Ecological Vulnerability
The Law and Governance of Human–Wildlife Relationships

This book offers novel theoretical responses to the question of how laws and institutions shape the human-wildlife relationship.

Katie Woolaston (Author)

9781316511992, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 June 2022

224 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

Humans are responsible for biodiversity loss in many related and sometimes conflicting ways. Human-wildlife conflict, commonly defined as any negative interaction between people and wildlife, is a primary contributor to wildlife extinction and a manifestation of the destructive relationship that people have with wildlife. The author presents this 'wicked' problem in a social and legal context and demonstrates that legal institutions structurally deny human-wildlife conflict, while exacerbating conflict, promoting values consistent with individual autonomy, and ignoring the interconnected vulnerabilities shared by human and non-human species alike. It is the use of international and state law that sheds light on existing conflicts, including dingo conflict on K'Gari-Fraser Island in Australia, elephant conflict in Northern Botswana, and the global wildlife trade contributing to COVID-19. This book presents a critical analysis of human-wildlife conflict and its governance, to guide lawyers, scientists and conservations alike in the transformation of the management of human-wildlife conflict.

1. The Broken Human-Wildlife Relationship
2. The Human-Wildlife Relationship: An Ecofeminist Approach to Vulnerability Theory
3. Friends in the Wild? The Problem of Human-Wildlife Conflict and its Governance
4. Friends in Law?: the Critical Complexities of International Wildlife Law
5. Human-Dingo Conflict on K'Gari-Fraser Island
6. Human-Elephant Conflict in Northern Botswana
7. Pandemic Vulnerability and Resilience
Wildlife and COVID-19
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Environment law [LNKJ]