Law, Landscape & Biodiversity

Abstract:     
The United States began as a nation rich in biodiversity. Today, like much of the rest of the world, it faces a biodiversity crisis that is very real and worsening. Species and ecosystems face extinction amidst a political climate hostile to regulatory intervention and a patchwork system of laws that disperses responsibility among various federal agencies while allocating land use authority over non-federal land to the individual states.

This paper looks at the cultural and legal framework from which biodiversity laws in the United States evolved. It next surveys the legislative and regulatory matrix from which protections must now emerge. It then discusses why the current system of laws cannot and will not provide lasting ecosystemic protections and offers some suggestions as to how we might weave biodiversity protections into the national federalist framework.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 13

Keywords: biodiversity, landscape, environment, environmental law, habitat, ecosystem

JEL Classification: K10, K11, K19, K32, K40, K49, Q20, Q21, Q23, Q24, Q25, Q28, Q30, Q38

Accepted Paper Series