Regulation of activities for wetland conservation and management: Overview

Abstract

However strong the scientific and ethical case for the conservation of wetlands and their associated biodiversity and capacities to support human livelihoods, practical conservation and management depends upon a number of drivers. In this regard, "regulation" has a far broader meaning than purely the enactment of legislation. Indeed, statutory obligations may be poorly observed or poorly enforced, or may be practically unenforceable, in many territories, particularly in the developing world. The wider formal and informal policy environment, referred to collectively as societal levers, comprises statutory legislation, com-mon/civil law, markets, market-based instruments, and both formal and informal protocols evolved as a fragmented policy environment of incentives and constraints influencing the freedoms of and rewards to resource owners and managers. Harmonisation of these societal levers with higher level sustainable aspirations is necessary to influence landowner or land manager decision-making at a local scale.