Effective Laws for the Green Economy: Overview
As noted in the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity, its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and its 2010 Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits (ABS), economic instruments can reduce disincentives for sustainable economic development and support emerging green markets. With tailored legal and institutional preparedness, IDLO’s green economy programming assists developing countries to attract and absorb new opportunities to access the benefits of sustainable livelihoods. Continuing loss and degradation of natural resources can seriously undermine the economic development gains of the last three decades. Ecosystems may become incapable of providing the goods and services on which hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable and poor depend. Economic instruments for development of the bio-economy and access to green markets can play a key role to respond. Participation in the green economy does not need to impose new burdens on developing countries. Rather, an enabling legal environment, underpinned by good governance can contribute to developing countries adopting a sustainable development pathway. IDLO uses new technical legal services to assist developing countries to access benefits of equitable international bio-prospecting contracts, participate in new markets for sustainable products, and access new financing for the ecosystem goods and services upon which the most poor and vulnerable populations depend.

Legal Preparedness for the Green Economy: IDLO’s Approach
IDLO’s Green Economy programming employs unique methodologies to systematically identify legal and governance barriers; provide legal and regulatory training and technical assistance for implementation; and implement consensus-based solutions tailored uniquely for each recipient country.

Bio-Economy & Legal Empowerment for Sustainable Development: IDLO’s Strategic Focus
Accessing the New Global Bio-Economy: Updating regulatory frameworks for access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits for bio-prospecting, and for biosafety for trade in bio-technology. Legal Empowerment for Sustainable Economic Development: Helping communities gain legal empowerment for sustainable economic development, and designing legal measures to promote pricing that values sustainable goods and service, reduces disincentives for sustainable development, and encourages payments for ecosystem services.

Moving Forward Together: Key Partnerships

Online Analytical Tool
In recent years discussions of the role of international law in sustainable development have expanded considerably. Not only is the concept of sustainable development increasingly being invoked before national courts and tribunals around the word, international courts and tribunals are beginning to recognize sustainable development goals and instruments explicitly in their decisions. This on-line tool was designed to support researchers around the world interested in the legal dimension of sustainable development. This new website is the result of a few months of research into how international courts and tribunals have referred to, or used, the concept/objective of sustainable development, and related international legal principles in the past 2 decades. It comprised links to the decisions from economic, social and human rights and international public law courts and tribunals that have applied sustainable development principles in the resolution of disputes from 1992 - 2012.

To learn more about the project or to use the Analytical Tool, visit the website at: SD Law in ICTs Web Research Tool Website (http://cisdl.org/tribunals/)