Protecting endangered marine species in CITES: China and selective socialization

In the contemporary era, a few global North countries have been dominant actors in global environmental governance. However, as their approach has resulted in an imbalance of benefits and costs across regions, there has been an increasing effort to incorporate socio-economic and livelihoods aspects...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental policy & planning 2023-07, Vol.25 (4), p.355-367
Main Author: Song, Annie Young
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alternative approaches
Bidirectionality
Biodiversity
China
CITES
Decision making
Development policy
Endangered
endangered marine species
Endangered species
Environmental governance
Environmental policy
Governance
Imbalance
Norms
Policy making
Protected species
rising powers
selective socialization
Socialization
Socioeconomic factors
Sustainability
Wildlife
Wildlife conservation
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Summary:In the contemporary era, a few global North countries have been dominant actors in global environmental governance. However, as their approach has resulted in an imbalance of benefits and costs across regions, there has been an increasing effort to incorporate socio-economic and livelihoods aspects into wildlife protection strategies. Within this ongoing discussion, I explore how China, as a rising power, approached the environmental norms of protecting endangered marine species in the last decades. By tracing its policy development from 2003 to 2019, I find that China has changed its policy from challenging to reconciling and finally to reconfiguring its governance practice. Drawing upon socialization scholarship, I argue that China's policy adaptation demonstrates selective socialization, where an actor makes issue-specific decisions involving reconciling the discrepancy between international norms and domestic interests. This study has far-reaching implications on China's potential role and influence in global governance on protecting wildlife. First, its marine biodiversity policy reaches beyond existing approaches and represents values and interests with regard to marine species. Second and relatedly, China's socialization processes are bidirectional, generating alternative approaches to international norms within existing governance practice.
ISSN:1523-908X
1522-7200
DOI:10.1080/1523908X.2022.2138289