|
SSWG HOME
ABOUT US
ACTIVITIES
RESOURCES
TOOLS - Catalog
GET INVOLVED
CONTACT SSWG 
Suggested Links:
|
|
Legal Analysis
Tracy Dobson, J.D.
Professor, Fisheries & Wildlife
Michigan State University
Law has been used throughout human history to organize, maintain order, and otherwise shape human behavior through incentives and disincentives. Binding law is used at all levels of human governance and takes a variety of forms. In the U.S. system, for example, laws flow through a set of constitutionally created systems. The constitution (federal or state) establishes proper subjects and processes for law making and designates which governmental actors possess law making authority.
In recent decades, conservation has increasingly become the subject of lawmaking. Conservation efforts must take place within a local legal and political context. They must be authorized, and to endure, appropriate legal structures and laws are often important program supports. From environmental protection provisions in newer federal constitutions (e.g., India) to administrative rules mandating fisheries co-management in Malawi, environmental protection is a subject of concern and action.
Ordinances are created at the local levels. Legislative bodies at state and national levels create law through the enactment of statutes. In the U.S., the Endangered Species Act is an example of law that is directly pertinent to conservation biology. Regulatory agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also have lawmaking power as delegated by Congress to implement specified statutory provisions. Laws are upheld and enforced by courts (and sometimes by regulatory agencies). Courts also further the development of the original Anglo-American system of common law, which has been adopted in a number of colonized countries. Laws may be amended or repealed over time. When working in other countries, it is important to investigate local lawmaking processes.
International law, law that involves more than one country, may impact conservation through the creation of treaties (also know as “conventions”). These typically express the goals of signatory nations on a topic, but they are non-binding and will be adhered to at the discretion of the signatories. Of particular interest to conservation practitioners, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) seeks to stem the tide of increasing species extinctions through trade limits. The more recent Convention on Biological Diversity and Cartagena Protocol take different approaches. Small support agencies, or “secretariats,” are formed by the treaty document. Typically, the signatories (the “conference of the parties”) meet at least every other year to evaluate progress on achieving the goals contained in the agreement and to debate potential changes to it. Debates on prohibition of ivory trade or whale harvesting are long-standing and ongoing examples.
Project planners should be aware of laws related to conservation at all governance levels. They may be useful policy statements that can undergird and lend support to conservation project plans. Where they do not exist, it may be necessary to advocate their adoption to better assure permanence of conservation gains and to show government support. In other words, projects will come and go, but outcomes of those with legal backing have greater potential to carry into the future. Laws may also be used to remind governments about their conservation commitments when other priorities cause them to be seemingly forgotten. Advocacy for conservation laws in other countries needs to be conducted with local partners who know the relevant actors and systems as well as to avoid the appearance of outside interference.
Laws relevant to conservation may be located in a country’s (federal, state/province or county/municipality) written laws or court opinions interpreting laws. Scholarly articles discussing conservation law may be found in legal research indexes and they often offer a useful overview of a particular area. In developing countries it may be necessary to consult with lawyers, law professors, government staff, or knowledgeable NGO officials to learn the current state of the law because it frequently takes a long time for enacted law to make it into an official law book. Additionally, traditional, unwritten laws or significant norms may apply that will be found through networking with local people.
Links to professional organizations and web sites
Center for International Environmental Law, http://www.ciel.org/
Wildlife Committee, International Wildlife Law Association, http://www.internationalwildlifelaw.org/index.shtml
U.S. federal law, http://thomas.loc.gov/http://thomas.loc.gov/
Find fisheries law through FAO, http://www.fao.org/
CITES, http://www.cites.org/
Convention on Biological Diversity,http://www.biodiv.org/convention/default.shtml
Multilateral treaty information, http://www.globelaw.com/
Environmental Law Programme, IUCN, http://www.iucn.org/themes/law/
References to key resources/tools
Library data bases: Lexus/Nexus and WestLaw
Overview of the U.S. system in Rosenbaum, Walter A., Environmental Politics and Policy, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. 2002.
Books by De Klemm, Cyrille and Shine, Clare, including Biological Diversity Conservation and the Law: Legal Mechanisms for Conserving Species and Ecosystems. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1993, and Wetlands, Water and Law: Using Law to Advance Wetland Conservation and Wise Use, Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1999.
Dimitrov, Radoslav S., Science and International Environmental Policy: Regimes and Nonregimes in Global Governance, Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Rowman and Littlefield, Publishers, 2005.
Click here to search tools
|
