Freshwater Ecosystems in Protected Areas Conservation and Management

About this book

Freshwater ecosystems have the greatest species diversity per unit area. Freshwater Ecosystems in Protected Areas shows that, rather than a marginal part of protected area management, freshwater conservation is central to sustaining biodiversity. It focuses on better practices for conserving inland aquatic ecosystems in protected areas (PAs), including rivers, wetlands, swamps, other brackish and freshwater ecosystems, and coastal estuaries. The authors define inland aquatic ecosystems, showing just how diverse and widespread they are. They examine the principles and processes that are essential to conservation of freshwater ecosystems and aquatic species (often fundamentally different from terrestrial ecosystems). They introduce the threats to freshwater ecosystems and the flow-on implications for protected area design. Practical case studies are used to illustrate principles and practices applied around the world. Specific management needs of the main types of freshwater ecosystems are considered, as well as the management of freshwaters in the broader landscape, showing how nature resource governance processes can be harnessed to better manage freshwater biodiversity, and including how to adapt freshwater conservation practices to climate change.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Freshwater ecosystems
3. Freshwater ecological principles
4. Managing threats to freshwater systems with protected areas
5. Conserving freshwater species in protected areas
6. Managing specific freshwater ecosystems
7. Managing freshwater protected areas in the landscape
8. Freshwater protected area corridors
9. Water planning and freshwater protected areas
10. Planning ecologically: the importance of management at catchment scales
11. Climate change
12. Conclusions

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Biography

Max Finlayson is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Land, Water and Society at Charles Sturt University, Australia and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Wetland Research, China Academy of Forestry, China.

Angela H. Arthington is Emeritus Professor at the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Australia.

Jamie Pittock is an Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Australia. and Director of International Programs for the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance at ANU.