Emerging Technologies in Biodiversity Governance: Gaps and Opportunities for Action

Numerous emerging technologies have potentially far-reaching impacts on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Simultaneously, biodiversity increasingly serves as an input for novel technological applications. We assess the relationship between the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) regime and the governance of three sets of emerging technologies: climate-related geoengineering (carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification), synthetic biology (including gene drives), as well as bioinformatics and digital sequence information. We present an overview of these technologies’ relevant applications, including potential positive and negative impacts on the CBD’s objectives; explore the state of relevant deliberations under the CBD and other intergovernmental fora, including normative gaps and opportunities for action; and assess the extent to which governance of those technologies under the CBD regime can support trans-formative governance of technologies and biodiversity from the vantage points of adaptiveness, integration, anticipation, inclusion and information.