진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

• • The structure you will be joining

iEES Paris studies how organisms respond to their environment (adaptation, evolution) as well as the structure, functioning, and evolution of terrestrial ecological systems across all temporal and spatial scales, using a wide variety of models. The laboratory possesses broad expertise in ecology in the broadest sense (including ecophysiology, ethology, evolutionary sciences, animal and plant biology, water and soil sciences, etc.), which enables it to employ a very broad range of approaches (theoretical, descriptive, experimental), from the molecular level to the watershed, from modeling to in situ experiments, and to analyze complex processes across highly variable time scales, in both the Global North and the Global South.

The institute aims to contribute to the development of predictive ecology, which will advance our understanding of living organisms and enable us to better manage biological resources and ecosystems in the context of global change, as well as to innovate in their management within a framework of sustainable development (urban ecology, agroecology, ecological engineering (green roofs, technosols, biocontrol, etc.). The institute also conducts interdisciplinary research on the interactions between biodiversity and human societies in relation to biodiversity governance, economics, sociology, and more. 

• • An attractive mission

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted by 193 countries in 2022, sets out a vision for 2050 that incorporates the convention’s three objectives (conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing) as well as capacity building, and 23 very concrete goals (targets), including the protection of 30% of land and marine areas, the restoration of 30% of degraded land and seas, and a 50% reduction in the toxic effects of pesticides and other biocidal chemicals.

The primary objective of the postdoctoral fellowship will be to analyze how the Global Framework is translated, adapted, and implemented in various national contexts, by assessing the gaps between stated ambitions and actual implementation capacities. The second objective will be to assess, in a specific country in the Global South, the effects of the Global Framework’s implementation, in relation to how different countries apply it, on their biodiversity, ecosystems, and the services these provide to their inhabitants. All of these analyses are essential for identifying the conditions necessary for a fairer, more realistic, and more effective implementation of the Global Framework, particularly in countries in the Global South

We are already making the following assumptions: (1) The apparent success of the Global Framework’s implementation will depend less on the formal commitments made by states than on their varying capacities to translate those commitments into policies, finance them, document them, and ensure their sustainability. (2) The most visible, quantifiable, and internationally valued targets—particularly those related to protected areas—will progress more rapidly than targets that are more structurally or politically costly, such as reforming harmful subsidies, transforming production methods, or incorporating local ecological knowledge. (3) The global ecological benefits of the Global Framework and its social or economic costs will not be distributed equally across countries, and this asymmetry may, in certain contexts, fuel forms of environmental injustice between countries and within countries themselves.

The work will focus on two complementary tasks: a comparative analysis of the reports submitted by the signatory countries to the global framework (reporting) and a detailed case study of a country in the Global South.

The comparative analysis of official documents produced under the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as national strategies and action plans, will allow us to examine how targets are implemented in different contexts and to develop a framework for interpreting the reported trajectories. The work will be based on a comparative typology of signatory countries.

Following an initial phase of cross-country comparison, the postdoc will focus on a country in the Global South, to be selected. The work will initially utilize available data on the country but will also require field research—through surveys of public institutions responsible for implementing the global framework and corresponding reporting—to examine how this country has adopted and implemented the Global Framework. To assess how this country’s trajectory toward the various targets of the Global Framework affects the country, its inhabitants, their biodiversity, their ecosystems, and the ecosystem services they provide, it will be necessary to draw on the literature and available external databases.

The postdoctoral position will be jointly supervised by Sébastien Barot (iEES-Paris), Stéphanie Carrière (SENS), and Irene Teixidor-Toneu (IMBE). Depending on disciplinary needs, others will participate, in particular researchers from the relevant Southern country and researchers from the IRD Biodiversity Knowledge Community.