The term "rights-based approach" (RBA) has been used in various contexts and defined in different ways. This publication applies the approach specifically in exploring the linkages between conservation and respect for internationally and nationally guaranteed human rights. The aim is to promote the realization of conservation with justice, recognising that activities and projects related to conservation can have a positive or negative impact on human rights, while the exercise of certain human rights can reinforce and act in synergy with conservation goals. The publication introduces the concept of RBA and examines how it is currently being applied (or not) and how it may be applied to develop law and policy.

In the context of sustainable development, recent land debates tend to construct two porous camps. On the one side, norms of land justice and their advocates dictate that people’s rights to tenure security are tantamount and even sometimes key to successful conservation practice. On the other hand, biodiversity protection and conservation advocates, supported by global environmental organizations and states, remain committed to conservation strategies, steeped in genetics and biological sciences, working on behalf of a "global" mandate for biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Land Rights, Biodiversity Conservation and Justice seeks to illuminate struggles for land and territory in the context of biodiversity conservation. This edited volume explores the particular ideologies, narratives and practices that are mobilized when the agendas of biodiversity conservation practice meet, clash, and blend with the demands for land and access and control of resources from people living in, and in close proximity to, parks. The book maintains that, while biodiversity conservation is an important goal in a time where climate change is a real threat to human existence, the successful and just future of biodiversity conservation is contingent upon land tenure security for local people. The original research gathered together in this volume will be of considerable interest to researchers of development studies, political ecology, land rights, and conservation.

Conservation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice in India highlights the environmental challenges that India faces, largely due to high population and limited natural resources, and discusses the gap between the intent of environmental policies and the actualization of those policies. Contributors posit that the protection of the environment poses a fundamental challenge to the nation’s desire to industrialize and develop more quickly, arguing that the conservation of biodiversity, protection of wetlands, prevention of environmental pollution, and promotion of ecological balance are all crucial in enabling sustainable development. This book poses the question of how large a role the judiciary system should play in the protection of the environment as a vital body that passes policies to promote conservation and sustainable development.

This handbook explores the dynamic new field of Environmental Restorative Justice. Authors from diverse disciplines discuss how principles and practices of restorative justice can be used to address the threats and harms facing the environment today. The book covers a wide variety of subjects, from theoretical discussions about how to incorporate the voice of future generations, nature, and more-than-human animals and plants in processes of justice and repair, through to detailed descriptions of actual practices of Environmental Restorative Justice. The case studies explored in the volume are situated in a wide range of countries and in the context of varied forms of environmental harm – from small local pollution incidents, to endemic ongoing issues such as wildlife poaching, to cataclysmic environmental catastrophes resulting in cascades of harm to entire ecosystems. Throughout, it reveals how the relational and caring character of a restorative ethos can be conducive to finding solutions to problems through sharing stories, listening, healing, and holding people and organisations accountable for prevention and repairing of harm. It speaks to scholars in Criminology, Sociology, Law, and Environmental Justice and to practitioners, policy-makers, think-tanks and activists interested in the environment.

This book addresses one of today’s most urgent issues: the loss of wildlife and habitat, which together constitute an ecological crisis. Combining studies from different disciplines such as law, political science and criminology, with a focus on animal rights, the chapters explore the successes and failures of the international wildlife conservation and trade treaties, CITES and the BERN Convention. While these conventions have played a crucial role in protecting endangered species from trade and in the rewilding of European large carnivores, the case studies in this book demonstrate huge variations in their implementation and enforcement across Europe. In conclusion, the book advocates for a non-anthropocentric policy approach to strengthen wildlife conservation in Europe.

Access to justice in environmental matters has been a topic for increasing legal discourse and law-making in international, European Community (EC) and national arenas. The 1998 Aarhus Convention provides new norms of international law, inspired by the 1992 Rio Declaration. EC law on access to justice is being drafted and changes can be observed in the laws of the European Union (EU) members states. This timely book presents the state-of-the-art of access to justice in environmental matters in the European Union. It provides a thematic and comparative introduction of the topic, followed by thorough descriptions of EC law and the law of each EU member state. The chapters are written in English or French with a summary in the other language. L'accandegrave;s andegrave; la justice en matiandegrave;re d'environnement a fait l'objet de plus en plus de dandeacute;bats juridiques et de dandeacute;veloppements l'andeacute;gislatifs en droit international, communautaire et national. La Convention d'Aarhus de 1998 dandeacute;finit de nouvelles normes de droit international, faisant suite andagrave; la Dandeacute;claration de Rio de 1992. Le droit communautaire en matiandegrave;re d'accandegrave;s andagrave; la justice est en voie d'andeacute;laboration et dandeacute;jandagrave; des changements peuvent andecirc;tre observandeacute;s dans les lois nationales des andEacute;tats membres de l'Union europandeacute;enne. Cet ouvrage, qui arrive en temps opportun, prandeacute;sente l'andeacute;tat actuel de l'accandegrave;s andagrave; la justice en matiandegrave;re d'environnement dans l'Union europandeacute;anne. Une introduction thandeacute;matique et comparative du sujet est suivie par une description approfondie du droit communautaire et du droit national de chaque andEacute;tat membre de l'Union europandeacute;enne. Les chapitres sont randeacute;digandeacute;s soit en franandccedil;ais soit en anglais, accompagnandeacute;s respectivement d'un randeacute;sumandeacute; dans l'autre langue.