A collective “Personality Right” in favour of wildlife species

: on how we can achieve sustainable financing for biodiversity preservation

Abstract

Biomass studies from 2018 show that 96% of the mass of all mammals on Earth iscomposed of humans and their livestock, while all wild mammals together account for only 4%.70% of the mass of all birds on Earth are those domesticated, mainly chickens. We are facing abiodiversity disaster, in the context of an environmental and climate emergency.Traditional sources of conservation financing through tourism, philanthropist and donoragencies cannot keep up with the needs of local communities in order to preserve the remainingwildlife. While tourism provides much needed revenues, it has in itself a quite high carbonfootprint, and it is not a constant, reliable source in the case of travel restrictions associated witha pandemic. In recent years, there have been some new financing initiatives that couldincentivize the corporate world to contribute to wildlife conservation such as the Lion’s Sharefund and Rhino bonds, which for the time being have not delivered results at the needed scale.What we propose goes a step further. Recognizing collective “personality rights’’ to wildlife,triggering the payment of a 0.5% royalty fee on all products coming from companies that usewildlife logos, wildlife images on their products or in their advertising campaigns, would make agreat contribution towards preserving those species while having a low impact on companies’profits and on the environment.All revenues are to be collected into a worldwide fund, via subsidiary national agencies.They will be distributed following a destination principle, to the local communities most closelyrelated to the respective wildlife species used on the product, so that locals can see a direct linkbetween wildlife preservation and their welfare. This way, these often poor communities will notbe tempted to raise herds, to cultivate land used by wildlife, to support poachers or to allowtrophy hunting. Biodiversity-rich, healthy ecosystems will thus ensure that both people andwildlife can thrive.

Date of Award	7 Sept 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Armando Rocha (Supervisor) & George Dian Balan (Supervisor)