Dr Beatriz Garcia

Affiliations

• Regional Center of Expertise, Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD)
• Abu Dhabi Environmental Research Network
• Academy of Environmental Law, International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• Review Board Member for the 2021 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Environmental Courts and Tribunals (ECT) 2016 Guideline for Policymakers (2021).
• Brazilian Centre for Mediation and Arbitration (CEBRAMAR)

PhD in

• International Law

Awards

• Shortlisted Alternative Dispute Resolution Academic of the Year, Australian Disputes Centre (2021)
• Post-doctoral scholarship, Swiss Foundation Ernst and Lucie Schmidheiny.
• PhD scholarship, Swiss Foundation Ernst and Lucie Schmidheiny.
• MA scholarship, Swiss Foundation Hans Wilsdorf.

Research Interests

Beatriz Garcia holds a degree in Law from the University of Brasilia (Brazil) and a Ph.D. in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva (Switzerland). Her research interests include environmental and climate change law, forest conservation and carbon markets, Indigenous people's rights, decarbonization in hard-to-abate sectors such as shipping, and transboundary pollution, particularly marine plastic pollution.

Beatriz has published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Environmental Law, Ecosystem Services, and the Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law. She has also contributed book chapters to Cambridge and Oxford University Presses and is the author of the book "The Amazon from an International Law Perspective," published by Cambridge University Press.

Prior to her academic career, Beatriz worked in the Climate Change and Sustainable Development branch of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, where she managed climate and biotrade projects. She also served as a project manager for Forests Alive Carbon & Climate Solutions, a Sydney-based company specializing in forest carbon projects. Additionally, Beatriz provides consultancy to government agencies, law firms, and international organizations, including the Climate and Land Use Alliance, German Technical Cooperation, the Earth Council Geneva, British Petroleum, and various United Nations agencies, such as UNCTAD, UNDP, UNEP and UNESCO.

Research Collaborations Grants & Research Projects

Project: Tropical Primary Forests and Climate Change Research Project
Funder: Griffith University (Australia) through Anonymous Donor
Date: January 2018 – December 2021

Project: The Shipping Sector and GHG Emissions: The Initial Strategy for a Zero-Carbon Pathway
Funder: Western Sydney University (Australia), Women’s Research Fellowship
Date: November 2018 – November 2019

Project: Comparative Law Study on the Implementation of Biosphere Reserve Zonation in the Asia Pacific Region with Identification of Key Legal Aspects
Funder: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Date: November 2017 – July 2018

Project Title: Climate Change Additionality and Overseas Development Assistance Post-Copenhagen
Funder: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Date: November 2015

Project: E-Learning Course: Integrating REDD+ Projects into BioTrade Strategies
Funder: Trade and Development Division (UNCTAD)
Date: December 2014

Project: Local Governance, Anti-corruption and REDD+ in Latin America and the Caribbean: Exploring Synergies to Strengthen Transparency and Accountability
Funder: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Date: September 2011

Training, Conferences & Workshops

• Panelist, Panel: Addressing ocean pressures: Tackling plastic and pollution in all forms MENA Oceans, Highlighting Regional Perspectives and Achievements in the Lead up to the UN Ocean Conference 2025, Dubai, 10 June 2024.
• Speaker, Renewables Talk for IRENA Permanent Representatives and sixth edition of the Women in Diplomacy, Abu Dhabi, 12 June 2024
• Discussant, Workshop on Climate Change Litigation in Brazil (online), 12 April 2024.
• Guest Speaker, COP-28 Key Takeaways, Asia Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL), Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, January 2024.
• Guest Speaker, Climate Law: Challenges and Achievements, A Research Workshop on the Climate Crisis & the Law, New York University Abu Dhabi, 5 December 2023.
• Trainer, Meeting on Climate and REDD+ Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon, 24- 27 January 2023, Manaus (Brazil).
• Trainer, Workshop on Climate Change, Forests and Carbon Financing for Forest People, 10-11 January 2023, Brasilia (Brazil).
• Guest Speaker, COP-27 Key Takeaways, Asia Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL), Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, December 2022.
• Carbon Projects in Indigenous Territories, Protected Forest Association, Kabu Institute and Raoni Institute, funded by International Conservation Fund of Canada, Brasilia, 12-16 December 2022.
• Trainer, Safeguards and REDD+ in the Ethnic region of Altamira, Para’ organised by the Network of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil and the Indigenous Peoples Federation of Para, held in Altamira, Para (Brazilian Amazon), from 19-19 October 2022.
• Trainer, ‘REDD+ in the Context of Indigenous Territories’, organised by the Protected Forest Association, held in Brasilia (Brazil), from 3-5 August 2022.
• Guest Speaker, Firechat COP-26 Unmasked, Asia Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL), Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, November 2021.
• 17th Annual Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Kuala Lumpur, August 2019.
• Tropical Primary Forests and Climate Change Research Project, Annual Symposium, Woods Hole Research Centre, Falmouth, USA, March 2019.
• Tropical Primary Forests and Climate Change Research Project, Annual Symposium, Springbrook, Australia, March 2018
• 15th Annual Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, Philippines, August 2017.
• 17th Conference of the Parties of the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Durban, South Africa, November-December 2011

Publications Books

• “The Amazon from an International Law Perspective” (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Book Chapters

• ‘The Promise of Environmental Cooperation in Latin America,’ Latin American International Law (Oxford University Press), forthcoming.
• ‘Regional Environmental Law and Policy,’ Oxford Handbook on International Law and the Americas (Oxford University Press, 2024), with R. Pereira.
• ‘Carbon Trading as a Climate Mitigation Tool’ in S. Alam, J. Razzaque, and J. Bhuiyan (eds), International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability (Routledge, 2018).
• ‘Contemporary Marine Environmental Disputes’ in D. Hassan and Md Saiful Karim (eds), International Marine Environmental Law and Policy (Routledge, 2018), with D. Hassan.

Journal Articles

• ‘Large-scale Forest protection: The successful Case of the Kayapo People in the Brazilian Amazon’ (2023) (under review), with E. Morgan, M. Aruch, I. Richwin Ferreira, A. Jerozolimski, B. Mackey, S. Hugh
• ‘The Promise of Environmental Cooperation in Latin America: Building Deforestation- Free Supply Chains,’ American Journal of International Law Unbound, Vol. 116, 2022, with L. Pauwels.
• ‘Basket of Benefits Approach: Accounting for Multiple Forest Ecosystem Services’ (2022) Ecosystem Services, vol. 55, pp. 1-21, with E. Morgan et al.
• ‘REDD+ and Forest Protection on Indigenous Lands in the Amazon’ (2021) Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law, Special Issue on the Amazon Rainforest’, pp 1-13, with L. Rimmer, L. Canal Vieira and B. Mackey.
• ‘Beyond Culture: Reimagining the Adjudication of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in International Law’ (2021) Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, pp 127-169, with L. Lixinski.
• ‘Net zero for the international shipping sector? An analysis of the implementation and regulatory challenges of the IMO Strategy on Reduction of the GHG Emissions (2020) Journal of Environmental Law, pp 1-28, with A. Foerster and J. Lin.
• ‘Complying with Australia’s Illegal Logging Laws: Tough Reality after a Soft Start? Lessons from the United States and the European Union’ (2019) Asia-Pacific Journal of Environmental Law, vol 22, no 1, pp 7 – 26, with J. Verschuuren.
• ‘Marine Plastic Pollution in Asia: All Hands on Deck!’ (2019) Chinese Journal of Environmental Law, vol. 3, no 1, pp 11 – 46, with F. Meng and J. Lin.
• 'Exercising a Community of Interests: A Comparison between the Mekong and the Amazon Legal Regimes' (2009) Hong Kong Law Journal, vol 39, no 2, pp 421 - 456.

Edited Collection

• ‘Amazon Rainforest,’ Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law, co-edited with Ricardo Pereira, 2021.

Other Publications

• ‘The Shipping Sector is Finally on Board in the Fight against Climate Change’ The Conversation, 18 April 2018, with J. Lin.
• ‘Australia might Water Down Illegal Logging Laws – Here’s Why it’s a Bad Idea’ The Conversation, 8 November 2017.
• ‘The World Protests as the Amazon is Opened to Mining’ The Conversation, 29 August 2017. The piece has been selected to be published in the Western Sydney University Theme Champions, 2017.

Reports

• Collective-Use Areas and the Voluntary Carbon Market in the Brazilian Amazon: A Rights-Based Approach’, co-authored, with the Brazilian Law firm Hernandez Lerner & Miranda, funded by the Climate and Land Use Alliance, 2023 URL
• ‘Comparative Law Study on the Implementation of Biosphere Reserve Zonation in the Asia Pacific Region with Identification of Key Legal Aspects’ (UNESCO), 2018.
• 'Training Manual on Developing Joint BioTrade and REDD+ Projects' (UNCTAD), 2016.
• ‘Climate Change Additionality and Overseas Development Assistance Post- Copenhagen’ (UNCTAD), 2015.
• 'Local Governance, Anti-corruption and REDD+ in Latin America and the Caribbean: Exploring Synergies to Strengthen Transparency and Accountability' (UNDP), 2011.

Media

• Interviewed and cited by The Economist in 2019 for their Blue Piece Index 2019.
• Interview with DW (Deutsche Welle) (8 May 2023), Radio interview on Australia’s illegal logging legislation with radio program Think: Sustainability, on 16 November 2017; Radio interview on the Amazon forest and mining, with ABC Radio Brisbane, 7 September 2017, and FM 107.3 Tuesday Daily, on 29 August 2017; Radio interview on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulation on sulphur emissions, with ABC Radio Brisbane, on 12 August 2019; Radio interview on the IMO Strategy on Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships, with ABC Radio Brisbane, on 27 September 2019.

Teaching

• International Environmental Law
• Environmental Rights & Access to Justice in the Global South
• Energy Transition: Law & Policy
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Fundamentals of Common Law