Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats

Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats

 

Chapter I. General Provisions

Article 1

1. The aims of this Convention are to conserve wild flora and fauna and
their natural habitats, especially those species and habitats whose
conservation requires the co-operation of several States, and to promote
such co-operation.

2. Particular emphasis is given to endangered and vulnerable species,
including endangered and vulnerable migratory species.

Article 2

The Contracting Parties shall take requisite measures to maintain the
population of wild flora and fauna at, or adapt it to, a level which
corresponds in particular to ecological, scientific and cultural
requirements, while taking account of economic and recreational
requirements and the needs of sub-species, varieties or forms at risk
locally.

Article 3

1. Each Contracting Party shall take steps to promote national policies
for the conservation of wild flora, wild fauna and natural habitats, with
particular attention to endangered and vulnerable species, especially
endemic ones, and endangered habitats, in accordance with the provisions
of this Convention.

2. Each Contracting Party undertakes, in its planning and development
policies and in its measures against pollution, to have regard to the
conservation of wild flora and fauna.

3. Each Contracting Party shall promote Education and disseminate general
information on the need to conserve species of wild flora and fauna and
their habitats.

Chapter II. Protection of Habitats

Article 4

1. Each Contracting Party shall take appropriate and necessary
legislative and administrative measures to ensure the conservation of the
habitats of the wild flora and fauna species, especially those specified
in the Appendices I and II, and the conservation of endangered natural
habitats.

2. The Contracting Parties in their planning and development policies
shall have regard to the conservation requirements of the areas protected
under the preceding paragraph, so as to avoid or minimise as far as
possible any deterioration of such areas.

3. The Contracting Parties undertake to give special attention to the
protection of areas that are of importance for the migratory species
specified in Appendices II and III and which are appropriately situated
in relation to migration routes, as wintering, staging, feeding, breeding
or moulting areas.

4. The Contracting Parties undertake to co-ordinate as appropriate their
efforts for the protection of the natural habitats referred to in this
Article when these are situated in frontier areas.

Chapter III. Protection of Species

Article 5

Each Contracting Party shall take appropriate and necessary legislative
and administrative measures to ensure the special protection of the wild
flora species specified in Appendix I. Deliberate picking, collecting,
cutting or uprooting of such plants shall be prohibited. Each Contracting
Party shall, as appropriate, prohibit the possession or sale of these
species.

Article 6

Each Contracting Party shall take appropriate and necessary legislative
and administrative measures to ensure the special protection of the wild
fauna species specified in Appendix II. The following will in particular
be prohibited for these species:

a) All forms of deliberate capture and keeping and deliberate killing;

b) The deliberate damage to or destruction of breeding or resting
sites;

c) The deliberate disturbance of wild fauna, particularly during the
period of breeding, rearing and hibernation, insofar as disturbance
would be significant in relation to the objectives of this
Convention;

d) The deliberate destruction or taking of eggs from the wild or
keeping these eggs even if empty;

e) The possession of and internal trade in these animals, alive or
dead, including stuffed animals and any readily recognizable part
or derivative thereof, where this would contribute to the
effectiveness of the provisions of this Article.

Article 7

1. Each Contracting Party shall take appropriate and necessary
legislative and administrative measures to ensure the protection of the
wild fauna species specified in Appendix III.

2. Any exploitation of wild fauna specified in Appendix III shall be
regulated in order to keep the populations out of danger, taking into
account the requirements of Article 2.

3. Measures to be taken shall include:

a) Closed seasons and/or other procedures regulating the exploitation;

b) The temporary or local prohibition of exploitation, as appropriate,
in order to restore satisfactory population levels;

c) The regulation as appropriate of sale, keeping for sale, transport
for sale or offering for sale of live and dead wild animals.

Article 8

In respect of the capture or killing of wild fauna species specified in
Appendix III and in cases where, in accordance with Article 9, exceptions
are applied to species specified in Appendix II, Contracting Parties
shall prohibit the use of all indiscriminate means of capture and killing
and the use of all means capable of causing local disappearance of, or
serious disturbance to, populations of a species, and in particular, the
means specified in Appendix IV.

Article 9

1. Each Contracting Party may make exceptions from the provisions of
Articles 4, 5, 6, 7 and from the prohibition of the use of the means
mentioned in Article 8 provided that there is no other satisfactory
solution and that the exception will not be detrimental to the survival
of the population concerned:

— For the protection of flora and fauna;

— To prevent serious damage to crops, livestock, forests, fisheries,
water and other forms of property;

— In the interests of public health and safety, air safety or other
overriding public interests;

— For the purposes of research and Education , of repopulation, of
reintroduction and for the necessary breeding;

— To permit, under strictly supervised conditions, on a selective
basis and to a limited extent, the taking, keeping or other
judicious exploitation of certain wild animals and plants in small
numbers.

2. The Contracting Parties shall report every two years to the Standing
Committee on the exceptions made under the preceding paragraph. These
reports must specify:

— The populations which are or have been subject to the exceptions
and, when practical, the number of specimens involved;

— The means authorised for the killing or capture;

— The conditions of risk and the circumstances of time and place
under which such exceptions were granted;

— The authority empowered to declare that these conditions have been
fulfilled, and to take decisions in respect of the means that may
be used, their limits and the persons instructed to carry them out;

— The controls involved.

Chapter IV. SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR MIGRATORY SPECIES

Article 10

1. The Contracting Parties undertake, in addition to the measures
specified in Articles 4, 6, 7 and 8, to co-ordinate their efforts for the
protection of the migratory species specified in Appendices II and III
whose range extends into their territories.

2. The Contracting Parties shall take measures to seek to ensure that the
closed seasons and/or other procedures regulating the exploitation
established under paragraph 3.a of Article 7 are adequate and
approximately disposed to meet the requirements of the migratory species
specified in Appendix III.

Chapter V. Supplementary Provisions

Article 11

1. In carrying out the provisions of the Convention, the Contracting
Parties undertake:

a) To co-operate whenever appropriate and in particular where this
would enhance the effectiveness of measures taken under other
articles of this Convention;

b) To encourage and co-ordinate research related to the purposes of
this Convention.

2. Each Contracting Party undertakes:

a) To encourage the reintroduction of native species of wild flora and
fauna when this would contribute to the conservation of an
endangered species, provided that a study is first made in the
light of the experiences of other Contracting Parties to establish
that such reintroduction would be effective and acceptable;

b) To strictly control the introduction of non-native species.

3. Each Contracting Party shall inform the Standing Committee of the
species receiving complete protection on its territory and not included
in Appendices I and II.

 

Conclusion

Notes

See Also

References and Further Reading

About the Author/s and Reviewer/s

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats 2, Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats 3, Conventions: Chronological Index 1971-1990, Education, Flora and Fauna – Biodiversity conventions, Other Environmental conventions.


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