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Sustainable management is a problem of countries that depend on natural resources. Forests contain much of the world's biodiversity and offer significant renewable resources with a potentially small ecological and carbon footprint. Yet as global demand for forest products increases, conserving biodiversity has become more urgent and challenging. Forestry and Biodiversity makes the case for adaptive management - a structured approach to learning by doing - to sustain biodiversity in managed forests. It draws on the theory and principles of conservation biology and forest ecology and illustrates them, and the challenges they pose, through a practical, real-world study of a 1.1 million hectare commercial operation in a coastal temperate rainforest. Accessible and innovative, this book describes a program for sustaining biodiversity that will be of interest to those who plan, or hope to influence, forest practices and to those who are concerned with wildlife, climate change, and the environment. Contributors include William J. Beese; Fred L. Bunnell; Glen B. Dunsworth; David J. Huggard; Laurie L. Kremsater; and Jeff Sandford. ... Read more

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To-day's neglected decisions become tomorrow's crisis. This well known expression sums up in a few words the fact that environmentalists, scientists, farmers and mankind as w whole have been warning governments throughout the owrld for the past fifty years about the need to give thought to the environment as a consequence of the problems involved with too many factories bellowing smoke, too many cars, trucks and buses polluting the air with the use of fossil fuels (petrol and diesel), too much urbanization and a population growth which has got out of control. The Internatonal Conference on Biodiversity, Environment and Sustainability Challenges for Future to be held at Delhi University,India on Sept. 4-6, promises to provide answers to most of the world's current problems. It can now be written that To-day's crisisi are the result of neglected decisions which have failed the biodiversity of the planet which in turn have destroyed all branches of the Environment which has left no room for a Sustainable Development, be it on land, in the seas or in the air. We are a planet in crisis. This book is a tool to return the planet to the Sustainable Development it can have only by resuming an understanding of the balance between Biodiversity and the Environment. The Challenge is there. This book promises solutions. ... Read more

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This conference, organised by the Council of Europe, the ffencff Government and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is a follow-up to the 4th Ministerial Conference on Environment for Europe, held in 1997 in Aarhus, where the ministers adopted a declaration recognising the importance of integrating environmental considerations into sectoral policies.The conference assessed how different agricultural policies may promote the biological and landscape diversity of European agricultural land. It made recommendations to states and relevant organisations and provided input to policy work and programmes within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ministerial Conference, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the EU's Common Agricultural Policy and national policy developments.The recommendations were formulated by experts and presented in background reports on the different themes covered by the conference. These reports and their recommendations, which formed the basis of the final declaration of the conference, are presented in this volume. ... Read more

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Our Earth supports about 10 million species of plants and animals, which have been the result of 3 billion years of evolution involving mutation, recombination and natural selection. The book "Environment and Biodiversity" provides a comprehensive and critical review of the work done on different areas of the subject. The book contains eight chapters, which include information on the detail investigations of the biodiversity of Sunderbans; biodiversity and bio-functional use of aquatic weeds; Study of wild legumes for sustainable plant productivity; comprehensive account or water pollution, especially river pollution; Use of higher plants for the control of the plant diseases; Use of botanical tools for the post-harvest management of the fruits; Cyanobacterial toxins, their ecology, health hazards and management. Different issues regarding the benefits and application of the biodiversity in different aspect of life has been explored. Important factors responsible for deteriorating the environment quality have been highlighted. Negligence of the environmental issues even by the government machinery has been pointed out. ... Read more

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This digital document is a journal article from Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Agri-environment measures cover at least 20% of the EU's farmland, a proportion rising to approximately 30% in Ireland. A study, investigating effects on biodiversity of Ireland's Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) is described. Field margin flora and Carabidae (ground beetle) fauna were surveyed on 60 paired agreement and non-agreement farms. Greater variation was observed amongst surveyed non-agreement farms: the most species-rich and species-poor farms were all non-agreement. On surveyed grassland farms, average plant species richness was significantly higher on non-agreement than on agreement farms. Otherwise, few differences between average species richness and abundance on agreement and non-agreement farms were revealed. In ordination analysis of the flora and carabidae data factors largely independent of recent management, such as hedge age and gappiness, were most important in explaining observed variation. The study concluded that the scheme has not significantly benefited the groups surveyed, and suggests that the generic measures in such horizontal schemes may be better suited to addressing landscape-level issues such as water pollution, with biodiversity objectives for high nature value areas being more effectively achieved by targeted zonal schemes. Baseline data and long-term monitoring of measurable objectives are essential for effective evaluation, both to better tailor these innovative schemes to their aims, and to clearly demonstrate their benefits. ... Read more

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Pollution has accompanied polar exploration since Captain John Davis’ arrival on the Antarctic continent in 1821 and has become an unavoidable consequence of oil spills in our polar regions. Fortunately, many of the organisms indigenous to Polar ecosystems have the ability to degrade pollutants. It is this metabolic capacity that forms the basis for bioremediation as a potential treatment for the hydrocarbons that contaminate the pristine polar environments.

The only book to cover the breadth of microbial ecology and diversity in polar regions with an emphasis on bioremediation, Polar Microbiology: The Ecology, Biodiversity, and Bioremediation Potential of Microorganisms in Extremely Cold Environments examines the diversity of polar microorganisms and their ability to degrade petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants in polar terrestrial and aquatic environments. Providing a unique perspective of these microorganisms in extremely cold temperatures, the book focuses on their taxonomy, physiology, biochemistry, population structure, bioremediation potential, and potential for biotechnology applications. Leading investigators in the field provide complete coverage of the microbiology relevant to the study of biodiversity and biodegradation of pollutants in the Arctic and Antarctic, including:

• Microbial extremophiles living in cold and subzero temperature environments
• Genetics and physiology of cold adaptation of microorganisms
• Biodegradative microbial consortia in a defined closed environment
• Molecular characterization of biodegradative microbial populations
• Molecular approaches to assess biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons
• Environmental impact of hydrocarbon contamination
• Microbial biodiversity across Antarctic deserts

By bringing together the current state of scientific knowledge and research on microbial community structures in extremely cold temperatures, this thought provoking resource is the ideal starting point for the research that must be done if we are to effectively reduce human’s eco-footprint on our polar regions.

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Contributed articles presented at the National Symposium on the "Role of Plant Tissue Culture in Bio-diversity Conservation and Economic Development" held in G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development, Kosi Katarmal, Almora from 7-9 June 1999. ... Read more

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The rain forests of West Africa have been designated as one of the world's hotspots of biodiversity. They extend from Ghana to Senegal and are referred to as the Upper Guinean forests. Because of their isolated position, they harbour a large number of rare and endemic animal and plant species.This book focuses on the biodiversity and ecology of these forests. It analyses the factors that give rise to biodiversity and structure tropical plant communities. It also includes an atlas with ecological profiles of rare plant species and large timber species. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Worthwhile
A large part of this book is an atlas, one page per species: the atlas is in color, as is the Appendix, while the rest of the book is in B&W. Actually there are two atlasses, one of close to three hundred woody plant species (including some monocots) in West Africa and one of fifty timber species that are important in a smaller area (apparently to be called "Upper Guinea"). However, the three hundred species include some additional timber species, that for some reason did not make it into the second atlas.

Per species there always is a description, a detailed distribution map (very clear, in lovely color), and often a line-drawing or color photograph (personally I would have liked more illustrations, if need be at the expense of the size of the distribution map). The Appendix presents maps in a fair degree of detail showing forest cover. The first hundred pages provide general information on West African forests.
... Read more

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The Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina is one of the most devastated and most highly threatened ecosystem on the planet; less than eight percent of the original forest remains and is facing intense population pressures from all sides.

The Atlantic Forest of South America presents a detailed assessment of the state of biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest. Separate sections examine each of the three countries that are home to the forest, beginning with a brief overview that explores the dynamics of biodiversity loss in that country and outlines the topics to be addressed. Following the overview are individual chapters that analyze: ... Read more

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Current loss of biodiversity places a premium on the task of recognising and formulating proposals on potential areas for biological conservation based on scientific criteria; among these tasks, identification of hotspots has a relevant role on conservation of biodiversity. In this book, the authors discuss the application of different biogeographic methods to identify plant biodiversity hotspots. The areas recognised as such have a relevant role in plant biodiversity and are important in conservation due to their climatic conditions, the historical factors that have been involved in their evolution, and the restricted distribution of some plant taxa that inhabit them. Furthermore, the consequences of deforestation on biodiversity are substantial and widely recognised. This book predicts future land-use change, generates ecological niches of large mammals and assesses wildlife concentrations and their hotspots in different areas of the world. The evolution of the forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, the present situation of its remnants, and the main strategies, conflicts and potentials for conservation are evaluated as well. ... Read more

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• Maintaining forest biodiversity by combining protection, management and restoration of forest and woodland landscapes is a central component of sustainable development.
  
• Evidence that there are threshold levels for how much habitat loss may be tolerated for viable populations of specialised species to be maintained.
  
• Policy-makers, businesses and managers pose questions about how to balance use of renewable forest resources and conserve biodiversity.
  
• Examples are presented on how biodiversity assessments can be made.
  
• Proposes how the critical gaps in our knowledge identified throughout the book could be filled through macroecological research and international co-operation.

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This report looks at ways in which tax incentives may help to promote conservation of biological and landscape diversity in Europe. It outlines how tax incentives relate to other conservation policy options (Part I) before describing existing measures in and beyond Europe that directly benefit landholders (Part II) or create an enabling climate for the conservation sector (Part III). Part IV provides some indicators for the design of tax measures. Part V sets out conclusions and provides draft elements for a future recommendation to Council of Europe Member States on the development of fiscal incentive policies to support measures for biodiversity protection. ... Read more

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Current threats to biodiversity, extinction of species, and major changes in human behavior that experts think are needed to conserve existing biodiversity are all addressed. Successful examples of biodiversity conservation provide a hopeful conclusion for the book. Filled with data, anecdotes, and examples, Biodiversity will capture the interest of a variety of readers from students to scientists.