ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the experience of regulation and restoration of the water environment in Europe which is analyzed as it relates to the management of tropical wetlands. The European Union (EU) region provides an informative case study, since it arguably offers the most complex legislation implemented anywhere in relation to the water environment. Some countries outside the EU with developing statute books of environmental law have taken aspects of the approach and developed regulatory frameworks based on the centerpiece of the legislation notably the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its precursor and daughter directives for protection of the water environment. Wetlands were implicated in the WFD in two broad senses: wetlands as part of the hydro-ecological system, impacted by hydrological modifications such as drainage, and wetlands as agents to deliver improvements in the water environment.
