Biodiversity Conservation Handbook

This volume provides a reference textbook and comprehensive compilation of multifaceted perspectives on the legal issues arising from the conservation and exploitation of non-human biological resources. Contributors include leading academics, policy-makers and practitioners reviewing a range of socio-legal issues concerning the relationships between humankind and the natural world. The Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law includes chapters on fundamental and cutting-edge issues, including discussion of major legal instruments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. The book is divided into six distinct parts based around the major objectives which have emerged from legal frameworks concerned with protecting biodiversity. Following introductory chapters, Part II examines issues relating to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, with Part III focusing on access and benefit-sharing. Part IV discusses legal issues associated with the protection of traditional knowledge, cultural heritage and indigenous human rights. Parts V and VI focus on a selection of intellectual property issues connected to the commercial exploitation of biological resources, and analyse ethical issues, including viewpoints from economic, ethnobotanical, pharmaceutical and other scientific industry perspectives.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book comprehensively describes essential research and projects on climate change and biodiversity. Moreover, it includes contributions on how to promote the climate agenda and biodiversity conservation at the local level. Climate change as a whole and global warming in particular are known to have a negative impact on biodiversity in three main ways. Firstly, increases in temperatures are detrimental to a number of organisms, especially those in sensitive habitats such as coral reefs and rainforests. Secondly, the pressures posed by a changing climate may lead to sets of responses in areas as varied as phenology, range and physiology of living organisms, often leading to changes in their lifecycles (especially but not only in reproduction), losses in productivity or even death. In some cases, the very survival of very sensitive species may be endangered. Thirdly, the impacts of climate change on biodiversity will be felt in the short term with regard to some species and ecosystems, but also in the medium and long term in many biomes. Indeed, if left unchecked, some of these impacts may be irreversible. Many individual governments, financial institutes and international donors are currently spending billions of dollars on projects addressing climate change and biodiversity, but with little coordination. Quite often, the emphasis is on adaptation efforts, with little emphasis on the connections between physio-ecological changes and the lifecycles and metabolisms of fauna and flora, or the influence of poor governance on biodiversity. As such, there is a recognized need to not only better understand the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, but to also identify, test and implement measures aimed at managing the many risks that climate change poses to fauna, flora and micro-organisms. In particular, the question of how to restore and protect ecosystems from the impact of climate change also has to be urgently addressed. This book was written to address this need. The respective papers explore matters related to the use of an ecosystem-based approach to increase local adaptation capacity, consider the significance of a protected areas network in preserving biodiversity in a changing northern European climate, and assess the impacts of climate change on specific species, including wild terrestrial animals. The book also presents a variety of case studies such as the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, the effects of climate change on the biodiversity of Aleppo pine forest in Senalba (Algeria), climate change and biodiversity response in the Niger Delta region, and the effects of forest fires on the biodiversity and the soil characteristics of tropical peatlands in Indonesia. This is a truly interdisciplinary publication, and will benefit all scholars, social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies engaged in research and/or executing projects on climate change and biodiversity around the world.

Textbooks on the principles of conservation biology abound. Yet, how does one put this theoretical knowledge into practice? The aim of The Conservation Handbook is to provide clear guidance on the implementation of conservation techniques. The wide range of methods described include those for ecological research, monitoring, planning, education, habitat management and combining conservation with development. Nineteen case studies illustrate how the methods have been applied. The book will be of interest to conservation biology students and practicing conservationists worldwide. For each copy of the book sold, another copy will be sent free to a practicing conservationist outside Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Foreword by E. O. Wilson. Concise, practical guide packed full of ideas, methods and advice. Provides solutions for the main conservation problems most commonly encountered. 18 global case studies illustrate the application of techniques. The Conservation Handbook Donations Project this book is being sent free to those practising conservationists outside Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan who are otherwise unlikely to obtain a copy. These copies are provided at cost price by Blackwell Science, the publisher, and paid for with the author''s royalties. Each book sold means another one will be donated.

This Handbook, first published in 2005, provides standard procedures for planning and conducting a survey of any species or habitat and for evaluating the data.

As the impacts of anthropogenic activities increase in both magnitude and extent, biodiversity is coming under increasing pressure. Scientists and policy makers are frequently hampered by a lack of information on biological systems, particularly information relating to long-term trends. Such information is crucial to developing an understanding as to how biodiversity may respond to global environmental change. Knowledge gaps make it very difficult to develop effective policies and legislation to reduce and reverse biodiversity loss. This book explores the gap between global commitments to biodiversity conservation, and local action to track biodiversity change and implement conservation action. High profile international political commitments to improve biodiversity conservation, such as the targets set by the Convention on Biological Diversity, require innovative and rapid responses from both science and policy. This multi-disciplinary perspective highlights barriers to conservation and offers novel solutions to evaluating trends in biodiversity at multiple scales.

Professor Fikret Berkes provides a unique introduction to the social and interdisciplinary dimensions of biodiversity conservation. Examining a range of approaches, new ideas, controversies and debates, he demonstrates that biodiversity loss is not primarily a technical issue, but a social problem that operates in an economic, political and cultural context. Berkes concludes that conservation must be democratized in order to broaden its support base and build more inclusive constituencies for conservation.

The conservation of biodiversity is now big business. Whether called conservation banking, species banking, habitat banking, biodiversity banking, biodiversity offsets, compensatory mitigation or ecological footprint offsetting, the idea of financially valuing biodiversity and using the market and businesses to promote conservation is growing rapidly. This handbook is a comprehensive guide to conservation banking, explaining what it is and how it works. Written by leading ecosystem market experts, the book provides practical guidance, tools, case studies, analysis and insights into conservation banking and other market-based approaches to conservation. Coverage includes the origins of conservation banking, the pros and cons for conservation, how conservation banking works in reality, the legal, practical and financial aspects of setting up and running a conservation bank and how 'biodiversity off-sets' can be internationalized. Published with Ecosystem Marketplace

This OECD Handbook shows how public policy in the form of market creation can be used to internalise the loss of biodiversity. It promotes the use of markets to ensure that our collective preferences for conservation and sustainable use are reflected in economic outcomes.