The use of law to protect wildlife has existed for centuries. Forestry conservation laws in Babylon date back to 1900 BC. Akhenaten, King of Egypt, set aside land as a nature reserve in 1370 BC. Emperor Ashoka of India issued a decree in the third century BC which has a particularly contemporary ring about it. Towards the end of his reign, he wrote:

However, the use of international treaties to protect wildlife is a more recent development. The first such treaty, the Treaty Concerning the Regulation of Salmon Fishing in the Rhine River Basin, was signed by Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland in 1886. Several more wildlife treaties were concluded in the first half of this century, but it is only in the last twenty five years that there has been a dramatic increase both in their number and in their importance as a force for conservation.

In one sense it is surprising that wildlife treaties have taken so long to develop. The need for international cooperation to protect species which migrate from one country to another, which are in demand for their skins in foreign markets or which live on the high seas, has existed for a long time.