Studies in Global Animal Law by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783662607565
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

4 Animal Welfare: A Condition for the Sustainable Use and Conservation of Endangered Species

Historically, international environmental law has developed through the adoption of treaties dealing with the conservation and sustainable use of specific species. These treaties had different raisons d’être, from the preservation of purely commercial interests44 to the conservation of species that were deemed useful.45 As the decades passed, and with the development of scientific knowledge on the global state of the environment and the conservation status of species, several other specific treaties were adopted in order to prevent extinctions. The instruments adopted during the second half of the twentieth century no longer only dealt with specific species but also with practices such as international trade or with broader categories, such as migratory species. Yet, with the exception of the well-known example of the CITES,46 these different instruments make no mention of the concept of welfare, be it directly or indirectly, in their provisions. For instance, the GORILLA Agreement,47 adopted within the context of the Convention on Migratory Species, calls for the maintenance of gorillas ‘in a favourable conservation status’.48 The same goes for the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears,49 which states that its parties ‘shall manage the bear population in accordance with sound conservation practice’.50 Other treaties generally prohibit the killing of individual members of certain species51 but do not provide any other indication on how to ensure that the same individuals are not subjected to unnecessary suffering due to restrictions to their animal freedoms by human activities.

At first glance, it appears that the welfare of individual members of those specific species concerned by these numerous instruments is not considered essential for their conservation. However, most international environmental treaties have an evolutive purpose by design52 and their main provisions are often followed by decisions and guidelines53 that allow for an updated implementation in order to achieve greater effectiveness. This process of legal densification54 of the primary obligations of states with regard to the conservation of certain species has paved the way for considerations of welfare. For instance, with regards to the conservation of cetaceans, the influence of welfare on the obligations of states is increasingly clear. This is most notable in the context of the International Whaling Commission, where its members have adopted several decisions aiming at ensuring the welfare of cetaceans falling under the scope of the commission.55 Moreover, several decisions taken in other international fora encourage states to take into consideration the cultures of whale populations in their conservation effort.56 Similar developments focusing on welfare can be seen in the context of other species-related treaties. The parties to the EUROBATS agreements57 have adopted decisions specifying how injured individual bats should be taken care of before being released into the wild.58 In the context of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP),59 several technical guidelines, which can be used as interpretive tools for the general provisions of the agreement,60 were produced to ensure the welfare of individuals (e.g. the guidelines on translocation).61

Witnessing

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