The Legal Foundations of Conservation Biology

Conservation biology is a discipline that is empowered by legal support for accomplishing its mission of global biodiversity conservation, with such support rooted in legal frameworks grounded in ethical rights, utilitarian interests, and equal distribution of risks. Two US environmental laws, the National Environmental Policy Act (1970) and the US Endangered Species Act (1973) reframed biodiversity conservation in the US, and provided models used by other nations. The Stockholm Conference of 1972 and the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) in 1973 engaged international support in new, systemic, and collaborative associations to achieve conservation. From these foundations, conservationists today must become more astute in understanding conservation law to make research effective in achieving conservation goals.