Although much writing has focused on the general principles of IEL, specific pollution regimes, or the international climate change regime, there has also been a resurgent interest in the conservation of nature and wildlife on the international level. International law relating to nature and wildlife conservation forms part of a broader framework that relates to the conservation of ‘biological diversity’ (or, in short, biodiversity). It was already noted in the introduction to this part that the importance of biodiversity has attracted renewed attention in various disciplines. The international legal efforts in this area are now loosely grouped around the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (‘CBD’ or ‘Biodiversity Convention’), which was opened for signature in the context of the 1992 Rio Conference together with the abovediscussed FCCC and the 1992 UN Convention to Combat Desertification (‘UNCCD’). Biodiversity in this sense is understood as

Unlike in the climate change context, however, where the future development of the legal response on the international level has essentially concentrated on the FCCC forum, the CBD is complemented by numerous distinct and specialised biodiversity agreements that focus on the conservation of species, habitats, or ecosystems. Furthermore, it is much less evident in the biodiversity context that international legal responses would need to be universal or global in their approach. While the conservation of biodiversity is now equally regarded a ‘common concern’ of mankind (just like anthropogenic climate change), it may still be viable to protect certain species or habitats from local or regional impacts through regional instruments. Hence, the already complex body of global instruments for biodiversity conservation is further supplemented by numerous regional instruments.

Again, the following discussion is not intended to provide a complete overview of IEL instruments relating to the conservation of biodiversity. Instead, the following sections focus on selected examples of biodiversityrelated MEAs which are meant to provide an exemplary impression of the way biodiversity agreements seek to put their provisions into practice.