ABSTRACT
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a wide-ranging, ambitious, and deeply political convention. A single volume can hardly cover all its dimensions. Indeed its very scope has been seen as a weakness (e.g. Werksman, 1997). Under such circumstances, states naturally tend to favour objectives that accord better with their national priorities, the power of specific constituencies, or their own interpretation of what constitutes the core of the Convention, with the danger that implementation will be at variable speeds and asynchronic. The G-77 generally considers the three basic goals of the Convention to be linked, which is what gives the CBD its novel character in their eyes. Other Parties and stakeholders, however, would like to delink them. Activities are then promoted and supported in order to facilitate what is deemed “more feasible” in the short term, putting other issues on the back-bumer and leading sometimes to an international dialogue of the deaf.
