Lessons on Protecting Biodiversity From Around the World: Biodiversity Conservation Programs Implemented by Other Nations Under the Biodiversity Convention

• Author: Donald A. Brown
• Pages: 39-46

Chapter 4

Lessons on Protecting Biodiversity

From Around the World: Biodiversity

Conservation Programs Implemented

by Other Nations Under the

Biodiversity Convention

by Donald A. Brown

I. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

There is much that Americans can learn about protecting biodiversity from

activities currently taking place around the world. There are 175 nations now

in the process of implementing the CBD, a treaty to which most of the world

has committed. Although the United States has signed the CBD, it is among

the handful of countries that has declined to ratify it.1As a result, as most na-

tions are currently working to fulfill their responsibilities under the CBD, the

United States is not engaged in implementing the treaty or, in particular,de-

veloping the reports, plans, and strategies called for by the CBD.

The CBD has three main goals:

·The conservation of biodiversity;

·Sustainable use of the components of biodiversity; and

39

1. Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations Conference on the

Environment and Development, opened for signature June 5, 1992, U.N.

Doc. DPI/1307, reprinted in 31 I.L.M. 818 (1992), available at http://www.

biodiv.org/convention/articles.asp (last visited May 25, 2005) [hereinafter

CBD]. For a discussion of the current status of treaty implementation, see Sec-

retariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Sustaining Life on Earth:

How the Convention on Biological Diversity Promotes Nature and Human

Well-Being,at http://www.biodiv.org/doc/publications/guide.asp (last visited

Feb. 16, 2005).