Approaches to the Protection of Wildlife in the Ramsar, CITES and Bonn Conventions: A Comparative and Analytical Study

Wild animals need special attention because of their significance from the environmental,ecological, genetic, scientific, recreational, cultural, educational, social and economic points ofview. There are numerous international instruments and documents in the field of internationalwildlife law (IWL). Among them, there are three well-known instruments namely the Ramsar,Bonn, and CITES Conventions. In the present piece, these Conventions are studied comparativelyin order to find out their approaches toward the protection of wildlife. In doing so, the author,first and foremost, provides a brief overview of these Conventions. Thereafter, their approachestoward wildlife protection would be analyzed. The methodological approach of this researchincludes analysis of wildlife protection through descriptive and normative explanation of theRamsar, Bonn, and CITES Conventions. According to the findings of this study, reasonable andwise use of wetlands (the approach of the Ramsar Convention), special attention to migratorybirds (the approach of the Bonn Convention), and the regulation of international wildlifetrade (the approach of CITES) are three main and prevalent approaches in these instruments.Furthermore, it appears that CITES has played a more important and effective role in IWL andprotection of wildlife. It is due to the fact that this Convention has more operative tools and itsState Parties have undertaken more extensive and practical obligations.