ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three international environmental regimes which during the 1990s illustrate key developments in the evolution of ecosystemic law as applied to global problems. It summarizes important features of these regimes using a comparative framework. Two of the most influential ecologists in species conservation science and policy at this time and today are Edward O. Wilson and Thomas Lovejoy. The culmination of conservation efforts inspired by ecologists like Wilson and Lovejoy and championed by the international wildlife NGO community was the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES protects the endangered species by prohibiting their international trade and regulating the trade of threatened species. Two developments which may suggest a path for an increased role for ecology in CITES are the advent of the precautionary principle and a shift from only considering protection and preservation options to include objectives that are based on the concept of sustainability.
