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Bolster legal boundaries to stay within planetary boundaries

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, Article number: 0086 (2017) Cite this article

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Environmental laws are binding and enforceable tools that constrain human impacts on the environment, but how effective are they at keeping humanity away from critical planetary boundaries?

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Figure 1: Feedbacks between human activities (red area) and legal boundaries (yellow bands) relative to planetary boundaries (Earth).

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Acknowledgements

G.C., Y.E. and J.V.L.B. acknowledge the support of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to the research program Claws & Laws (www.clawsandlaws.eu). A.T. acknowledges the support of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research to the research program Ius Carnivoris (www.tilburguniversity.edu/iuscarnivoris/).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guillaume Chapron is in the Department of Ecology, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 73091 Riddarhyttan, Sweden.,

    Guillaume Chapron

  2. Yaffa Epstein is in the Department of Law, Uppsala University, Box 512, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden.,

    Yaffa Epstein

  3. Arie Trouwborst is in the Department of European and International Law, Tilburg University, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands.,

    Arie Trouwborst

  4. José Vicente López-Bao is in the Research Unit of Biodiversity (UO/CSIC/PA), Oviedo University, 33600 Mieres, Spain.,

    José Vicente López-Bao

Authors
  1. Guillaume Chapron
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  2. Yaffa Epstein
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  4. José Vicente López-Bao
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Contributions

G.C. designed the study. G.C. and Y.E. collected and analysed data. G.C., Y.E., A.T. and J.V.L.B. jointly wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guillaume Chapron.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chapron, G., Epstein, Y., Trouwborst, A. et al. Bolster legal boundaries to stay within planetary boundaries. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 0086 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0086

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