Conference:
Abstract: "The protection of species and their ecosystems has become an issue of international importance. Although several other treaties (for example, CITES) address issues of wildlife management in a piecemeal fashion, the Biodiversity Convention, opened for signature at UNCE, is the first to establish substantial expectations that signatory nations will protect species diversity regardless of species rarity or economic value. The institutional and ecological implications of managing wildlife as a common pool resource has finally reached the national and international policy agendas. United States' policy is that treaty obligations are implemented primarily through federal legislation. However, under the U. S. Constitution, some policy issues (such as wildlife management) are within the constitutional purview of the states rather than the national government, and treaties which address such issues generate legal and constitutional difficulties during implementation. This problem was raised most recently by the Biodiversity Convention which President Bush refused to sign, in part because of its intergovernmental implications. However, in April 1993, President Clinton signed the Convention. Implementation of this treaty, if it is ratified, may require substantial revision of the institutional relationships between federal and state wildlife management systems.
"While the powers of the federal government over wildlife are considerable, in practice the states have been allowed a great deal of latitude in regulating wildlife. Several factors affect the rate and effectiveness of state implementation strategies: the compliance mechanisms chosen by the federal government; the institutional relationships already in place for intergovernmental cooperation; and the organizational structures of the states' wildlife management systems. This paper analyzes the cooperative strategies of the states' wildlife management which have evolved between American federal and state governments and examines the state-level institutional change required to respond to the demands of new federal environmental treaty obligations under the Biodiversity Convention."