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The sustainable use of biodiversity is one of the three key objectives of the 1992 "Convention on Biological Diversity". To achieve this, sound conservation practice has to be recognized as beneficial and implemented by all who access, or use it - from subsistence farmers to skiers and pharmaceutical bioprospectors. At the same time, indigenous peoples necessarily utilize enormous numbers of plants, fungi, and fish, particularly for foods and medicines.
This book gathers together a wide range of contributions addressing diverse aspects of front-line human involvement in biodiversity exploitation and conservation. Its scope is broad, the organisms explored ranging from birds, invertebrates and mammals - both terrestrial and aquatic - to crops and medicinal plants. Meanwhile, the issues addressed include land use changes, the importance of gardens, hedges and green lanes, housing developments, hunting, invasive species, local community involvement, sacred groves, socioeconomic factors and trade.
These peer reviewed case studies come from studies in 17 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Providing a snap-shot of on-going action and state-of-the-art research, rather than a series of necessarily more superficial overviews, this collection will be of particular interest to courses including biodiversity and/or conservation issues, and to advanced students and researchers working in related fields.
Reprinted from Biodiversity and Conservation 15:8 (2006).
From the contentsImpacts of demographic and socioeconomic factors on spatio-temporal dynamics of panda habitat.- Avian species richness and numbers in the built environment.- Indigenous knowledge and traditional conservation of fonio millet.- People and mammals in Mexico.- Urban domestic gardens (VI).- Biodiversity conservation in sacred groves of Manipur, northeast India.- A numeric index to establish conservation priorities for medicinal plants.- Subsistence hunting and conservation issues in the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique.- The catch and trade of seahorses in Vietnam.- Urban domestic gardens (VIII).- Effects of livestock grazing on aboveground insect communities in semi-arid grasslands of southeastern Arizona.- Medicinal plants of the Argentine Yungas plants of the Las Yungas biosphere reserve.- Hedges and green lanes.- Biodiversity and land use change on the Causse Mejan, France.- Impact of game hunting by the Kayapo of south-eastern Arizona.- Genetic diversity in traditional Ethiopian highland.-
From the reviews: "This absorbing volume brings together papers from ! the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. ! Each chapter ! is a little treasure house of biotic data, indigenous knowledge, or informed ideas about planning and implementing conservation projects. Overall, the collection is ! manageably grand in scope. ! The book is recommended as a useful addition to the library of conservation biologists, natural resource managers, grass-roots stakeholders and advocates, and, especially, students looking for a convenient entree into the literature about global studies." (Gary Haynes, Ecology, Vol. 89 (6), 2008)
