CISDL Natural Resources Stewardship Programme
Responds to SDG 2 Zero Hunger, SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities & Communities, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 14 Life Below Water, SDG 15 Life on Land
Prof. Dr. Ilaria Espa, Lead Counsel
Adv. Fabiana Piccoli Araujo Santos, Programme Coordinator
Pressures on natural resources is increasing in all regions of the world, to the extent that over the past 40 years global consumption of wood products increased by 80%, and unsustainable agricultural practices lead to the use of 2000 to 5000 litres of water to provide food for one person per day. With international treaties such as the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands; recent international disputes such as Pac Rim Cayman LLC v. Republic of El Salvador, Suez, Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona SA and Vivendi Universal SA v. Argentine Republic and Nomarchiaki Aftodioikisi Aitoloakarnanias et al. v. Ypourgos Perivallontos, Chorotaxias kai Dimosion ergon et al.; as well as instruments such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), renewed hope is shown towards a sustainable development of natural resources and community involvement in the management thereof. With most countries in the process of reforming their laws and institutions to achieve a more sustainable management of natural resources, there is a pressing need for legal expertise, capacity and advice in this emerging field of research and education.
In contribution to global efforts, through our Natural Resources Programme in 2022-2027, CISDL aims to:
- Advance knowledge and understanding of international law on natural resources through robust legal research tools on sustainable use of water, soil, forests, land and extractive resources.
- Research and strengthen capacity for the implementation of innovative sustainable resources governance instruments and the new circularity paradigm, taking into account recent local, national, regional and international developments.
- Investigate pressing sustainable development questions in law and policy on natural resources, especially in light of post-pandemic recovery, and taking into account the importance that sustainable natural resources management has been gaining in international economic law instruments.
Lead Counsel: Dr. Ilaria Espa, Ph.D., M.A., BA (Italy)
Programme Coordinator: Adv. Fabiana Piccoli Araujo Santos, PhD Cand., LL.M., B.A. (Brazil)
Senior Research Fellowship: Prof. Dr. Konstantia Koutouki, LL.D., LL.M., LL.B. (Canada)
Legal Fellowship: Prof. Dr. Emmanuella Doussis, Ph.D., D.E.A. (Greece); Prof. Dr. Barbara Janusz-Pawletta, Ph.D., LL.M, BCL. (Germany/Kazakhstan); Adv. Katherine Lofts B.A.Hons, M.A., B.C.L. & LL.B. (Canada); Dr. Hasrat Arjjumend M.Sc., M.Phil., M.B.A., Ph.D. (Canada); Prof. Zaker Ahmad LL.M., M.I.L.E., Ph.D. (Bangladesh).
Researchers: Dr. Giada Giacomini, Ph.D., J.D. (Italy); Adv. Xinyuan Meng, M.A., LL.B. (China); Dr. Andrea Mensi, Ph.D., J.D. (Italy); Ms. Diana Quavedo, M.Phil, LL.M., LL.B. (Colombia); Ms. Cairo Robb, M.A. (Cantab); Lic. spéc. dr. eur. (ULB) (UK).
CISDL Legal Specialist Award
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2022: Prof Barbara Janusz Pawletta, Kazakh-German University, Kazakhstan
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2021: Prof. Emmanuella Doussis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2020: Dr. Ilaria Espa, Universita della Svizerra Italiana, Switzerland
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2019: Dr. Hasrat Arjjumend, The Grassroots Institute, Canada
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2018: Adv Katherine Lofts, Canada
Key Publications
- Development without Destruction: The UN and Global Resource Management by Nico Schrijver (United Nations Intellectual History Project Series 2010): From a broad historical perspective, Development without Destruction sketches the role played by organizations and individuals in the UN system in developing and consolidating principles of international law and international governance with respect to natural resource management.
- Katherine Lofts and Konstantia Koutouki, ‘Climate change-related eco-health considerations for environmental impact assessments in the Canadian Arctic’ in Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sara L. Seck, Sumudu A. Atapattu, The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development (Cambridge University Press 2021): The work examines the often-neglected social dimension of sustainability and its relationship to human rights and environmental justice. Using a variety of legal frameworks and case studies from around the world, the importance of overcoming the fragmentation of these legal frameworks and social movements in order to develop holistic solutions that promote justice and protect the planet’s ecosystems at a time of intensifying economic and ecological crisis is revealed.
- Ilaria Espa, ‘Export Restrictions on Food Commodities during the COVID-19 Crisis: Implications for Food Security and the Role of the WTO’, in A. Bahri, D. Boklan and W. Zhou, Rethinking, Repackaging and Rescuing World Trade Law (Hart Publishing, 2021), pp. 43-56: This book explores the ways to ‘rethink’, ‘repackage’ and ‘rescue’ world trade law in the post-COVID-19 era. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an important context, the book makes critical contributions to the growing debate over a range of emerging challenges and systemic issues.
- Ilaria Espa, ‘Dissecting the Green Component of 21st Century Industrial Policy in the Energy Sector: Implications for the WTO System’ in E. Cima and M. Moïse Mbengue (eds), A Multifaceted Approach to Trade Liberalisation and Investment Protection in the Energy Sector (Brill 2021), pp. 16-42: This chapter dissects the distinctive features of twenty-first century green industrial policy and discusses its implications for the World Trade Organization (wto) system. Focusing on the renewable energy sector, it submits that both renewable energy subsidies and trade remedies targeting renewable energy technologies have been used as green industrial policy instruments albeit the latter have largely escaped WTO scrutiny so far.
- Ilaria Espa and Emmanuella Doussis, ‘Legal Indicators as Tools to Assess the Effectiveness of International Rules Related to Sustainable Natural Resources Management’ in S. Tsani and I. Overland (eds), Handbook on the Sustainable Politics and Economics of Natural Resources (Edward Elgar, 2021), pp. 293-302: This Handbook draws together insightful analyses of natural resource management challenges and solutions in the face of sustainable development targets and a changing global climate and offers a roadmap for well-informed policy making, highlighting the uncertainties and risks associated with climate change, energy and sustainability transition, and the need for a forward-looking approach to resource management.
- The Prospects of Common Concern of Humankind in International Law by Thomas Cottier (ed) with Ahmed Zaker (Cambridge University Press 2020): This book explores the expression’s potential as a future legal principle. It sets out the origins of Common Concern, its differences to other common interest legal principles, and expounds the potential normative structure and effects of the principle, in realizing goals defined as a Common Concern.
- Ilaria Espa and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, ‘Advancing Sustainable Natural Resources Management for Development through International Law, Governance and Capacity’, CISDL Legal Working Paper, 17 March 2021
- Ilaria Espa, P. Dash, F. Gonzalez Sembla, C. Häberli, S. Kansal and O. Idowu Kareem, ‘Agricultural Trade in a Post-Pandemic World’ T20 Policy Brief, September 2021
- Ilaria Espa and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, ‘Exploring the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resources Management for Development’ (2021), Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge
- Ilaria Espa and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, ‘Advancing Global Climate Change Response and Sustainable Natural Resources Management through International Law’ (2021), Blogpost, CambridgeZero
- Damilola Olawuyi, ‘Sustainable Development and Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Legal Challenges and Emerging Solutions’ (2020) 103 Journal of Environmental Science and Policy