Fwd: Beastly Business Newsletter, Issue 2, September 2022

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Rosaleen V Duffy

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Sep 16, 2022, 3:01:45 AM9/16/22

to GEPED

Dear GEP-ed friends, here is the latest newsletter from the Beastly Business research project based here at Sheffield University, which uses poltiical ecology and green criminology to understand the illegal wildlife trade

Please do feel free to get in touch with any of the team members if you have questions/would like more info

best wishes

Rosaleen

I don't expect you to respond to my email outside your working hours. I respect your working pattern and I am looking forward to your response when available.

Latest Publications

Duffy, R. (2022) Security and Conservation: The Politics of the Illegal Wildlife Trade (Yale University Press)

Duffy, R. (2022) Crime, Security, and Illegal Wildlife Trade: Political Ecologies of International Conservation. Global Environmental Politics.

Duffy, R. and D. Brockington (2022) Political Ecology of Security Journal of Political Ecology

Beastly Business project newsletter

Professor Rosaleen Duffy

The Department of Politics and International Relations

University of Sheffield
Elmfield, Northumberland Road
Sheffield S10 2TU

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/politics/people/academic/rosaleen-duffy/profile

twitter @biosec_erc

BIOSEC Project https://biosec.group.shef.ac.uk

PI ESRC Project Beastly Business: Examining the Illegal Trade in Bears, Eels and Songbirds

@BeastlyProject

www.beastlybusiness.org

HELLO FROM THE BEASTLY BUSINESS TEAM!
Newsletter Issue 2, September 2022

It's hard to believe that our project is now just over half way through, so as we pass the one-year milestone, here are the latest Beastly Business news and plans for the forthcoming year…
Since our last newsletter, we have completed most of the fieldwork for the project and engaged in several fascinating workshops and conferences. We visited the BOAR project in Prague, we attended several conferences and a specialised course on EU Environmental Law at the Academy of European Law in Florence. We also had our second advisory board meeting, said goodbye to Dr Laura Gutierrez, and welcomed Dr Alison Hutchinson to the team. Dr George Iordachescu and Prof Rosaleen Duffy published some of their research. Keep reading if you’d like to learn more!

CHANGES TO THE TEAM

In August, we welcomed Dr Alison Hutchinson to the team. Alison joins us following the departure of Dr Laura Gutierrez for parental leave and a permanent lectureship at Liverpool University. Congratulations to Laura – the team will miss her!
Our Project Manager Liz Ungureanu will also be leaving the team this month to start a new role in Romania.

Dr Hutchinson joins us from Northumbria University where she recently completed her PhD specialising in green criminology. Her thesis examined the harms and crimes surrounding the trade of the minke whale, queen conch, and the Atlantic bluefin tuna, and focused on the motivations for exploitation as well as the visibility of wildlife victims.

She has also recently completed a study in collaboration with Professor Tanya Wyatt (Northumbria University) and the Wildlife Conservation Society on the crimes and penalties described in wildlife related legislation, with an emphasis on establishing potential pathways for non-custodial and restorative responses to wildlife crimes.
This builds on her interests towards the perceptions of wildlife in global governance and public opinion and how these perceptions impact on species and environmental (in)justice. She is looking forward to getting started at Sheffield and getting stuck into the European eel project.

Also..
Congratulations to Professor Charlie Burns, Beastly Business co-investigator, who will be taking on the role of Head of Department of Politics and International Relations from September and is already plotting the ways she can get references to eels, bears and birds into the Away day and the first department meeting!

EVENTS, RESEARCH EXCHANGES AND SEMINARS

Research meeting with BOAR Project at the Czech Academy of Sciences

In May Prof Duffy and Dr Iordachescu travelled to Prague to meet the BOAR Project research team at the Czech Academy of Sciences. We discussed the materiality of the animals in our research projects and the ways it shapes their commodification, circulation and transboundary movements. You can read more about the visit here.

Specialised Course on EU Environmental Law at the Academy of European Law, Florence

Dr George Iordachescu and Dr Teresa Lappe-Osthege participated in a two-week specialised course on EU Environmental Law organised by the Academy of European Law and hosted by the Law Department of the European University Institute in Florence (4-15 July). Together with more than 40 experts and practitioners of EU environmental law, they examined the legitimacy and applicability of environmental principles in EU law, the procedural challenges of action for annulment and infringement proceedings, as well as the complexities stemming from conflicts over competences between EU institutions and the Member States in regulating environmental protection and policy interventions. These discussions were directly relevant for Beastly Business research as they provide critical insight into broader legislative challenges in responding to the illegal wildlife trade and associated green-collar crimes in Europe.

Advisory Board Meeting

At the end of June, we met with our advisory board members Dr Rebecca Drury (Chronos Sustainability), Dr Stefan Ferger (EuroNatur), Dr Hannah Dickinson (University of Durham) and Prof Tanya Wyatt (University of Northumbria). The meeting gave us an excellent opportunity to discuss research progress and emerging themes across the different case studies.

World Fish Migration Day

Several migratory fish species face barriers to their movement including weirs, dams and diversion of river courses. These restrictions of their movement threaten their survival. The European eel is one species that has been seriously impacted.
We celebrated World Fish Migration Day with an article, in which Dr Laura Gutierrez reflected on eel’s charisma, consumption and practices that affect this migratory fish species.

Digital Eel Art Exhibition

Keep a look out for our exciting eel art exhibition, coming soon on the Beastly Business website. The digital exhibition will feature scenes from the seven stages of the life cycle of the European eel. It is being developed by our Beastly Business colleague, Dr Laura Gutierrez, and Colombian artist Sergio Gonzales Rosas.

Prof Duffy and Drs Lappe-Osthege & Iordachescu during a research visit to Maastricht University

FIELD VISITS AND DATA COLLECTION
WP1 - Brown Bear Trafficking in Europe: Examining the political ecologies of green-collar crime
Dr George Iordachescu has completed three months of fieldwork in Romania and Slovakia, where he did interviews with key stakeholders and visited and observed the operations of different actors involved in the brown bear conservation and management. He will continue in-person research this autumn in Romania with follow-up visits in Slovakia and Hungary.
WP2 - Green-collar crime and the illegal songbird trade in Europe
Dr Teresa Lappe-Osthege has completed fieldwork in Cyprus and conducted site visits to Italy. She is currently conducting (online) interviews with Italian stakeholder groups and is planning to continue in-person data collection in the autumn. She participated in the 4th Adriatic Flyway Conference (Croatia) and attended the Jagd & Hund Hunting Exhibition (Dortmund), which were key sites for participant observation and interviews. Teresa will continue in-person data collection in the autumn.
WP3 - Exploring the drivers and sustainers of European eel trafficking
Before her departure from the project, Dr Laura Gutierrez – along with Prof Rosaleen Duffy – has prepared some of her initial findings from her interviews in a draft paper, watch this space! Dr Alison Hutchinson has recently taken on this project and is planning to investigate the focus and rationale of governance and enforcement efforts, with an emphasis on the recognition and responses to harms. She is planning to begin in person research and observation later this Autumn and will be attending the UK Elver eating Championships later in September.

Dr Teresa Lappe-Osthege during her fieldwork in Cyprus

CONFERENCE ACTIVITY

Scottish Eel Conference Edinburgh, 22 April 2022
Attended by Dr Laura Gutierrez, the Scottish Eel Conference was an excellent opportunity to explore the potential of interdisciplinary and multi-sector collaborations in ensuring the survival of the endangered European eel.
4th Adriatic Flyway Conference Zadar, 25-29 April 2022
Dr Teresa Lappe-Osthege presented the preliminary findings of her research at the 4th Adriatic Flyway Conference (25-29 April 2022) in Zadar, Croatia, revealing that the lack of data and political will in the Western Balkans and the EU pose significant challenges to addressing bird crime dynamics in South Eastern Europe.
Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre (ShARC) Tales Symposium Sheffield, 12-13 May 2022
Dr George Iordachescu and Prof Rosaleen Duffy attended the ShARC Tales event, organised by the Sheffield Animals Research Centre to bring together scholars engaged in Animal Studies. Dr Iordachescu presented a paper entitled ‘All Bears Are Charismatic, But Some Bears Are More Charismatic Than Others’, and Prof Duffy co-presented an outline of a new project on animals and nature restoration with Dr Peter Sands.
ECPR 4th General Conference on Organised Crime Pisa, 4-6 July 2022
On the 4th July 2022, Dr Teresa Lappe-Osthege and Dr George Iordachescu presented ‘Green-collar crimes and the illegal wildlife trade in Europe’ in person in Pisa, as part of the panel Environment, illegal practice and resilience. On 6th July 2022, Professors Rosaleen Duffy and Tanya Wyatt ( Beastly Business Advisory Board) were part of a virtual roundtable that discussed the links between environmental crime and illicit markets.
UACES Lille, 5-8 September 2022
Dr Teresa Lappe-Osthege presented her research on the policy impact of transboundary environmental crime as part of the panel entitled 'Green Policies and Politics in the EU'.

Alice Vadrot

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Oct 12, 2022, 9:03:37 AM10/12/22

to GEPED, Kimberley Anne Peters

Dear GEP-ed colleagues,

We are reaching out to invite contributions to our special issue in Frontiers in Marine Science entitled “Social Science Perspectives on Marine Biodiversity Governance”

Deadline for abstract submission: 1^st November 2022

Deadline for paper submissions: 1^st of July 2023

Submit your abstract HERE

Our Research Topic aims to provide a forum for scholarship interested in diverse material, geographical, political, ontological and epistemological aspects of marine biodiversity governance. Our objective is to go beyond conventional views and encourage critical perspectives on how marine biodiversity is governed globally, regionally, at different policy-making levels, in various maritime zones and ocean areas, vertically, horizontally, and across boundaries. We do so by problematizing linear understandings of ocean governance (where processes and practices of governing are understood to straightforwardly result in societal and environmental change) and by furthermore troubling the expectations that social science research should predominantly ‘fix’ environmental problems by translating natural science findings into policy recommendations and readily available solutions. Thus, we aim to provide a forum for researchers interested in marine biodiversity governance beyond ‘institutional fixes’ and open up a debate on new emerging issues within the field of marine biodiversity governance that need critical social science perspectives (Long version below).

Please share with colleagues and friends

Best wishes

Alice Vadrot and Kimberley Peters

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alice Vadrot

Associate Professor and

Principal Investigator

ERC Project MARIPOLDATA

_____________________

University of Vienna

Department of Political Sciences

Kolingasse 14-16, 5th floor, 5.08. 1090 Vienna

✉️ alice....@univie.ac.at

📞 Office +43-1-4277-49455

http://www.maripoldata.eu/

Recent publications

Vadrot, Alice B.M.. Ruiz-Rodríguez, Silvia C., Brogat, Emmanuelle. Dunshirn, Paul. Langlet, Arne. Tessnow-von Wysocki, Ina and Wanneau, Krystel (2022). Towards a reflexive, policy-relevant and engaged ocean science for the UN decade: A social science research agenda. Earth System Governance, 14: 100150

Vadrot, Alice B.M., Ruiz-Rodríguez, Silvia C. (2022): Digital Multilateralism in Practice: Extending Critical Policy Ethnography to Digital Negotiation Sites. International Studies Quarterly 66(3).

Tessnow-von Wysocki, Ina and Vadrot, Alice B.M. (2022): Governing a Divided Ocean: The Transformative Power of Ecological Connectivity in the BBNJ negotiations. Politics and Governance. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v10i3.5428

Vadrot, Alice B.M. Langlet, Arne. Tessnow-von Wysocki, Ina. (2022). Who owns marine biodiversity? Contesting the world order through the `common heritage of humankind´ principle. Environmental Politics 31(2): 226-250.

Vadrot, Alice B.M. Langlet, Arne. Tessnow-von Wysocki, Ina. Tolochko, Petro. Brogat, Emmanuelle. and Ruiz-Rodríguez, Silvia C. (2021). Marine Biodiversity Negotiations During COVID-19: A New Role for Digital Diplomacy?. Global Environmental Politics 21(3): 169–186.

LOND VERSION

Marine biodiversity research is a rapidly emerging field at the intersection between ocean science and environmental studies, dominated by the natural sciences. However, growing environmental concerns and expanding human interests in diverse aspects of marine biodiversity, including its protection and sustainable use, open new avenues for social science research. This has seen the emergence of the nascent field of the marine social sciences, which are taking hold of and reshaping focus on the marine realm. So far, however, the marine social sciences have focused predominantly on coasts and the relationship between people and the oceans but less on marine biodiversity and its governance. Despite growing cross-disciplinary interest in this newly emerging field, there is let to be a forum that convenes and collates different ways of thinking about marine biodiversity governance critically and in one place. Yet, a critical perspective that problematizes the institutional, political, socio-economic, and legal frameworks within which marine biodiversity governance is taking shape is arguably much needed to avoid some of the pitfalls of how we have known and governed the ocean in the past.

This Research Topic aims to provide a forum for scholarship interested in diverse material, geographical, political, ontological and epistemological aspects of marine biodiversity governance. Our objective is to go beyond conventional views and encourage critical perspectives on how marine biodiversity is governed globally, regionally, at different policy-making levels, in various maritime zones and ocean areas, vertically, horizontally, and across boundaries. We do so by problematizing linear understandings of ocean governance (where processes and practices of governing are understood to straightforwardly result in societial and environmental change) and by furthermore troubling the expectations that social science research should predominantly ‘fix’ environmental problems by translating natural science findings into policy recommendations and readily available solutions. Thus, we aim to provide a forum for researchers interested in marine biodiversity governance beyond ‘institutional fixes’ and open up a debate on new emerging issues within the field of marine biodiversity governance that need critical social science perspectives.

This research topic seeks to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue among social scientists, including sociologists (including topics such as mobilities studies), political scientists (including perspectives from political theory, IR and development studies), anthropologists, political ecologists, human geographers, and scholars from the science and technology studies (STS) and the social and historical studies of science. We are especially interested in research addressing new emerging issues within the field of marine biodiversity governance, including critical perspectives on:

- Politics of data/data portals/digital aspects

- Infrastructure (mapping, monitoring, surveillance, energy networks)

- Negotiations/International Organisations/Agreements/Conventions

- Ontologies/Epistemologies of governance approaches (species/invasive species governance; alien ocean, microbial governance, Marine Protected Areas and Area-Based Management Tools, marine genetic resources )

- Science-policy interrelation/ Knowledge politics

- Geopolitical aspects/Controversies/Conflicts/Territoriality/Sovereignty

- Blue economy/political economy/extractive industries

- Politics of conservation /sustainable use (Nature/culture/and the 'Anthropocene')

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