African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources | |
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Context | Nature conservation |
Signed | September 15, 1968 |
Location | Algiers |
Effective | June 16, 1969 |
Signatories | 42 Countries
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Ratifiers | 30 Countries
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The African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (known also as Algiers Convention) is a continent-wide agreement signed in 1968 in Algiers. It supersedes the Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State of 1933 and has been superseded by the African Convention on Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (revised) signed in Maputo in 2003.
International cooperation to conserve the wildlife and natural resources of Africa was first realized by the colonizing powers of Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and Spain on May 19, 1900 with the International agreement to preserve African wildlife(King Leopold's Congo Free State did not participate). The treaty prohibited the killing of certain African animals and "all other animals which each local government judges necessary to protect, either because of their usefulness or because of their rarity and danger of disappearance.” [2] The treaty was proposed because of the rapid depletion of African big game which was being hunted for pleasure by Europeans, with a secondary motive being to preserve the remarkable and novel wildlife and fauna of the continent. African animal populations at the time were suffering because of deforestation, breech-loaded firearms, growth in human populations, and overhunting. [3] This treaty, however, did not address the entire African ecosystem but only a handful of species. The Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State began to address the conservation of whole African ecosystems. When European colonies gained independence as sovereign nations, pressure for a new and more comprehensive conservation treaty began to mount.
The treaty was influenced by other existing international law and tenets of the UN charter, and sought to balance development through exploitation of natural resources with their conservation. It obliges all parties to take conservation measures relating to national wildlife, soil, water resources. [4]
CITES is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975.
Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments. Environmental law is seen as the body of laws concerned with the protection of living things from the harm that human activity may immediately or eventually cause to them or their species, either directly or to the media and the habits on which they depend.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
This is an index of conservation topics. It is an alphabetical index of articles relating to conservation biology and conservation of the natural environment.
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for purposes of conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. They may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws. Normally it is more strictly protected than a nature park. Various jurisdictions may use other terminology, such as ecological protection area or private protected area in legislation and in official titles of the reserves.
The BernConvention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, also known as the Bern Convention, is a binding international legal instrument in the field of Nature Conservation, it covers the natural heritage in Europe, as well as in some African countries. The Convention was open for signature on 19 September 1979 and came into force on 1 June 1982. It is particularly concerned about protecting natural habitats and endangered species, including migratory species.
The Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora is a set of environmental protection measures which were accepted at the third Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Brussels in 1964. The Agreed Measures were formally in force as part of the Antarctic Treaty System from 1982 to 2011, when they were withdrawn as the principles were now entirely superseded by later agreements such as the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. The Agreed Measures were adopted in order to further international collaboration within the administration of the Antarctic Treaty System and promote the protection of natural Antarctic ecological systems while enabling scientific study and exploration.
Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habitat destruction, degradation, fragmentation, overexploitation, poaching, pollution, climate change, and the illegal wildlife trade. The IUCN estimates that 42,100 species of the ones assessed are at risk for extinction. Expanding to all existing species, a 2019 UN report on biodiversity put this estimate even higher at a million species. It is also being acknowledged that an increasing number of ecosystems on Earth containing endangered species are disappearing. To address these issues, there have been both national and international governmental efforts to preserve Earth's wildlife. Prominent conservation agreements include the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). There are also numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) dedicated to conservation such as the Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International.
The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation status: not simply the number of individuals remaining, but the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, and known threats. Various systems of conservation status are in use at international, multi-country, national and local levels, as well as for consumer use such as sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification. The two international systems are by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Papua New Guinea together with the West Papua region of Indonesia make up a major tropical wilderness area that still contains 5% of the original and untouched tropical high-biodiversity terrestrial ecosystems. PNG in itself contains over 5% of the world's biodiversity in less than 1% of the world's total land area. The flora of New Guinea is unique because it has two sources of origin; the Gondwana flora from the south and flora with Asian origin from the west. As a result, New Guinea shares major family and genera with Australia and the East Asia, but is rich in local endemic species. The endemicity is a result of mountainous isolation, topographic and soil habitat heterogeneity, high forest disturbance rates and abundant aseasonal rainfall year round. PNG boasts some 15–21,000 higher plants, 3,000 species of orchids, 800 species of coral, 600 species of fish, 250 species of mammals and 760 species of birds and 8 species of tree-kangaroos out of which 84 genera of animals are endemic. Ecosystems range from lowland forests to montane forests, alpine flora down to coastal areas which contains some of the most extensive pristine mangrove areas in the world. Much of this biodiversity has remained intact for thousands of years because the ruggedness of the terrain made the interior lands inaccessible; furthermore low population density and restrictions on the effectiveness of traditional tools, ensured that these biodiversity was never overexploited.
The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation is the German government's scientific authority with responsibility for national and international nature conservation. BfN is one of the government's departmental research agencies and reports to the German Environment Ministry (BMU).
The Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State, also known as the London Convention of 1933, was an early agreement among colonial powers for the conservation of nature. As one of the first general conservation agreement in Africa, and the first to specifically protect a plant species, it has been called the Magna Carta of wildlife conservation and "the high point of institutionalised global nature protection before the Second World War".
This is a list of topics in biodiversity.
The Convention for the Preservation of Wild Animals, Birds and Fish in Africa is a multilateral treaty on wildlife preservation that was signed by the European colonial powers in London in 1900. Although it never entered into force, it has nevertheless been recognised as one of history's earliest agreements on nature conservation.
The Act on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is a Japanese law on nature conservation intended to protect rare species and ecosystems. The law was passed in 1992 and entered into force the following year.
African Union (2010-03-02), List of Countries which have Signed, Ratified/Adhered (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-02