About the Authors

1Sigrid Aubert is a legal anthropologist attached to CIRAD (UMR SENS, IRD-CIRAD-UPVM 3), whose research work focuses on the production, interpretation and application of legal standards in the domain of biodiversity. Her research in the Indian Ocean has been primarily concerned with land protection and the introduction of complex notions such as “genetic resources,” “carbon credits” and “ecosystem services” into existing legal systems. She now focuses on the relations between humans and non-humans as a legal expression of the “commons”.

2Catherine Aubertin is an environmental economist and research director at IRD (UMR PALOC, IRD-MNHN/SU), whose work in Brazil and French Guiana focuses on the transposition of international environmental conventions onto the local level, and the use of economic tools for conservation purposes. She is a member of IRD’s Nagoya Committee, as well as the editorial committee of the journal Natures Science Sociétés.

3Nadia Belaïdi is a senior research fellow at the CNRS (UMR 7206 Eco-anthropologie, CNRS-MNHN/SU), specialised in international and comparative environmental law and in anthropology of law. Her work focuses on ecological public order: the recognition of nature as an essential social value. Her work is based on the exploration of the dynamics of environmental law in the diversity of its meanings. She develops a reflection on the ways of norming the relationship between Human and Nature in order to analyse the Human-Society relationship.

4Claire Chastanier is assistant deputy director in charge of collections at the General Secretariat for Heritage of France’s national museums agency, a department of the Ministry for Culture and Communication. Her work focuses on issues including export controls, combatting the illicit trafficking of cultural property, restitution and the expansion and status of public collections. She is Secretary General of the Observatory for the Art Market and Movement of Cultural Property.

5Jacques Cuisin is a research engineer, Delegate for Conservation-Restoration and associate curator of the MNHN collections in Paris. He teaches at a number of universities and specialist institutions in France and Switzerland, focusing on the technical conservation of natural history collections, different modes of scientific and artistic representation, and the place of such collections within contemporary society.

6Damien Davy is an anthropologist and ethno-ecologist, and a CNRS research engineer (UMR LEEISA, CNRS-Université de Guyane-IFREMER) based in Cayenne. For the past 6 years he has led the Oiapoque Human-Environment Observatory. His research focuses primarily on the naturalist knowledge of the Wayãpi, Teko and Palikur peoples. He is also interested in the contemporary social changes experienced by these peoples, and their relations with the French state and its institutions.

7Laure Emperaire is a botanist and IRD research director (UMR PALOC, IRD-MNHN/SU). Her research focuses on society-plant relations in the Amazon and East Timor. From 2005 to 2019 she was co-director, with Mauro Almeida (Unicamp), of the Franco-Brazilian PACTA programme: Populations, Agrobiodiversity and Associated traditional knowledge. From 2010 to 2015 she led the Environmental dynamics, resources and societies in the Amazon programme.

8Anne Etienney-de Sainte Marie, agrégée in Law and Professor at Sorbonne-Paris Nord University, is a member of the Research Institute for Attractive Law (IRDA) whose research focuses on contract law, particularly on notions of time in contracts. This line of research builds upon her doctoral thesis: La durée de la prestation, Essai sur le temps dans l’obligation, LGDJ 2008.

9Ana Euler is a forestry engineer and research at EMBRAPA (Amapá, Brésil), specialising in the conservation of the Amazon. Her work focuses on the management of natural resources, socio-biodiversity and sustainable territorial development. She previously coordinated the WWF Brazil programme for the south-west Amazon (2003-2008) and served as director of the Forestry Institute (IEF) in the State of Amapa (2011-2014).

10Tiffanie Hariwanari is an anthropologist. She previously headed the regional centre for the well-being of indigenous communities at the préfecture of French Guiana. Since 2018 she has served as ABS project leader for the Guiana Amazonian Park, developing procedures for ensuring the informed consent of indigenous American and Bushinenge peoples.

11Anthony Herrel is a CNRS research director attached to the MNHN. He is also director of the FunEvol team, UMR 7179 MECADEV. He is an associate researcher of the biology departments of the Universities of Antwerp and Ghent. His research has focused primarily on the evolution of complex integrated systems, specifically the role of constraints and compromises in the development of food chains and the spatial movements of vertebrates.

12Philippe Karpe is a legal scholar and research director at CIRAD (UMR SENS, IRD-CIRAD-UPVM 3), working to promote an approach to the law which better reflects the interests of local peoples, particularly the most vulnerable groups. His research has led to the development of an alternative model of legal thought that he calls “Round Law,” an important contribution to ongoing debates on concepts of juridicity and legal dynamics.

13Alexia Mandaoue works for the government of New Caledonia, where she is an Advisor to Mr. Didier Poidyaliwane, Member of the Government of New Caledonia in charge of several departments. Since 2018 she has worked with him and the government on matters relating to sustainable development, ecology and relations with the Customary Authority and Customary Council.

14Anne Nivart was Delegate for Acquisitions and Transfers of Collections at the MNHN, where she led the “Nagoya Unit” from 2017 to 2020. She has been involved with numerous European programmes in connection with the Dissco infrastructure – DIstributed Systems of Scientific Collections and a member of the ABS working group at CETAF – the Consortium of European Taxonomic. Since November 2020, she has been Museums Project Officer at the Ministry for Research, High Education and Innovation.

15Guillaume Odonne is a CNRS research coordinator (UMR LEEISA, CNRS-Université de Guyane-IFREMER) and leader of the EthnYC team. Within the broader field of ethnobiology, his work explores the multifarious connections between local medicine, biodiversity and perception of the environment in a rapidly-changing Amazonian context.

16Loïc Peyen is a lecturer in public law at the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole. He has published numerous works on environmental law, including a thesis on biopiracy: Droit et biopiraterie. Contribution à l’étude du partage des ressources naturelles, LGDJ, 2018. 

17Jean-Louis Pham is a geneticist and IRD’s “Nagoya Scientific Officer.” His research focuses on the diversity and conservation of cultivated plants (UMR DIADE, IRD-CIRAD-CNRS-UM). He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Biodiversity Research Foundation, the Plant Genetic Resources division of the Permanent Technical Committee for the Selection of Cultivated Plants (CTPS) and the “Collections” expert committee at the Ministry for Research.

18Raphaëlle Rinaldo holds a doctorate in Wood Sciences and served as the Scientific Director of the Guiana Amazonian Park from 2012 until 2019. She is also one of the leading experts on ABS in French Guiana. Keenly aware of the political and societal stakes of ABS, and with a talent for intercultural mediation, she has succeeded in establishing a dialogue between the various Guianese stakeholders with an interest in genetic resources.

19Alexis Tiouka is a legal scholar and member of the Expert Group on Human Rights and the Rights of Indigenous People. He has spent decades studying the status of indigenous peoples in French Guiana, arguing for decolonisation and the reconstruction of a “living community” in Guiana based upon a “Foundation Pact” and the concept of “indigenous citizenship.”