Regime complexes or overlapping regimes relating to a common subject matter create policy coherence challenges at the national level. Recent research has observed a positive correlation between regime complexes and policy coherence: improved regime integration enables greater policy coherence and vice versa. Policy coherence has nonetheless been approached as a problem of foreign policy and not yet as a problem of public policy. This paper examines the co-evolution of regime complexes and (public) policy coherence in the context of international biodiversity governance, with a focus on the cluster of biodiversity-related conventions and their implementation in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It shows that global synergies in the biodiversity cluster have advanced more rapidly than national coordination of implementation activities. Feedback loops between governance levels have not been strong enough to bridge that gap. The paper concludes that more symmetrical evolutions require deliberate cross-level management.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has been criticised for following a narrow preservationist agenda centred on protecting charismatic species through trade-restrictive policies that disregard the livelihood strategies of communities living alongside wildlife. More recently, however, parties to CITES have embraced the sustainability discourse and taken steps to address the socio-economic dimensions of wildlife trade. This paper examines the policies developed by CITES' Parties at four recent meetings, with a view to determining whether they are founded on a holistic understanding of socio-environmental dynamics. It concludes that CITES' conservation approach remains rooted in a conception of sustainability that treats people and wildlife as separate entities, and where species conservation takes priority over human development. Nonetheless, CITES does appear to be moving towards a more all-encompassing perception of sustainability where focus is on ecosystems rather than ensuring the survival of single species.

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