Ch. 10— Maintaining Biological Diversity Internationally • 255 



various hard-law treaties and several soft-law 

 documents. Although international laws related 

 to offsite maintenance are scant, several soft- 

 law agreements exist. Relevant hard-law agree- 

 ments deal with tangential issues of interna- 

 tional patenting and quarantine. 



Ii 



national Laws Relating to 

 Onsite Maintenance 



The existence of an internationally recog- 

 nized and established obligation to conserva- 

 tion can be of substantial importance to main- 

 taining biological diversity onsite at national 

 and international levels. Increasingly, inter- 

 national obligations are providing national con- 

 servation authorities with the extra justification 

 needed to strengthen their own conservation 

 programs. Particularly because of this grow- 

 ing role, international conservation conven- 

 tions and soft-law documents are important 

 legal and policy tools to be used with other tech- 

 nical, administrative, and financial measures. 



Global and regional treaties are also impor- 

 tant tools for long-term conservation, although 

 many are not effectively implemented. For 

 some treaties, lack of institutional machinery, 

 such as a secretariat and a budget, is a major 

 drawback. Many are difficult to enforce be- 

 cause incentives are weak and early signs of 

 success are hard to identify, making retaliation 

 difficult if a party chooses to ignore the treaty 

 or fails in its obligations. Some global conven- 

 tions have too few non-European parties. Fi- 

 nally, in many developing countries in particu- 

 lar, technical and financial resources for 

 implementation are scarce (47). 



Global Conventions 



Of the five conventions discussed here, the 

 first four are commonly referred to as the "big 

 four" wildlife conventions and are the most im- 

 portant for protection of flora, fauna, and their 

 habitats (47). The Law of the Sea Convention 

 is also included because of its global scope. (For 

 texts of these international and regional trea- 

 ties, see ref. 11; for summaries of major envi- 

 ronmental treaties, see ref. 73.) 



The Convention on International Trade in 

 Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 

 (CITES), established in 1973, controls interna- 

 tional trade in wild species of plants and ani- 

 mals listed in the convention appendices as en- 

 dangered or threatened. With 91 countries now 

 party to it (48), CITES has been called the most 

 successful international treaty concerned with 

 wildlife conservation (52). 



The convention has been reinforced by U.S. 

 legislation. U.S. importation of wildlife taken 

 or exported in violation of another country's 

 laws was prohibited by amendments in 1981 

 (Public Law 97-79) to the Lacey Act of 1900. 

 This legislation supports other nations' efforts 

 to conserve their wildlife resources and the in- 

 ternational controls under CITES. It provides 

 a powerful tool for wildlife conservation 

 throughout the world because of the significant 

 amount of wildlife imported by the United 

 States. 



The Convention on Wetlands of International 

 Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat 

 (commonly known as Ramsar, after the town 

 in Iran where the convention was signed), 

 passed in 1971, established a wetlands network 

 and promotes the wise use of all wetlands with 

 special protection for those on the List of Wet- 

 lands of International Importance. As of mid- 

 1985, there were 40 contracting parties to the 

 convention and about 300 wetland sites, cov- 

 ering some 20 million hectares, on the List of 

 Wetlands of International Importance (47). Once 

 a site is on the list, the party concerned has a 

 legal obligation to conserve the site (article 3(1)). 



The Convention Concerning the Protection 

 of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 

 signed in 1972, established a network of pro- 

 tected areas and provides a permanent legal, 

 administrative, and financial framework for 

 identification and conservation of areas of out- 

 standing cultural and natural importance. It 

 organized a World Heritage Committee, a 

 World Heritage List, a List of World Heritage 

 in Danger, and a World Heritage Fund to help 

 achieve convention goals. (The World Heritage 

 program is discussed later in this chapter.) 



