ABSTRACT
Policies to address biodiversity conservation date back to the second half of the 19th century when the first protected areas were established in the USA. Since then biodiversity policy grew in importance, widened its scope and about a century later biodiversity issues began to appear in international agreements. A landmark in this process is considered the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, the Rio Summit, which dealt simultaneously with a number of environmental issues. A result of the Summit was the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that declared the determination of contracting parties "to conserve and sustainably use biological diversity for the benefit of present and future generations" (CBD Preamble).1
