The author highlights that in order to achieve SDGs, managers and policy-makers need to recognize and navigate the role of humans in ecosystems and the complexity and uncertainty inherent in ecological systems. In the last decade, she notes, the Parties to CITES have increasingly adopted strategies that are consistent with these needs by putting more emphasis on capacity-building for science-based adaptive management, monitoring and information gathering, and the needs of local communities. . She argues that these developments in CITES have the potential to turn an apparently narrow wildlife trade treaty into an institution that can facilitate the achievement of SDGs, including conservation goals, by regulating and monitoring trade in wild species of fauna and flora. She analyzes these developments in CITES and addresses what more can be done to promote the SDGs through CITES.

This volume focuses on the legal aspects of implementing the CITES to achieve the world’s SDGs. It provides a serious contribution to the current academic scholarly debates on the protection of listed species, by analysing key issues under the CITES that affect the design and implementation of national regulatory regimes, as well as existing policies and laws on CITES-listed species as they relate to sustainable development objectives of the country. It also examines the practical, legal, political and economic problems encountered in the attempt to implement these regulations in contemporary settings. It considers, in particular, how regulations which implement CITES can also foster sustainable development in developing countries.

The author highlights that trade in endangered species is one of the most pernicious forms of transnational environmental crime, involving several layers of participants and facilitated by systemic corruption. The CITES permits states to take pre-emptory actions to curtail this trade, yet it persists. The intervention of INTERPOL in the trade reflects the difficulties states experience in CITES enforcement, but the author questions whether it is an effective approach to this transnational environmental crime. He summarizes, analyzes and evaluates the current role of INTERPOL’s Project Predator (focused on Asian large cats) and Project Wisdom (focused on elephants and rhinoceros), two ongoing efforts to curb illegal wildlife trade. While there are many challenges to the success of these projects, the author suggests these are a necessary spoke in the evolving wheel of global environmental governance.

The authors examine two case studies: the first on the legal and regulated sustainable use of the markhor in Pakistan, facilitated by CITES Resolution 10.15 (Rev. CoP14) on “Establishment of quotas for markhor hunting trophies”, which establishes a quota of 12 trophies for export from Pakistan; and the other on the emerging framework for the legal and sustainable use of markhor in Tajikistan, which at the time of writing was yet to become a member of CITES. They argue why CITES membership, and ratification of CITES by Tajikistan in the case at hand, can lead to an improved framework for the sustainable of huntable species, one that leads to greater transparency in the flow of funds and greater support for community-based conservation models.

The author begins by noting that Brazil ranks in second place when it comes to the number of wildlife species under threat. The main causes of the decline in wildlife populations in Brazil are: loss/reduction of habitat; increased human occupation; economic exploitation of forest and wetland areas; wildlife trafficking; and hunting. The 1988 Constitution of Brazil establishes the obligation of the Federal government to enact environmental criminal legislation. The Federal Law n. 9.605/1998 (also known as the Environmental Criminal Law) used command-and-control as an attempt to halt environmental crimes. The author argues that the majority of the environmental crimes described in this law allows for execution of agreements between prosecutor and the violator to minimize penalty and avoid incarceration

Introduction

Chapters 4, 5 and 6 exposed the inequalities and varying risks of discrimination based on class and social background which result from an employer's use of technology and new practices. Chapter 4 examined an employer's use of social media for cybervetting, job advertising and terminating an employee's employment. Chapter 5 examined an employer's use of algorithms and AI as recruitment tools, focusing on the use of CRS, AVI and gamification. Chapter 6 examined platform work and the postpandemic shift to remote and hybrid work. Whilst these practices may result with or worsen classism and related problems in modern workplaces, this chapter is solutions focused and it proposes a way forward for employers who may wish to address or prevent these problems to make their workplaces fairer and more equitable.

This chapter therefore proposes a suite of cascading practices which could be utilized by employers to help prevent some of these problems from arising in recruitment and employment. There may be ways to minimize, or eliminate entirely, these problems and yet still achieve the aims or goals of some of the practices.

I. Re-imagining the use and role of algorithms, AI and social media in recruitment

Whilst certain practices, such as the use of cybervetting, CRS and AI ‘hiretech’, create inequalities and risks of class and social background discrimination, there are important reasons for their use.

In relation to cybervetting, the practice may be used to help identify a ‘bad hire’ based on social media data. Employers should, however, reconsider whether cybervetting actually achieves these goals. Zhang et al write:

Introduction

Advances in technology and the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in 2020 have significantly changed the way people work. The internet and applications (‘apps’) on smart devices (such as phones and tablets) now allow people to freelance directly with clients in what has been described as the ‘gig economy’. People now have access to food delivery apps such as Menulog and Deliveroo as well as ride-hailing apps such as Uber, and these are now used as part of the normal lives of many people. COVID-19 has also substantially disrupted the way many people work. In an effort to contain the outbreak of the virus, a number of governments imposed lockdowns which resulted with employees making a mass migration from working in offices to working from home. Even after lockdowns were lifted, this trend towards homeworking and remote working appears to remain popular and many employees now engage in hybrid working (which involves splitting the working week between the office and the home or another remote location).

The rise of the gig economy and the post-pandemic shift to remote working, whilst giving convenience to many, also, for reasons that will be explained in this chapter, disadvantages certain workers and makes other groups of workers vulnerable to exploitation. This chapter will focus on examining both of these developments, to expose how they create risks of discrimination based on class and/or factors reflective of social background.

Part I will examine platform work in the gig economy, to highlight how digital technology is used to fuel the exploitation and underpayment of certain socially and economically vulnerable migrant workers. This part of the chapter will then apply the recent decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in Bécancour to illuminate how the Quebec Charter's prohibition on ‘social condition’ discrimination may have particular applications in underpayment and wage theft cases. It will also compare this with the legal framework in Australia to show that whilst the decision in Foot & Thai Massage highlights the potential of the FW Act's prohibition on adverse action based on ‘social origin’ to have similar applications, the law in Australia needs reform before it may be able to achieve this.

Part II will examine the post-pandemic shift to remote working and homeworking, to show how it has potential to disadvantage workers at the convergence of class, social background, and other attributes.