Introduction

It is difficult to obtain a clear understanding of any legal topic without some sense of the chronology of key developments and the wider historical context out of which they emerged. Areas of legal regulation tend to evolve not in a meticulously planned, orderly fashion, but as an unstructured series of responses to perceived problems, and against the backdrop of the social and political realities of the day. Early attempts to regulate whaling and sealing, for example, must be viewed in light of the considerable economic importance such industries once held, which may be difficult to credit from a purely contemporary perspective. More generally, the political emphasis placed on conservation policy and legal regulation has fluctuated significantly over time, reflecting the prevailing preoccupations of the international community during successive eras. This chapter presents a broad overview of the evolution of international wildlife law against the background of such considerations.

Early developments

The enactment of national legislation to protect wildlife and the environment generally can be traced back to antiquity, with forestry conservation laws adopted in Babylon in 1900 BC and a law for the establishment of nature reserves promulgated in Egypt in 1370 BC. The use of international legal instruments for this purpose is a much more recent phenomenon, however, dating essentially from the final quarter of the nineteenth century.