PROPERTY, POLITICS AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

Wildlife conservation has been a public issue since time immemorial, a nd a cause of increasing concern over the course of the 20th century. Today, much of the dispute over wildlife conservation involves propert y and property rights. As the scope of wildlife resource governance ex pands to the global level, it has come into contact with conflicting p roperty claims and has generated new claims involving maritime and lan ded resources, wildlife, and intellectual property. This paper focuses on wildlife conservation, and specifically on the angle of property r ights, arguing that the political determination of property regimes is critical to conservation, especially in regard to wild fauna. Propert y rights concerning wild fauna, differ from other property rights clai ms, including landed property, intellectual property, and rights gover ning the use of wild flora. It is also argued that no single property form is adequate for wildlife conservation. Property as an institution is incomplete; the exceptional character of wild fauna and the proper ty rights that govern it are organic.