Legal protection of representative habitat types

Many countries establish a permit requirement for activities that damage specified natural habitat types, such as wetlands (several countries), mangroves (Brazil and Venezuela), riparian vegetation (many countries), caves (Austria, Hungary, northern Italy) and so on. Some laws also protect specific landscape features, such as hedgerows. There are some international agreements that intended to lead to the conservation of an international network of representative wetland ecosystems (RAMSAR Convention, the World Heritage Convention).