The Governmentality of Biodiversity in the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy

Abstract

In recent years, the global loss of biodiversity has been an increasing concern for many governments around the planet. Solving this problem requires working together and reforming existing policy frameworks. This paper  explores how biodiversity is governed under the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy. Drawing upon Foucault’s governmentality concept the paper advances its own concept “governmentality of biodiversity”. The author identifies three overall arguments for preserving biodiversity that take their basis in  self-centered values, de-centered values, or intrinsic values. The author analyzes and determines how the governmentality of biodiversity on the basis of the knowledge and rationality embedded in de-centered and intrinsic values promotes new goals for governing the Common Fisheries Policy. It is  concluded that in the different mechanisms of power, the governmentality of biodiversity yields to the rationality of power exercised by member states in the EU.