A Manual of Nature Conservation Law

Edited by Michael Fry
2nd Edition

Reviews

c/o Baker Shepherd Gillespie,
Arden House,
Deepdale Business Park,
Ashford Road,
Bakewell, Derbyshire,
DE45 1GT

Tel 01629 815544
Fax 01629 815577
email

David Tyldesley MIEEM FRTPI FRSA,

If ever a second edition of a book was urgently needed by those of us who have to apply the laws of nature conservation on a daily basis, it is this one. No longer will we have the tiresome task of checking our hand-written annotations, in dog-eared copies of Acts and Regulations, in order to ensure that we have the latest amendments. We now have a copy of the legislation in which we will have confidence.

It is comprehensive of the nature conservation law, importantly including those Directives that may have direct effect, as well as providing the context for domestic regulations. It includes the now increasing law relating to biodiversity conservation in the marine environment and, since 2007, off-shore. Although not legislation as such, I would have liked to see the Ramsar Convention as well as the Biodiversity Convention included, but I guess the line has to be drawn somewhere.

Following the recent 60th anniversary of the Huxley Report, I was pleased to see, in the Introduction, that we have not lost our appreciation for the influence of early visionaries in shaping our wildlife legislation. We may grumble about loopholes and inadequacies of transposition, but the legislation of today would have been beyond our wildest expectations when I first became involved in this fascinating and crucial work, some 25 years ago. The complexity of amendments to primary and secondary legislation, brought together in this volume and previously a nightmare for the practitioner, illustrates how difficult it has been to make the legislation more effective.

The referenced footnotes will also save time by directing the reader to the source of definitions, amendments etc. Welcome to the second edition of the invaluable companion which Michael Fry has prepared for us. I don’t think I have looked forward to using an eight hundred page book quite so much before!

11th January 2008

Principal David Tyldesley and Associates, consultant adviser to the Welsh Assembly Government, Natural England, the Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage. Author of Gaining Momentum (1986) and Natural Assets (1992)

© 2007 onwards Baker Shepherd Gillespie
Web site design and search engine optimisation by Chevinside