ABSTRACT
For centuries trees, plants and animals, both wild and domesticated, were seen as part of the property of landowners. The statutes which make property rights subordinate to the aim of conserving animal and plant species, irrespective of their food or other instrumental values, are comparatively recent phenomena. The first statutory protection of certain species of sea birds dates from 1869 and was followed by gradual extension to other, terrestrial species. Its one million members make the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds the largest conservation charity in Europe. As the royal affiliation suggests, this body has always been part of the ‘establishment’; its objectives have been enormously assisted by the endorsement and active participation of members of the political elite. Together with the Council for the Protection of Rural England, these bodies have exerted a powerful influence in the genesis of the large number of statutes which offer direct protection of landscape and of various species of plants and wild animals. However, this chapter’s discussion of the role of state in wildlife conservation will be primarily concerned with the growing hierarchy of what must be labelled indirect controls, namely those which seek to protect the habitats of endangered species.
