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The concept of ecological integrity is used in environmental policy but is usually left undefined. The definition proposed by the Integrity Group is quite demanding: it tends to focus on a nature that has been impacted by human activity as little as possible, viz., located in remote areas, emphasising and protecting its self organising capacities for life as a product of the natural history of ecosystems. The demand is for an ethical reverence for life in all its manifestations. The representatives of Central and Eastern European countries are less wary of human intervention than their North American counterparts. They consider low input agricultural ecosystems as acceptable candidates for ecological integrity, on condition they contain some unproductive components.
In its study of ecological integrity the book's strength is its true multidisciplinarity, strongly grounded in ecology, thermodynamics, ethics and complex systems approach. It covers a broad international terrain, it documents geographically wide ranging case studies. It is thus applied in character and does not remain at the purely conceptual level.
Readership: National parks and protected areas administrators, IUCN, ecologists, conservation biologists and environmental managers.
Preface. Introduction. Part I: What is Global and Regional Integrity? 1. The Global Integrity Project and the Ethics of Integrity; L. Westra. 2. The Coming Change in the Environmental Protection Paradigm; L. Ryszkowski. 3. Approaches to Ecological Integrity: Divergence, Convergence and Implementation; P. Miller. Part II: National Parks in Eastern Europe. 4. Ecosystem Integrity and Its Implementation in Eastern Siberia; I. Glazyrina, T. Strizhova. 5. The Regional Scope of Implementing Global Ecological Integrity: the Sumava Mountains; E. Cudlinova, et al. 6. Natural Transborder Parks: the Direction of Biodiversity Preservation in Romania; M. Patroescu Ph.D, L. Rozylowicz. 7. State Parks -- as a Model of Nature and Culture Protection and Sustainable Development; R. Kitoviene. Part III: How do we Measure Ecological Integrity? 8. Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ecological Integrity: Insights from an Ecosystem Approach; J.J. Kay, H.A. Regier. 9. Ecological Functions and Integrity: Approaches to Valuation; O.L. Loucks. 10. Rare Species Indicate Ecological Integrity: an Example of an Urban Nature Reserve Island; F. Samu, C. Szinetar. 11. Systems Modeling of Brazilian Sustainability with Emergy Flows Diagrams; P. Safonov, et al. 12. Ecological Functions and Socio-Economic Values of Critical Natural Capital as a Measure for Ecological Integrity and Environmental Health; R. De Groot, et al. Part IV: Human Health and Integrity. 13. Strategies for Assessing the Health Impacts of Global Environmental Change; A.J. McMichael, R.S. Kovats. 14. Environmental & Human Health Aspects of Burning Arsenic Reach Coal Ecology Restoring Issues; V. Bencko. 15. The Problem-Solving Approach in a Community-Lead Pollution Chronic Exposure Situation; I.S. Bocsan, et al. 16. Mothers and Mother Nature: Attachment, Detachment and Human Ecological Integrity; I. Lazar M.D. Ph.D. 17. A Decisional System for the Ethical Evaluation of Animal Experiments; V. SimkeviCiene, S. Ulickiene. Part V: How do we Implement Integrity? 18. The Use of Existing Legal Tools to Protect Ecological Integrity; D.A. Brown, Esq. 19. A Behavioural Approach to Understand the Distinctive Influence of Environmental Instruments on Ecological Integrity; C. Gallez. 20. The Water Conflict in the Middle East: A Test Case for International Intervention; S. Karin-Frank. 21. Instruments for Management in Integral Environment Policy; I. Malakhov. 22. Design of Sustainable Development Strategy for a Region; V. Gurman, E. Ryumina. 23. Global Bioethics: a Suggested Distinction between Ethic and Morality; B. Chiarelli. 24. The Conception of Natural Goods in Economics; J.I. Toth. Part VI: Implementing Ecological Integrity in Agriculture and the City. 25. Agriculture, Food, Populations, Natural Resources and Ecological Integrity; D. Pimentel, C.A. Edwards. 26. A Human Ecological Assessment of Economic and Population Health; W.E. Rees, Ph,D. 27. Discourse of a `New Alliance' between Neo-Classical Environmental Economics and Other Environmental Narratives; P. Crabbe. Conclusion. Index.
