Legal limits and adaptive management of wildlife populations in the environmental code and the hunting act

Abstract: During the last century the variety of species has decreased dramatically
and numerous species are today classified as endangered or threatened.
Since the middle of the last century, a number of legal instruments
concerning the use and conservation of natural resources have been applied,
such as protection of individual species and their nests and restrictions
on hunting and fishing, without hindering the eradication of species. One
proposition for the failures of traditional legal instruments is the lack
of a holistic approach in regarding ecosystem characteristics such as inter-
species and habitats relations and biodiversity and lack of adaptivity to
deal with the dynamics of biodiversity. The objective of the thesis is
therefore to describe and assess the adequacy, with reference to diversity
and adaptivity criteria, of the existing legal instruments concerning the
protection and utilization of species. To achieve the above stated
objective environmental legal methodology has been applied. The analysis
founds that the legal instruments mainly are concerned with the rational
use or protection of a certain species rather than dealing with inter-
relations and the sustainability of ecosystems and that that the legal
system concerning the protection of species generally lacks adaptive
elements. A legislative approach which is more holistic and adaptive is
thus necessary: otherwise there is a risk that the preservation of
biodiversity will be further frustrated.