Earth's most diverse biological regions are being destroyed with little or no opposition, but John Kunich, an associate professor of law at Roger Williams University Law School, hopes to have some impact in changing this.

Kunich recently published an article in the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, entitled "Fiddling Around While the Hotspots Burn Out." The "hotspots" in question are 25 exceptionally diverse tropical regions that are being pillaged for their rich natural resources. Scattered about the globe with a collective land area roughly the combined size of Alaska and Texas, they contain more than 60 percent of the planet's biodiversity.

One of the major obstacles to preservation is that many hotspots are situated in developing countries, where, in the short term, the land is more valuable for agriculture and development. As Kunich says, "When the question comes down to jobs versus rain forests, guess who wins?" Even when preventive measures are adopted, enforcement remains difficult.

So far, there have been many answers, but few solutions, in the struggle to protect hotspots. Aside from moderate victories in Costa Rica and New Zealand, legal protection is woefully ineffective. "Paper laws are no match for paper money," Kunich writes in his article. Governments and individuals that rely on hotspots as a cheap and easy way of generating income will be hard-pressed to change their ways without significant external motivation.

Still, the professor is hardly alone in insisting that the potential benefits of rainforests far outweigh the difficulties in protecting them. Scientists estimate some 30 million species are yet to be discovered in such regions. Any one of these species may hold the key to numerous practical human innovations. "There may be uses that will apply to some possible future disease, illness, or environmental condition that we don't even have now," Kunich says. The key is to save all the puzzle pieces so that they're around when we do need them."

In his mind a real and lasting solution involves targeting nations that are home to hotspots and providing incentives for people to stop devastating the areas. Such a system would avoid threats to a nation's sovereignty. "It's more in the way of positive inducements and rewards for the nations that do help identify and protect their resources," Kunich says. Inducements would range from money to technological and scientific resources allotted to the most deserving nations.

The next step is to make the general populace aware of these resources and their perilous situation, and by doing so, force lawmakers to focus more attention on the issue. Kunich, who is continuing his research, says, "There's no one out there carrying the banner for the legal system and what role the law can play in safeguarding the world's biodiversity. So that's what I'm trying to do."

Issue Date: February 15 - 21, 2002