"The development of international wildlife law has been one of the most significant exercises in international law-making during the last fifty years. This second edition of Lyster's International Wildlife Law coincides with both the UN Year of Biological Diversity and the twenty-fifth anniversary of Simon Lyster's first edition. The risk of wildlife depletion and species extinction has become even greater since the 1980s. This new edition provides a clear and authoritative analysis of the key treaties which regulate the conservation of wildlife and habitat protection, and of the mechanisms available to make them work. The original text has also been significantly expanded to include analysis of the philosophical and welfare considerations underpinning wildlife protection, the cross-cutting themes of wildlife and trade, and the impact of climate change and other anthropogenic interferences with species and habitat. Lyster's International Wildlife Law is an indispensable reference work for scholars, practitioners and policy-makers alike"--

"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 the light of the considerable economic importance once exhibited by such industries, 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"--