Where are we now with global forest regulation and governance? Insights from a 'Global Public Goods' Perspective

Abstract

Even if an encouraging tendency has recently been observed towards a reduction in the rates of global deforestation, the extent and quality of forests continue to decline in many regions of the world, with alarming consequences on the functioning of global hydrological cycles, the conservation of the world's biological diversity, and the fight against climate change. Against this background, the aim of the present article is to investigate the weaknesses of, and the areas for improvement in, the current framework of global forest governance, through an analysis conducted using the lens of the concept of «global public goods» as transposed into, and shaped by, two competing theoretical approaches that have been recently advanced by legal scholarship to further the current global governance architecture: Global Administrative Law and Cosmopolitanism