ABSTRACT
The science is clear – insect populations are declining at alarming rates. Although individual actions are important, strong laws and regulations are needed to recover insect populations, protect insect species, and restore and manage insect habitat. There are very few international agreements or country-wide statutes that are specific to insect conservation although some focus on specific individual species or groups, such as pollinators. In this chapter, we explore laws and regulations that: (i) are specific to insects generally, insect groups or specific insect species; (ii) pesticide regulations because of their importance to insect conservation; and (iii) wildlife provisions that have an insect species nexus such as provisions that help endangered or threatened species. Laws and policies in most countries are not currently adequate to protect insects. To avoid the loss of biodiversity and the critical services it provides, governments across the globe need to promote policies that preserve and restore habitat, protect vulnerable insect species, reduce pesticide risk to non-target insects, manage light pollution and global spread of diseases, and address climate change. Additionally, more work is needed to understand the gaps in insect conservation laws and regulations because there is currently little information available for most parts of the world.
