CAPÍTULO ÚNICO

Given the breadth of documents created during the negotiations and development of IEL, I limited my document selection to the preparatory reports and adopted outcome texts of eight environmental regimes.78 _{I collected these documents through specialist online}

databases, such as UNBISnet (the United Nations Bibliographic Information System), websites of environmental secretariats (such as the Ozone Secretariat, the UNFCCC, and the Biodiversity Secretariat), the Ecolex database (operated by the FAO, IUCN and UNEP), and the United Nations Treaty Collection. I analysed the complete document, excluding those annexes or appendices that were lists of documents or numerical in content. Each document was broken into individual paragraphs or articles and sub-articles. These were each given a separate row in Microsoft Excel.

In order to analyse these documents through an ecofeminist framework, I adopted an iterative approach. In doing so, I aimed to reflexively engage with the data in a way that was systematic but not rigid.79 _{I fully expected to be guided by topics, categories or variables}

throughout the study, but also allowed others to emerge through the study. This approach to content analysis allows data to be coded conceptually, meaning it can be relevant for several purposes.

Therefore, I first read the documents without any predefined or rigid categories that defined what was relevant.80 _{However, my wider reading and feminist theoretical perspective}

gave me tools to use in my observation and analysis of the topics and themes that were raised in the documents. This repeated and extensive engagement with the texts and a holistic overview of the content itself meant that I could identify specific categories emerging in the content of the data. In particular, categories such as participation, the need to integrate non-environmental considerations into environmental documents, and the representation of the environment itself became emerging categories. I would then re- examine several previous documents from the same environmental regime and other environmental regimes to examine and compare how these categories are treated in the previous documents. Moving reflexively between data collection, analysis, and reconceptualisation of the categories, themes, and concepts increased my understanding of the relevance of formats, sources, and emphasis within the texts.81

With this in mind, I undertook the following steps in my analysis of the documents. I first read the documents many times over. This gave me a repeated and extensive

78 _{See Appendix 2.}

79 _{Altheide, 'Ethnographic Content Analysis', 68; Colleen Connolly-Ahern and Antoni Castells i Talens, ‘The Role}

of Indigenous Peoples in Guatemalan Political Advertisements: An Ethnographic Content Analysis’ (2010) 3(3) Communication, Culture & Critique 310, 321.

80 _{This approach is adapted from the method used by Altheide, 'Ethnographic Content Analysis' and Connolly-}

Ahern and Castells i Talens, 'The Role of Indigenous Peoples'.

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engagement with the text, as well as a holistic overview of the content in each regime and in each environmental area. This meant I could recognise a number of different categories, themes, and ways in which the international community establishes connections between environment and other domains, such as economy, community, and science. While reading the documents repeatedly, I made notes on the topic, choice of words, tone used, and the omissions or silences within the text. I would then look back to previous regimes and compare and contrast the focus, topic, tone, words, and silences with the documents.

During my early analysis of the documents I identified three specific categories that shaped the research question and overall structure of this thesis. The categories of participation, integration of non-environmental considerations, and the representation of the environment itself were revealed during the initial analysis as intersecting and mutually supportive. These were used as the key foci for the substantial analytical chapters because they enabled me to engage with different elements within the environmental documents while also examining the ways in which the securitisation of the environment may have altered international environmental law.

Second, I read the documents through the different lenses of the ecofeminist framework. During this reading, I critiqued the tone, content, omissions, and language against the goals included within the ecofeminist ethic. I would look below the text to consider the underlying beliefs, values and attitudes that were contained in the text and considered these against the context in which the document was made and the purpose for which the document was created.

When undertaking this reading, I would ‘measure’ the provisions against those previously analysed and against the goals of an ecofeminist ethic. In doing so, I was able to ‘categorise’ the texts into those that reflected greater elements of an ecofeminist ethic and those that reflected fewer elements of such an ethic. Throughout this process I would refer back to the discussion of ecofeminism undertaken in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of this thesis, and to the writings of the ecofeminists such as Karen Warren, Val Plumwood, and Mary Mellor.82 _{This way I engaged in reflexive analysis of the documents both through the}

analytical framework, and also in the way that I read the documents, informed by my understanding of ecofeminism. In doing so, I hoped to be able to reveal the extent to which the documents contained provisions that suggested that the securitisation of the environment had altered the perception of the environment, when read through an ecofeminist framework.

82 _{Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature; Mellor, Feminism & Ecology; Warren, Ecofeminist}

Philosophy; Mellor, 'Feminism and Environmental Ethics'; Plumwood, Environmental Culture; Mary Mellor,

‘Ecofeminist Political Economy and the Politics of Money’ in Ariel Salleh (ed), Eco-Sufficiency and Global Justice (Pluto Press 2009).

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This section has explained the way in which I used the analytical framework during the content analysis of the environmental documents. I suggested that there were a number of benefits of using this research method and approach. First, this approach to analysis takes into account the interconnections between the different values and features of ecofeminist theory. Second, it is an iterative and reflexive method, which allows categorisations to emerge from the analysis itself. Third, it allows interconnections between issue areas, regimes, and areas to be revealed during the process of analysis. These three benefits indicate that the process of analysis outlined below offers an original approach towards the examination of IEL. I will reflect on this in the conclusion of my thesis and evaluate the successes and limitations of this approach and the implications for my findings.

4. C

This chapter has addressed the methodological approach and method used in this research project. This research was designed to undertake qualitative, feminist content analysis, through an ecofeminist analytical framework, of preparatory documents and adopted outcome texts from eight international environmental regimes. The role of theory in this research was informed by feminism in general, and by ecofeminism specifically, both of which argue that theory is central to the research. Therefore, I adopted an iterative approach in this research by mediating my analysis of the data through an ecofeminist lens.

While Chapters 1-2 focused on literature that I read prior to conducting my content analysis of the documents, I referred to Chapter 3 throughout the analysis of the documents and in my discussion of the findings in Chapters 5-7. These chapters centre on the data generated through my analysis of the documents. I have structured the analysis and discussion along three distinct categorisations that were revealed during the analytical process: Participation (Chapter 5); integration (Chapter 6); and representation (Chapter 7). As noted in the introduction (Chapter 1), each of these chapters have distinct questions that are asked as a way to guide the analysis undertaken.83 _{These questions were developed}

during the initial reading of the documents, and helped shape discussion of the findings from the content analysis.

The first analytical chapter (Chapter 5) draws on findings relating to the participation by NSAs in the creation and subsequent implementation of the obligations contained in the outcome texts. In this chapter, I suggest that the emerging tension – as revealed through the analysis – between increased participation as a procedural element and the growing securitisation of environmental issues, suggests that the type of justifications for which states seek to protect the environment have altered.

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In Chapter 6, I discuss the findings that relate to the justifications for which the international community protects the environment. Chapter 7 turns to reflect on the different perceptions of the environment itself, as revealed in the texts of the agreement. I decided to order these chapters in this way because who participates in the development of international law informs the types of issues and concerns that is included in the legal text. The types of issues included in the text can, in turn, inform the perceptions of the environment that are included in the document. Further, the hierarchy in which other international issues are included in these legal texts can also reveal the different perceptions of the environment included in these texts.

Finally, Chapter 8 provides some reflections on, and implications of, the research and focuses on the strengths, drawbacks and limitations of the use of an ecofeminist analytical framework to undertake feminist content analysis. The thesis concludes by considering the extent to which my analysis has revealed a growing trend in IEL away from focusing on the environment as a collective responsibility and concern, towards the protection and regulation of the commons based on current and future economic development.

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5. The Participation by States and NSAs in the Development