COVID-19 has shed light on humanity's interconnectedness with nature. The protection of biodiversity is essential to prevent future pandemics and protect human health. With rising deforestation levels, the Amazon basin is a centre stage in this debate. Lacking a regional strategy to protect the rainforest, Amazon countries are failing to protect their rich biodiversity. The transboundary effects of Amazonia's destruction are often overlooked. Simultaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic shows how cooperation between states is more critical than ever. This article examines how Amazon countries have jointly addressed the pandemic, demonstrating the effectiveness of regional agreements and their role in pandemic prevention. The right to a healthy environment is central to this investigation, given the role of forests and biodiversity in preventing zoonotic diseases. This article thus asks: What are the duties of States to protect the environment and indigenous communities during COVID-19 and potentially future pandemics? In this context, it considers the developing jurisprudence of the Inter-American System of Human Rights and its potential effects on regional and national implementation of environmental obligations.

Air pollution is a major global environmental problem, with various adverse effects on health and the environment. This introductory article provides an overview of related global and regional legal instruments. The article evaluates the legal landscape in terms of its coverage, geographic scope and effectiveness, and concludes that the legal measures currently in place fall far short of providing an adequate response to the problem of air pollution. Thus, there is a clear need to strengthen global and regional cooperation to improve air quality. Such cooperation is likely to take non-binding and flexible forms and involve both wider participation among States and broader engagement of various stakeholders. The informal character of cooperation also makes it possible to experiment with new governance approaches that are difficult to implement within the context of traditional international law.

No systematic study discusses the evolution of fair and equitable benefit-sharing across various areas of international law (environment, human rights, oceans), as well as at different levels of regulation (regional and national laws and guidelines, private law contracts, transboundary codes of conduct, customary laws of indigenous peoples and local communities). This article explores the usefulness of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of norm diffusion for understanding how and why fair and equitable benefit-sharing is articulated in different sites. The article discusses mechanisms, actors and frames in norm diffusion, drawing on literature from sociology, international relations and law. The article uncovers underlying similarities in scholarship on norm diffusion across the disciplines considered. It also reflects on the value of an interdisciplinary approach that encourages legal scholars to consider the implications of power structures in the diffusion of law, while the nuances of legal knowledge may lead other social scientists to revisit accepted findings on norm diffusion. These findings appear particularly useful for informing an assessment of the potential of fair and equitable benefit-sharing to promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in a fair and equitable manner in the face of power asymmetries.