ABSTRACT
Law and policy can be an important trigger to get restoration activities done 'on the ground'. This chapter focuses on the major international legal and policy instruments that are relevant for restoration. A more thorough overview of international law on restoration can be found in Telesetsky et al. The chapter aims to the major multilateral conservation conventions, including the Biodiversity Convention, the Ramsar Convention, the World Heritage Convention and the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species. It reviews the obligations on restoration in the instruments, but also if and how restoration is defined and if there are any concrete guidelines, principles or standards developed under these instruments. Not only the convention texts are important, but even more important are the decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties (COPs). For most multilateral environmental conventions, these COP decisions are usually considered to be legally non-binding.
