FOREWORD

In recent years, countries in all parts of the world have significantly revised their existing wildlife legislation, or adopted new legal frameworks for the management and protection of wildlife. The purpose of the present study is to assess the current status of national wildlife laws around the world, with a particular focus on new laws and legal innovations adopted over the last decade.

The legislation examined includes laws which deal specifically with wildlife and hunting, as well as relevant provisions from laws on related matters, such as protected areas, forestry, biodiversity and the environment. Where appropriate, reference is made to subsidiary legislation and, where responsibilities for wildlife management have been wholly or partly transferred to local governments, to local instruments.

Given the breadth of the subject matter, this study is not intended to provide an exhaustive review of all pertinent laws in the countries covered. Rather, it identifies the major discernible trends in wildlife legislation - as well as notable exceptions thereto - by examining the laws of a representative sample of countries.

In so doing, the study assesses how current legislation addresses the central issues concerning wildlife and wildlife habitats, namely: (i) management and protection of wild animals through the use of planning tools, hunting rules, licensing requirements, and game ranching and breeding control; (ii) ownership of wildlife and related rights and obligations, including compensation for damage caused by wildlife and the balance between the rights of hunters and those of the owners of the land where wildlife is found; (iii) protected areas, including provisions on the protection of neighbouring areas and the relationship between wildlife protection and other forms of land use; and (iv) institutions enabling participation in wildlife-related decision-making and economic benefits, including consultations mechanisms, representative wildlife management bodies, agreements between individuals or communities and public institutions, and devolution of authority.

While recent laws usually retain many of the basic elements of earlier laws, they often contain important innovations as well.

First, well-established wildlife protection instruments, such as hunting regulations and the protection of particular species or habitats, tend to be placed in a new context, pursuing broader objectives and taking into account broader needs. To maintain biodiversity more effectively, protected areas are increasingly established as parts of national systems rather than in a patchwork way. Under hunting regimes, greater attention is paid to the subsistence needs of traditional hunting communities.

Second, recent wildlife laws address new issues and envisage new means for wildlife protection and management. In particular, they provide for better protection of biodiversity through clearer consideration of the interdependence between species. Moreover, rather than focusing on control of hunting alone, they deal with broader threats to wildlife, notably by requiring environmental impact assessments of activities potentially harmful to wildlife. They also place greater emphasis on management planning, increasingly subjecting management processes and their basic objectives to the law rather than their depending on the changing initiatives of administrations. Finally, they tend to create rules, institutions and procedures to involve affected persons and stakeholders in wildlife-related decision-making, to allow local communities to participate in the economic benefits deriving from wildlife use, and to consider the socio-cultural dimensions of wildlife management.

While focusing on domestic legislation, the study also briefly examines the main features of international wildlife treaties, paying particular attention to the linkages between international, national and local instruments. As an example of a particularly developed regional system, the legislation and case law of the European Community are analysed.

The study is a joint effort by the Legal Office and the Forestry Department of FAO. It was written by Maria Teresa Cirelli, an FAO legal consultant who has advised a number of countries on wildlife legislation. Technical supervision of the study has been the responsibility of Mohamed Ali Mekouar, Senior Legal Officer in the Development Law Service.