losing substance and tend to relinquish the self-determination rights of indigenous peoples with regard to natural resources. The simultaneity of expansion and erosion is surprising in view of the increased participation of indigenous spokespersons at international meetings. These dynamics are explained by the introduction of intellectual property rights for biological resources. The commodification of life forms has triggered an ongoing dynamic by which governments from industrialized and developing countries, transnational corporations, and some NGOs push for the legal codification of neoliberal environmentalism. These findings suggest the emergence of a new environmental constitutionalism, which subdues all spheres of life to economic imperatives and simultaneously co-opts dissenting voices to increase the stability of inherently exploitative structures.