Product Description
How do we promote global economic development while simultaneously preserving local biological and cultural diversity? This authoritative volume, written by leading biological and social scientists and legal experts from around the world, addresses this question in all of its complexity.

The first part of the book examines biodiversity and examines what are we losing, why we are losing it and what is to be done. The second part addresses biotechnology and looks at whether it is part of the solution or part of the problem—or perhaps both. The third section examines traditional knowledge, explains what it is and how, if at all, should it be protected. The fourth and final part looks at ethnobotany and bioprospecting and offers practical lessons from the vast and diverse experiences of the contributors.

This volume is an indispensable reference for all legal practitioners, regulators and policy makers, scientists and conservationists and professionals in pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.
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Product Description
First used in 1980, "biodiversity" often describes the abundance, variety, and genetic constitution of native animals and plants, and has been linked with politics and environmental technology. Although the 1986 National forum on biodiversity brought issues of biodiversity to the fore, the inescapable need to know more about the diversity of life on Earth continues to remain unmet.
In recent years, biodiversity has influenced important scientific considerations, international agreements, conventions, conservation initiatives, political debates, and socio-economic implications. Knowledge derived from the study of biodiversity will affect the quality of life enjoyed in the future by influencing decision-making processes and aiding new discoveries.
The science of biodiversity has become the science of our future. Our awareness of the loss of biodiversity has brought a long overdue appreciation of the magnitude of our loss and a determination to develop the tools to protect our future. The Encyclopedia of Biodiversity brings together, for the first time, a study of the dimensions of diversity. It examination of the services biodiversity provides, and measures to protect it. Major themes of the work include the evolution of biodiversity, systems for classifying and defining biodiversity, ecological patterns and theories of biodiversity, and an assessment of contemporary patterns and trends in biodiversity.


Key Features

NEW e-updates to this 5-Volume Set on ScienceDirect!

Updates include 21 entirely new articles, 22 updated articles, with 335 articles in total! (more)This reference is also sold as an e-book via ScienceDirect.


* Distinguished Editorial Board headed by Simon A. Levin, with many other prominent scientists serving as editors
* More than 300 separate articles, covering 20 different subject areas, from Evolution to Habitats to Economic Issues--all original contributions commissioned for this work
* Articles by leading authors from major institutions of science around the world
* Approximately 1,000 figures and tables complement the text
* More than 3,000 glossary entries explain key terms ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent reference source, but...
This encyclopedia is a dream-come-true for students and scientists alike. It is loaded with useful, up-to-date information on a wide range of subjects dealing primarily with biodiversity, but also general biology. Chapters dealing with relevant and topical terms and phrases in biodiversity are authored by internationally renowned experts in those fields. The writing is clear and all entries are suberbly illustrated and fully referenced. It is a pity that this 5-volumed work is priced so high that it will probably not make the bookshelves of many academic and research libraries (who are continually forced to cut back their budgets), let alone those of students or scientists, for whom this should otherwise be an essential reference source. The only other fault I find with it is the color plates to all 5 volumes are placed at the beginning of volume 1, which unfortunately requires a reader of a chapter in, say, volume 5, to also open volume 1 to see the plate(s) being referred to. Normally this would be a minor inconvenience, but the large weight and large format of each of these volumes make such a maneuver one that would require a large coffee table or laboratory bench to be performed correctly. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a synthesis of the patterns, causes and consequences of biodiversity in cold-dominated ecosystems.
The first chapters document patterns and causes of genetic and species diversity of plants and animals emphasizing the interaction between historical and contemporary factors in governing biodiversity. The second section addresses how biotic diversity has changed in the past, how it is currently changing, and how it will likely respond to future changes in climate and land use. The third section treats both the conceptual basis and the evidence that biodiversity influences the functioning of arctic and alpine ecosystems. Also included are the implications of terrestrial patterns of biodiversity for landscape patterns and for patterns of diversity in aquatic ecosystems. ... Read more

Product Description
Biodiversity is recognized to be of global importance, yet species and habitats continue to be under increasing pressure from human-induced influences. Environmental concerns are high on the political agenda, driving increased legislation to protect the natural environment. The starting point for much of this legislation is the requirement for a comprehensive biodiversity audit. This Handbook provides standard procedures which will enable practitioners to better monitor the condition of the biodiversity resource, resulting in improved data upon which to base future policy decisions and actions. ... Read more

Product Description
The Global Biodiversity Assessment is an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific analysis and assessment of the biological and socio-economic aspects of biodiversity. It was commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The main conclusions drawn by the Assessment are presented in this Summary for Policy-Makers, which, together with the Executive Summary, has been prepared by the Editorial Group of the Global Biodiversity Assessment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Global Biodiversity Assessment
A useful textbook for students, scientists and policy makers. The information is extensive and detailed in a logical fashion, taking the reader from the basics of biodiversity through to human influences,economic values and conservation. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a high-level scientific text and reference work on the properties of land-water ecotones and their role in maintaining local, regional, and global biological diversity. It reviews current knowledge of the subject, explains the importance of land-water ecotones in maintaining biodiversity and the factors controlling biodiversity, identifies the role of biodiversity in the functioning of transition systems between ecosystems as well as the main scientific issues for future research leading to the development of a general theory of biological diversity, and examines the impact of human activity on land-water ecotones. The book's eleven chapters cover microbiological diversity, plant diversity, invertebrate biodiversity, bird diversity, mammal diversity, and ecotonal biodiversity and sustainability in tropical landscapes. ... Read more

Product Description
Essay aus dem Jahr 2002 im Fachbereich Geowiss. / Geographie - Meteorologie, Klimatologie, einseitig bedruckt, Note: 1.1 (A), 7 Eintragungen im Literaturverzeichnis, Sprache: Englisch, Anmerkungen: Incl. Bibliography , Abstract: Climates have changed and still are constantly changing at all scales, from local to global, and over varying time-spans. There have been, however, surges of change over time which meteorologists and earth scientists are continually trying to clarify and explain. Global climatic change due to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases has dominated the environmental agenda since the mid 1980s and has engendered considerable international political debate. There is no doubt that over the last 100 years or so, human action has significantly increased the atmospheric concentrations of several gases that are closely related to global temperature. It seems likely that these increased concentrations, which are said to continue to rise in the near future, are already affecting global climate, but our poor knowledge and understanding of the workings of the global heat balance make the current and future situation uncertain. Since the atmosphere is intimately linked to the workings of the biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, the projected changes in climate will have significant effects on all aspects of the natural world in which we live. Many ecological systems will be dramatically changed by global warming and this might lead to changes or even loss of biodiversity. ... Read more

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Contends that effective biological conservation and social justice must go hand in hand. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Guide to Successful Biodiversity Conservation
This book came to my attention and interest after reading John Terbough's fine book "Requiem for Nature".I was interested in a book that offered solutions and insights into the problems of biodiversity protection that Terbough had described in his book.

Enough time has passed from some of the early efforts in protection of nature reserves in the tropics that an assessment of success can be made and an analysis of problems.This book was exactly what I was looking for as it makes the holistic assessment and analysis of parks and reserves. What has often been omitted in efforts to preserve biodiversityis a strategy to work with the local population that has lived in or near the parks and have made their living with the parks resources.All to often in the past these people have been forcibly removed and have justifiably become adversaries of parks and conservation.Foreign conservation organizations and national governments have made mistakes in destroying locally successful conservation strategies due to a lack of a sociological perspective and review.

The four editors of the book have looked at this as a sociological problem and have collected the essays and studies together for this book.
They mention that "The most likely alternative to socially just conservation is increasing levels of resistance and conflict at all geographic scales, a situation that can derail attempts at nature protection."

Six key concepts in socially just conservation and political processes to enhance nature protection are explored in this work including: 1. Human Dignity-Establishing a Strong Moral Foundation for Social Process.2.Legitimacy-Constructing Authority.3.Governance-Establishing Modes of Decision Making and Power Sharing.4.Accountability-Guaranteeing Responsibility and Performance.5.Adaptation andLearning-Institutionalizing Reflection and Self-Correction.6.Non-local Forces-Analysis of the influence of National,International firms and their relationships to State and National elites in decision making.

With my education in biology and health care and its perspective parts of the book seemed a bit arcane, especially the third chapter by Peter Wilshusen on "Exploring the Political Contours of Conservation".The Section including "Critical Social Theory and the Dual Nature of Structure" was a very abstract academic perspective on the role of power players in park organization, establishment, and regulation that I personally found difficult to comprehend.The majority of the book is set with more concrete examples of the social problems of illegal residents, poverty, ecotourism, local and regional control issues that have been studied in Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean.This is the heart of the compilation and each site study is rich with unique solutions that are found and accomplished only during work in the field with the people that have the most to gain or lose and are the key in conserving tropical nature reserves.

Anyone well versed in Sociology or Political Science would not have difficulty with this book in its academic format and all that are interested in the success of biodiversity protection should read this and benefit from its important lessons and insights.


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Product Description
It is received wisdom for today's politicians and scientists that the only way to produce enough food for a growing global population is to clear and claim more land for agriculture, to specialize in certain high-yield crops, and to utilize every chemical and technological aid, including genetic engineering, to promote growth. This is also highly profitable for the multinational companies who produce the fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs for agribusiness. For Vandana Shiva, this is a recipe for disaster. A world in which nature's own abundance--the infinite variety of species, or "biodiversity"--is allowed full range is the only world that can offer either hope or safety. Over-dependence on a limited number of crops is unwise. Genetic engineering may bring with it hazards impossible to predict and impossible to reverse. Among the most obvious of the sad consequences of biotechnology in the West is the threat to so many songbird species, but there are other less apparent dangers in depleting the diversity of the gene pool, most important the loss of genetic material to help sustain the complex environmental balance of our planet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Siva opens eyes
Vandana Shivastarted out as a physicist,is nowa crusader for biodiversity. She has a terrific clear and direct style.
This short book tipped me over the edge, to an anti -GMO [geneticaly modied organisms] position. In the long-term GMO's may do wonders, but in the short term they are instruments in the hands of Global Capital, used to steal from the people. VS has a very important take on "yield" - the appropriated bottom lands "yield" less food and fibre, but they do yield profits for the corporations - this a is truly radical concept. Her stories of hundreds of farmer suicides in the wake of modern monoculture introduction are chilling, as are the dangers we are piling up by relying on vast areas of identically vulnerable crops.
Read this book and be changed.
Beyond the book:
A recent story suggests cause for hope. In Honduras, farmers on the slopes use grass berms on the contours and legumes to improve the soil. Their production is more valuable than that of the valley flats. The hill farming takes labour, so Capital cant take it over.This looks like the way ahead for the majority of the world, deserted by Capital. A key to the method is use of the correct varieties - winged beansthe most prominent, but different altitudes benefit from different legumes. Information on varieties is crucial. Reports from Africa also suggest that legumes plus controlled animal grazingandfodder collection are making successful small farms .A truck to market can put the farm into the cash economy. ... Read more

Product Description

Frigid, dark, and energy-deprived, the deep sea was long considered hostile to life. However, new sampling technologies and intense international research efforts in recent decades have revealed a remarkably rich fauna and an astonishing variety of novel habitats. These recent discoveries have changed the way we look at global biodiversity. In Deep-Sea Biodiversity, Michael Rex and Ron Etter present the first synthesis of patterns and causes of biodiversity in organisms that dwell in the vast sediment ecosystem that blankets the ocean floor. They provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of geographic variation in benthic animal abundance and biomass. The authors document geographic patterns of deep-sea species diversity and integrate potential ecological causes across scales of time and space. They also review the most recent molecular population genetic evidence to describe how and where evolutionary processes have generated the unique deep-sea fauna. Deep-Sea Biodiversity offers a new understanding of marine biodiversity that will be of general interest to ecologists and is crucial to responsible exploitation of natural resources at the deep-sea floor.

Product Description
Writing for researchers, professionals and graduate students, the authors summarize the collapse of populations of many farmland bird species in the 20th century, one of the biggest conservation problems of the day. They firstly set the historical context of change in agriculture and bird communities since the 18th century, and introduce the bird communities of agricultural land today. They then provide an overview of this very active area of applied conservation science, including in-depth case studies of 16 species that, taken together, illustrate the many ways that agricultural intensification has affected bird populations. Moreover, they show how this evidence base, coupled with recent greening of agriculture policy, has provided opportunities to manage agricultural land to better integrate the needs of food production and bird conservation. They conclude by looking forward to challenges that the conservation of bird populations on agricultural land is likely to face in the near future. ... Read more

Product Description

Together with its companion Volume 190 Wetlands and Natural Resource Management, this volume gives a broad and well-integrated overview of recent major scientific results in wetland science and their applications in natural resource management issues.

After an introduction into the field, 12 chapters contributed by internationally known experts summarize the state of the art on a particular subject. They are divided into the following three sections: Functioning of Plants and Animals in Wetlands - Conservation and Management of Wetlands - Wetland Restoration and Creation.

The volume is of interest to wetland scientists, natural resource managers, as well as policy makers.

Product Description
*Shows how parks can effectively promote both the conservation of biodiversity and rural development
*Examines the competing demands on parks and provides lessons, derived from over fifty case studies, applicable to parks around the world
*Researched and written by top scholar-practitioners from the Southern Africa Sustainable Use Specialist Group of IUCN

Parks face intense pressure both to conserve biodiversity and provide economic opportunities for rural communities. Based on the insight from over fifty case studies, this book synthesizes lessons to guide park management in transitional economies where the challenges of poverty and governance can be severe.
The central insight is that parks are common property regimes that supposedly serve society. If parks are set aside to serve poor people, should conservation demands over-rule demands for jobs and economic growth? Or will deliberately using parks as bridgeheads for better land use and engines for rural development produce more and better conservation? Accountability emerges as a major issue at all levels, including the problematic linkages between park authorities and the political system, and the ability to measure park performance. This book provides important lessons in park management regarding the relationship between conservation and commercialization, performance management, new systems of governance and management, and linkages between parks, landscape and the land-use economy. ... Read more

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Blending scientific and legal expertise, Kunich proves that a devastating ecological crisis is imminent or even underway already, and that conservation law has yet to catch up with biological science. He challenges readers with a hotspots wager, arguing that he have vastly more to gain than lose by legally protecting biological hotspots, and that foregoing them in favor of the relatively minor and immediate returns arising from their devastation is both foolish and, ultimately, dangerous.

Legal thought lags behind modern science in focusing on and setting priorities for global conservation. An extinction spasm is imminent, many scientists argue, due to the ongoing global devastation of biological hotspots, home to a disproportionate share of all life forms, including perhaps millions of unknown species. These hotspots have already lost 88 percent of their primary vegetation and are likely to lose much more, yet few legal measures exist to protect them. Environmental legal protections are often incomprehensive and feebly enforced. Even worse, 62 percent of all hotspots are unprotected. Kunich provides a brief history and science of extinction. He discusses the importance of saving species from extinction and analyzes the legal measures directed toward preserving biodiversity in nations that harbor hotspots.

Customer Reviews (5)

Extinction can't be legal
I thought before I read Ark of the Broken Covenant that extinction can't possibly be legal.Especially not the extinction of thousands, even tens of thousands, of species in the world.But this book proves that all the laws on the books are not preventing the 6th massive extinction in Earth's history.

If that doesn't get your blood boiling, you're probably already extinct yourself.The last couple dozen pages in this book are the most amazing thing I've ever read as a plan to save our environment.I only hope enough people read them, before it's too late forever.

A Must Read Understanding of Bio-diversity
Ark of the Broken Covenant

Reviewer:Professor Richard Lester from Montgomery AL

John Kunich has done it again!In this superb book, Kunich presents a fascinating and extraordinary map, guide and survival manual for protecting the worlds' endangered biodiversity.In more than any work on the market today, Kunich has written a most important and well-balanced book on this timely subject.He clearly explains how environmental neglect is destroying our quality of life and polluting us to death.His explosive, blockbuster style details the wasteful exhaustion of the world's natural resources.The issue addressed is a megaton bomb ticking.This is a must read.John Kunich's book is clearly a most intelligent, compassionate and totally understanding publication on this most important subject of universal interest.It demands our attention.If the academy had a Mount Rushmore for authorities on protecting the world's biodiversity hotspots, John Kunich would be up there.

Ark of the Broken Covenant
What is a hotspot and why do I care?Why should it matter to me where money is spent in finding and protecting the earth's resources?These questions, for me, were answered in John Charles Kunich's book "Ark of the Broken Covenant".In words and phrases aimed at dissemination of information, John Kunich allows the gentle reader to enter into a world of Global warfare. `To maintain the legal status quo for the hotspots is to sign a death warrant.'Issues that up to now were not in the forefront of the mind are explained in such a way that by the time you are finished reading you also are ready to take up the cause to make sure that no more of our precious resources are decimated.Everyone needs to know what we are allowing to go to extinction because of our ignorance.You need to read this book.You should have read it yesterday.

A must read action plan to save the Planet.
This is the most important book I have ever read.The future of
life on Earth is at stake, and John Kunich brilliantly explains how the law has been unable to stop the mass extinction now underway.He painstakingly describes the international laws and the laws of dozens of foreign nations that attempt to preserve biodiversity, and he leaves no doubt that all these laws have failed miserably.But more than that, Kunich has a proposal for how law can still save the day, and the planet.I've never seen anything in print as phenomenal as the concluding chapters where
Kunich makes the case for his alternative legal approach.Sheer
genius!

Outstanding Blueprint for Global Conservation
"Ark of the Broken Covenant" is an in-depth examination of the world's biodiversity "hotspots" and why current international mechanisms fail to protect them.The book lays out a practical approach to minimize future species extinction.
In the book, Professor Kunich persuasively argues for a shift from a worldwide species-based strategy to a prioritized location-based strategy as a means to have the greatest effort with limited resources.Going beyond the normal academic approach of stating a generalized solution to a problem, Professor Kunich offers a complete solution, starting with proposed legislation, to a viable means of implementing the strategy in the U.S., to workable incentives for third-world nations to support it.
"Ark of the Broken Covenant" should be the game plan for preserving endangered species.It is a must read for environmentalists, lawyers, scientists, poltical leaders, and concerned citizens. ... Read more

Product Description
Until we have a firmer idea of the diversity of a wide range of marine habitats and what controls it, we have little hope of conserving biodiversity, or determining the impact of human activities such as mariculture, fishing, dumping of waste and pollution. This book brings together key studies from the deep sea and open ocean, to tropical shores and polar regions, to consider how comparable the patterns and processes underlying diversity are in these different ecosystems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I may have contributed but...
Even though I co-authored one of the papers in this book. I can recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Marine Biology or Biodiversity. The papers cover quite a wide range of biodiversity topics and takeperspectives from genetic species analysis through to morphologicaldifference. A good and informative book that will give readers an insightinto the science of biodiversity. ... Read more

Product Description
Takes a broad geographical perspective to the problem of describing patterns of biological populations. Paper. ... Read more