Defining Common Ground for the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor

Defining Common Ground for the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
Author: Kenton Miller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2001
Genre: Nature
ISBN:

This work is intended to catalyze actions necessary to plan and implement the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. It introduces the MBC Initiative, examines its implications for stakeholder groups, and identifies the challenges that must be addressed if the MBC is to be effectively implemented.

Between Preservation and Exploitation

Between Preservation and Exploitation
Author: Kemi Fuentes-George
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2016-03-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262528762

A study of biodiversity governance analyzes the factors that determine the effectiveness of transnational advocacy networks and the importance of justice claims to conservation. In the late 2000s, ordinary citizens in Jamaica and Mexico demanded that government put a stop to lucrative but environmentally harmful economic development activities—bauxite mining in Jamaica and large-scale tourism and overfishing on the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. In each case, the catalyst for the campaign was information gathered and disseminated by transnational advocacy networks (TANs) of researchers, academics, and activists. Both campaigns were successful despite opposition from industry supporters. Meanwhile, simultaneous campaigns to manage land in another part of the Yucatán and to conserve migratory birds in Egypt had far less success. In this book, Kemi Fuentes-George uses these four cases to analyze factors that determine the success or failure of efforts by TANs to persuade policymakers and private sector actors in developing countries to change environmental behavior. Fuentes-George argues that in order to influence the design and implementation of policy, TANs must generate a scientific consensus, create social relationships with local actors, and advocate for biodiversity in a way that promotes local environmental justice. Environmentally just policies would allow local populations access to their lands provided they use natural resources sustainably. Justice claims are also more likely to generate needed support among local groups for conservation projects. In their conservation efforts, Jamaica, Mexico, and Egypt were attempting to meet their obligations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and other regional agreements. Fuentes-George's innovative analysis shows the importance of local environmental justice for the implementation of international environmental treaties.

Applying Nature's Design

Applying Nature's Design
Author: Anthony Bennett Anderson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2006
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780231134101

Human actions are fragmenting habitats throughout the world. To address this problem, conservationists have set up biological corridors, areas of land set aside to facilitate the movement of species and ecological processes. This book offers an overview of the design and effectiveness of these corridors.

Connectivity Conservation Management

Connectivity Conservation Management
Author: Graeme Worboys
Publisher: Earthscan
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1844076032

First Published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Ecoagriculture

Ecoagriculture
Author: Future Harvest
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2012-09-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1610910621

Although food-production systems for the world's rural poor typically have had devastating effects on the planet's wealth of genes, species, and ecosystems, that need not be the case in the future. In Ecoagriculture, two of the world's leading experts on conservation and development examine the idea that agricultural landscapes can be designed more creatively to take the needs of human populations into account while also protecting, or even enhancing, biodiversity. They present a thorough overview of the innovative concept of "ecoagriculture" - the management of landscapes for both the production of food and the conservation of wild biodiversity. The book: examines the global impact of agriculture on wild biodiversity describes the challenge of reconciling biodiversity conservation and agricultural goals outlines and discusses the ecoagriculture approach presents diverse case studies that illustrate key strategies explores how policies, markets, and institutions can be re-shaped to support ecoagriculture While focusing on tropical regions of the developing world -- where increased agricultural productivity is most vital for food security, poverty reduction, and sustainable development, and where so much of the world's wild biodiversity is threatened -- it also draws on lessons learned in developed countries. Dozens of examples from around the world present proven strategies for small-scale, low-income farmers involved in commercial production. Ecoagriculture explores new approaches to agricultural production that complement natural environments, enhance ecosystem function, and improve rural livelihoods. It features a wealth of real-world case studies that demonstrate the applicability of the ideas discussed and how the principles can be applied, and is an important new work for policymakers, students, researchers, and anyone concerned with conserving biodiversity while sustaining human populations.

People and the Environment

People and the Environment
Author:
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2003
Genre: Digital mapping
ISBN: 1402073224

People and the Environment: Approaches for Linking Household and Community Surveys to Remote Sensing and GIS appeals to a wide range of natural, social, and spatial scientists with interests in conducting population and environment research and thereby characterizing (a) land use and land cover dynamics through remote sensing, (b) demographic and socio-economic variables through household and community surveys, and (c) local site and situation through resource endowments, geographical accessibility, and connections of people to place through GIS. Case studies are used to examine theories and practices useful in linking people and the environment. We also describe land use and land cover dynamics and the associated social, biophysical, and geographical drivers of change articulated through human-environment interactions. People and the Environment: Approaches for Linking Household and Community Surveys to Remote Sensing and GIS addresses a need for a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of linking across thematic domains (e.g., social, biophysical, and geographical) and across space and time scales for research and study within the context of human-environment interactions. The human dimensions research community, LULCC program, and human and landscape ecology communities are collectively viewing the landscape within a spatially-explicit perspective, where people are viewed as agents of landscape change that shape and are shaped by the landscape, and where landscape form and function are assessed within a space-time context. Current researchers and those following this early group of integrative scientists face challenges in conducting this type of research, but the potential rewards for insight are substantial.

The Green Belt of Europe

The Green Belt of Europe
Author: Andrew Terry
Publisher: IUCN
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2006
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9782831709451

The Iron Curtain, running from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea, divided Europe for almost 40 years and no activity was allowed in this "forbidden" zone. When it fell in 1989, it left a strip of land that runs the entire length of Europe and that has remained comparatively undisturbed - a green belt. The Green Belt initiative aims to integrate this entire strip of land with its key habitats and ecological areas as part of an international network of valuable ecosystems. This book provides background information on the initiative, reviews current activities in a number of case studies and looks at how the initiative can fit into current and future global efforts to protect European biodiversity.

Land Change Science

Land Change Science
Author: Garik Gutman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2012-03-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9400743068

This volume is a synthesis of the NASA funded work under the Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program. Hundreds of scientists have worked for the past eight years to understand one of the most important forces that is changing our planet-human impacts on land cover, that is land use. Its contributions span the natural and the social sciences, and apply state-of-the-art techniques for understanding the earth: satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems, modeling, and advanced computing. It brings together detailed case studies, regional analyses, and globally scaled mapping efforts. This is the most organized effort made to understand the dominant force that has been responsible for changing the Earth’s biosphere. Audience: This publication will be of interest to students, scientists, and policy makers. This volume includes a CD-ROM containing full color images of a selection of illustrations which are printed in black-and-white in the book.

Tropical Agroecosystems

Tropical Agroecosystems
Author: John H. Vandermeer
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2002-12-03
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1420039881

Tropical areas present ecological, cultural and political problems that demand analysis that is distinct from general ecological analysis. The tropical environment is special in many ways, from the lack of a biological down season (winter), to generally poor soil conditions, to a reliance on traditional methods of agriculture in an undeveloped soci

Integrating Ecology and Poverty Reduction

Integrating Ecology and Poverty Reduction
Author: Jane Carter Ingram
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2012-02-15
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1441906339

In the past, the science of ecology has frequently been excluded from the development agenda for various reasons. Increasingly however there has been a renewed interest in finding more ecologically sustainable means of development that have required a strong foundation in ecological knowledge (for example EcoAgriculture Partnerships, EcoHealth presented at ESA, and EcoNutrition proposed by Deckelbaum et al). Each of these examples has already taken the critical first step at integrating ecological knowledge with agriculture, health and nutrition, respectively. However, this is only the first step; more attention needs to be placed not only on the role that two fields can play towards poverty alleviation, but on the role of a truly integrated, interdisciplinary approach towards development goals that is firmly grounded in ecological understanding. We feel that a critical look at what ecology can and cannot provide to the development agenda, in light of the Millennium Development goals, is timely and crucial. The introduction and the final section of the book will then integrate the lessons and principles outlined in each of the chapters. All chapter authors will be heavily encouraged to focus on how their sub-discipline in ecology impacts overall human well-being and environmental sustainability.