Untouched since 1953, the Korean DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) has transformed itself into one of the few ecologically pristine zones and a vital habitat for endangered species. Often cited as a potential "peace park", it could one day be a common ground for reconciliation and harmony. A wealth of data and information has been produced over time, documenting significant aspects of the DMZ and its implications for human and ecological security, both in Korea and worldwide. However, there is no single book in English that brings together the findings on the mechanism of evolution, the ecology and biodiversity of the DMZ. "The DMZ of Korea", by Kwi-Gon Kim, is the first step in this direction. It seeks to link scientific information and policy making for the future DMZ ecosystem management, taking into account the fact that the area has become, over the years, a natural treasure as a habitat for rare birds and other wildlife and a fertile environment for a thriving plant community. It also provides a framework for ensuring the long-term sustainability of the DMZ. The book holistically describes the current environmental status of the DMZ, and identifies bioregions, resources, habitats, and species. By outlining the current scientific data and information needed to classify the different wetland types, assess the biological integrity, understand the threat factors, and to suggest conservation and management strategies, the book provides a "one stop shop" scientific and policy source of information, which will undoubtedly be of great interest to students, researchers, practitioners, and policy decision-makers, in the areas of planning, natural resource management, public management, ecology, landscape architecture, geography, and the life sciences. Prof.Dr.Kwi-Gon Kim obtained his Ph.D. at UCL, University of London, UK. He is a professor emeritus at Seoul National University and the Co- President of the Korea DMZ Council in Seoul, Korea.

The book explores how Darwins legendary and mythologized visit to the Galapagos affected the socioecosystems of the Islands, as well as the cultural and intellectual traditions of Ecuador and Latin America. It highlights in what way the connection between Darwin and the Galapagos has had real, enduring and paradoxical effects in the Archipelago. This Twenty Century construct of the Galapagos as the cradle of Darwin's theory and insights triggered not only the definition of the Galapagos as a living natural laboratory but also the production of a series of conservation practices and the reshaping of the Galapagos as a tourism destination with an increasingly important flow of tourists that potentially threaten its fragile ecosystems. The book argues that the idea of a Darwinian living laboratory has been limited by the success of the very same constructs that promote its conservation. It suggests critical interpretations of this paradox by questioning many of the dichotomies that have been created to understand nature and its conservation. We also explore some possible ways in which Darwin's ideas can be used to better understand the social and natural threats facing the Islands and to develop sustainable and successful management practices.

This book offers African, Asian, Latin American, European, and North American perspectives on institutions and regulations promoting sustainable economic growth in the post-2015 development agenda in areas such as environment, labour, risk management, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, and innovation. The chapters address sustainability issues at the firm, national, regional and international levels from a multidisciplinary perspective. The chapters of this volume address the challenge of enhancing economic competitiveness of the supply side economies while pushing a sustainable development agenda. This work addresses the existing inequalities, environmental degradation, and economic/financial instability under current dynamics of international and domestic power relations in order to meet the set objectives for the post-2015 era. This volume advances the perspectives on the non-compulsory alternative to markets regulations, the United Nations Global Compact, explored in the previous volume 'The UN Global Compact: Fair Competition and Environmental and Labour Justice in International Markets' vol. 16.

Hugh P. Possingham Landscape-scale conservation planning is coming of age. In the last couple of decades, conservation practitioners, working at all levels of governance and all spatial scales, have embraced the CARE principles of conservation planning - Comprehensiveness, Adequacy, Representativeness, and Efficiency. Hundreds of papers have been written on this theme, and several different kinds of software program have been developed and used around the world, making conservation planning based on these principles global in its reach and influence. Does this mean that all the science of conservation planning is over - that the discovery phase has been replaced by an engineering phase as we move from defining the rules to implementing them in the landscape? This book and the continuing growth in the literature suggest that the answer to this question is most definitely 'no. ' All of applied conservation can be wrapped up into a single sentence: what should be done (the action), in what place, at what time, using what mechanism, and for what outcome (the objective). It all seems pretty simple - what, where, when, how and why. However stating a problem does not mean it is easy to solve.

This book provides a broad overview of how the promotion of ocean and coastal literacy is being planned, applied and evaluated in Brazil, a country of continental dimensions with a great diversity of cultural, educational and social realities. It discusses a range of target groups, from children to adults; formal and informal strategies; and various promoting players, such as groups/institutions. Researchers representing Brazilian academic institutions and NGOs share their environmental education (EE) experiences in Brazil and describe the main concerns regarding the marine and coastal environments as well as how they are addressing these concerns in their EE projects. This book is of interest to anyone who is looking for ways of designing and implementing EE activities with a robust theoretical background in different socio-cultural scenarios.

This book mainly focuses on ecological approaches for preventing and controlling non-point source (NPS) pollution on the basis of forestry measures. In addition to the effects of ecological control, it introduces readers to the characteristics of NPS pollution in Taihu Lake watershed, water eutrophication evaluation methods, and potential countermeasures. Given the crucial role of surface runoff and soil erosion in producing water pollution, the book presents forestry measures to combat them, such as the creation of public welfare forests, urban forestry, planting techniques for hedgerows on slope land, the establishment of shelter belts, nitrogen and phosphorus absorption by hydrophytes, and sustainable management for wetlands. Moreover, the results are supplemented by a wealth of numerical calculations, tables, figures and photographs. The book offers a valuable guide for researchers, educators and professionals working in the areas of water environment, water security and ecological construction. Prof. Jianfeng Zhang works at the Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Fuyang, China.

The first synthesis of current research regarding Everglades microbial community structure and function, this book provides an understanding of the physical and chemical factors affecting the structure of microbial communities, including nutrient effects, sea level rise, and other potential stressors. The book integrates traditional research on algal and bacterial structure and function, helping to provide a more holistic understanding of the varying microbial communities throughout the Everglades. From periphyton, to soils and detritus, to flocculent organic matter, Microbiology of the Everglades Ecosystem covers new and emerging methods and their global application.

Case studies explore the Million Trees initiative in Los Angeles; the relationship of cap-and-trade policy, public health, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental justice in Southern California; Urbanization, vulnerability and environmental justice in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Sao Paulo, and in Antofagasta, Greater Concepcion and Valparaiso in Chile; Sociospatial patterns of vulnerability in the American southwest; and Urban flood control and land use planning in Greater Taipei, Taiwan ROC.

This book highlights a number of social sustainability issues at different stages of the supply chain, and demonstrates how these issues can be addressed by adopting social sustainability practices in the manufacturing supply chain. In the wake of emerging social issues in developing countries, research on social sustainability has gained importance for academics and practitioners alike. The three distinguishable social sustainability dimensions in manufacturing that emerge as a result of this research provide insights for supply chain managers and practitioners who might otherwise be unaware of what constitutes social sustainability. A better understanding allows supply chain managers to address these issues more appropriately to increase their supply chain competitiveness in the market. The book presents a social sustainability scale that can be used by practitioners to measure supply chain social sustainability to benchmark their supply chains globally. The research also helps academicians to gain an understanding of the social issues related to the manufacturing supply chain, while the social measures developed serve as reference material for policy-makers and sustainability experts in emerging economies.

The book examines the status of the Anglophone Caribbean economy and the options it faces as traditional preferential trade arrangements begin to disappear. Two broad options are explored: one is the transformation of primary exports into higher value-added products and the other is a shift in the economic structure toward tourism and other services. The book constructs a model of a potential Caribbean economy, described as a "travel economy." The travel economy is based on two enduring features of Caribbean life--tourism and migration.--and it is meant to provide a benchmark against which to gauge the evolution of the structure of individual economies. The main contribution of this book is a concise and methodological treatment of the issues of transition and adjustment that the Caribbean faces in an increasingly liberalized international trading system.

Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates: Keys to Nearctic Fauna, Fourth Edition presents a comprehensive revision and expansion of this trusted professional reference manual and educational textbook-from a single North American tome into a developing multivolume series covering inland water invertebrates of the world. Readers familiar with the first three editions will welcome this new volume. The series, now entitled Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates, (edited by J.H. Thorp), began with Volume I: Ecology and General Biology, (edited by J.H. Thorp and D.C. Rogers). It now continues in Volume II with taxonomic coverage of inland water invertebrates of the Nearctic zoogeographic region. As in previous editions, all volumes of the fourth edition are designed for multiple uses and levels of expertise by professionals in universities, government agencies, and private companies, as well as by undergraduate and graduate students.

This book describes the principles of integrated assessment models (IAM) for climate change economics and introduces various computable models for different development mechanisms under climate change governance. The authors present several new models they have constructed based on the RICE framework, specifically the MRICES((multi-factor RICE)) and EMRICES models, which incorporate global economic interactions into the RICE framework, and the CINCIA model, which describes technological advances and industrial structure evolution, introducing the mechanism of evolutionary economics. The models discussed in the book help governments and policy-makers tackle climate change and take positive measures on climate governance as well as promote economic and social development to narrow the gaps between countries.

Natural resource management by rural citizens in tropical regions is crucial both to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem processes, but also to the the well-being and food security of the people that live there. This situation is especially acute in Africa where conflicts between habitat destruction and utilization can arise in areas which are important not only for biodiversity but for the long-term maintenance of ecosystems on which the people ultimately rely. There can also be conflicts between outside specialists and the indigenous knowledge of local communities. A holistic approach involving local peoples in management of their natural resources is therefore essential. A range of approaches to the problem is explored here in relation to natural resource management to local development and livelihoods, and the multi-functional nature of land-use. Major topics debated are the dichotomy between strictly protected areas and ones including human activity, people-centred rather than legally enforced conservation, market forces, and the interrelationships between agriculture and conservation. The book has 12 chapters, prepared by researchers actively involved in community aspects of natural resource management in Africa, and is based on an international workshop held in Niamey, Niger, in 2008. It will be of interest to all involved in the community approach to biodiversity conservation in less developed countries generally and not only in Africa as many of the issues addressed are pertinent globally. Reprinted from Biodiversity and Conservation 18: 10 (2009).

This is a general introduction to the biology of bats, suitable as a text for courses in the subject, and as a reliable reference to all aspects of the subject for a broad range of biologists. The book presents a balanced coverage of the physiology, anatomy, behaviour, ecology, and phylogeny of bats. Bats comprise about one quarter of all mammalian species, and because of their diversity and their complex behaviours, they are among the most intensively studied groups in the Mammalia. Gerhard Neuweiler is an internationally recognized authority on bats, and one of the leading workers on the physiology of echolocation.

Outside Russia very little is known about the terrestrial ecology, vegetation, biogeographical patterns, and biodiversity of the enormously extensive ecosystems of Yakutia, Siberia. These systems are very special in that they function on top of huge layers of permafrost and are exposed to very severe and extreme weather conditions, the range between winter and summer temperatures being more than 100 degrees C. The soils are generally poor, and human use of the vegetation is usually extensive. Main vegetation zones are taiga and tundra, but Yakutia also supports a special land and vegetation form, caused by permafrost, the alas: more or less extensive grasslands around roundish lakes in taiga. All these vegetation types will be described and their ecology and ecophysiological characteristics will be dealt with. Because of the size of Yakutia, covering several climatic zones, and its extreme position on ecological gradients, Yakutia contains very interesting biogeographical patterns, which also will be described. Our analyses are drawn from many years of research in Yakutia and from a vast body of ecological and other literature in Russian publications and in unpublished local reports. The anthropogenic influence on the ecosystems will be dealt with. This includes the main activities of human interference with nature: forestry, extensive reindeer herding, cattle and horse grazing, etc. Also fire and other prominent ecological factors are dealt with. A very important point is also the very high degree of naturalness that is still extant in Yakutia's main vegetation zones.

This book presents a new way of looking at and analyzing policies, programs and/or plans in which research scientists have used their knowledge to develop mechanisms such as South Africa's National Water Resource Strategy, Second Edition; Australian and South African climate change adaptation strategies for government entities and the UNDP's Water and Ocean Governance focus area. It critically assesses how science can be used in the service of society and how researchers and practitioners can bridge the gaps that arise as a result of incomplete thinking. Presenting a bird's-eye view of how thinking and understanding operate in the policy context, it offers a valuable contribution to fields of inquiry such as research methods, comparative analyses, political science, international relations and the natural and social sciences in general. This book fills a market gap, providing real-world solutions to the practical application of science, paradigms and theories.

This edited book responds to the need for a better understanding of how climate change affects North America and for the identification of processes, methods and tools that may help countries and communities to develop a more robust adaptive capacity. It showcases successful examples of how to manage the social, economic and environmental complexities posed by climate change. The book attempts to synthesize various branches of resilience and adaptation scholarship into a cohesive text that highlights field research and best practices that are shaping policy and practice in a wide geography from the coastal conditions of the Caribbean to the thawing landscape of the Arctic Circle.

This book highlights the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) of the agri-sector for rice, sugarcane, and cassava in Thailand and the food sector. It also presents a range of models, indices, impact categories, etc. for SLCA that are currently being developed for industrial applications. Though SLCA was introduced in 2010, it is still relatively new compared to environmental life cycle assessment (ELCA).

North and South America share similar human and ecological histories and, increasingly, economic and social linkages. As such, issues of ecosystem functions and disruptions form a common thread among these cultures. This volume synthesizes the perspectives of several disciplines, such as ecology, anthropology, economy, and conservation biology. The chief goal is to gain an understanding of how human and ecological processes interact to affect ecosystem functions and species in the Americas. Throughout the text the emphasis is placed on habitat fragmentation. At the same time, the book provides an overview of current theory, methods, and approaches used in the analysis of ecosystem disruptions and fragmentation.