Rethinking Wilderness and the Wild: Conflict, Conservation and Co-existence examines the complexities surrounding the concept of wilderness. Contemporary wilderness scholarship has tended to fall into two categories: the so-called 'fortress conservation' and 'co-existence' schools of thought. This book, contending that this polarisation has led to a silencing and concealment of alternative perspectives and lines of enquiry, extends beyond these confines and in particular steers away from the dilemmas of paradise or paradox in order to advance an intellectual and policy agenda of plurality and diversity rather than of prescription and definition. Drawing on case studies from Australia, Aoteoroa/New Zealand, the United States and Iceland, and explorations of embodied experience, creative practice, philosophy, and First Nations land management approaches, the assembled chapters examine wilderness ideals, conflicts and human-nature dualities afresh, and examine co-existence and conservation in the Anthropocene in diverse ontological and multidisciplinary ways. By demonstrating a strong commitment to respecting the knowledge and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, this work delivers a more nuanced, ethical and decolonising approach to issues arising from relationships with wilderness. Such a collection is immediately appropriate given the political challenges and social complexities of our time, and the mounting threats to life across the globe. The abiding and uniting logic of the book is to offer a unique and innovative contribution to engender transformations of wilderness scholarship, activism and conservation policy. This text refutes the inherent privileging and exclusionary tactics of dominant modes of enquiry that too often serve to silence non-human and contrary positions. It reveals a multi-faceted and contingent wilderness alive with agency, diversity and possibility. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of conservation, environmental and natural resource management, Indigenous studies and environmental policy and planning. It will also be of interest to practitioners, policymakers and NGOs involved in conservation, protected environments and environmental governance.

examines how we can promote the role of indigenous peoples and local communities as environmental stewards and how we can ensure that their ways of life are protected. considers the lessons that can be learnt about the situation of indigenous peoples and local communities. investigates the nature and role of community protocols beyond issues of access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge

Author Prof Jim Lynch is widely known and very experienced, well-connected with wide international networks, and globally distinguished. He was awarded the UNESCO Prize in Microbiology and Einstein Medal and Distinguished Scientist of the US Department of Agriculture. His OUP textbook Soil Microbiology was a bestseller. Taps directly into the topical area of the COVID-19 pandemic and One Health. Affordable and accessible to a wide interdisciplinary audience.

Key Features A timely book for a still pressing problem Contributions by many of the leading figures in the debate. Summarizes the many new contributions to the field of recent years. For the use of upper level seminars and courses A dialogue format will generate further discussion

Today, problems such as deforestation, biodiversity loss and illegal logging have provoked various policy responses that are often referred to as forest and nature governance. In its broadest interpretation, governance is about the many ways in which public and private actors from the state, market and/or civil society govern public issues at multiple scales. This book takes a fresh perspective on the study of forest and nature governance. Departing from 'practice theory', and building upon scholars like Giddens, Bourdieu, Reckwitz, Schatzki and Callon, it seeks to move beyond established understandings of institutions, actors, and knowledge. In so doing, it not only presents an innovative conceptual and methodological framework for a practice based approach, but also rich case studies and ethnographies. Finally, this book is about how actors involved in governance talk about and work with trees, forests, biodiversity, wildlife, and so on, while acting upon forest policies, environmental discourses, codes of conduct, or scientific insights.

The world's oceans cover 70% of the earth's surface and are home to a myriad of amazing and beautiful creatures. However, the biodiversity of the oceans is incre- ingly coming under serious threat from many human activities including overfi- ing, use of destructive fishing methods, pollution and commercial aquaculture. In addition, climate change is already having an impact on some marine ecosystems. This book discusses some of the major threats facing marine ecosystems by cons- ering a range of topics, under chapters discussing biodiversity (Chapter 1), fisheries (Chapter 2), aquaculture (Chapter 3), pollution (Chapter 4) and the impacts of increasing greenhouse gas emissions (Chapter 5). It goes on to explore solutions to the problems by discussing equitable and sustainable management of the oceans (Chapter 6) and protecting marine ecosystems using marine reserves (Chapter 7). Presently, 76% of the oceans are fully or over-exploited with respect to fishing, and many species have been severely depleted. It is abundantly clear that, in general, current fisheries management regimes are to blame for much of the widespread degradation of the oceans. Many policy-makers and scientists now agree that we must adopt a radical new approach to managing the seas - one that is precautionary in nature and has protection of the whole marine ecosystem as its primary objective. This 'ecosystem-based approach' is vital if we are to ensure the health of our oceans for future generations.

Focusing on ethnography and interviews with subsistence food producers, this book explores the resilience, innovation and creativity taking place in subsistence agriculture in America. To date, researchers interested in alternative food networks have often overlooked the somewhat hidden, unorganized population of household food producers. Subsistence Agriculture in the US fills this gap in the existing literature by examining the lived experiences of people taking part in subsistence food production. Over the course of the book, Colby draws on accounts from a broad and diverse network of people who are hunting, fishing, gardening, keeping livestock and gathering and looks in depth at the way in which these practical actions have transformed their relationship to labor and land. She also explores the broader implications of this pro-environmental activity for social change and sustainable futures. With a combination of rigorous academic investigation and engagement with pressing social issues, this book will be of great interest to scholars of sustainable consumption, environmental sociology and social movements.

This book provides an integrated view of Atlantic coastal Patagonian ecosystems, including the physical environment, biodiversity and the main ecological processes, together with their derived ecosystem services and anthropogenic impacts. It focuses on the key components of the aquatic ecosystem, covering the lower levels (plankton) to the top predators like large mammals and birds, before turning to human beings as consumers and shapers of coastal marine resources. The book then presents an overview of how organisms that constitute the aquatic food webs have changed through time and how they likely will soon change due to global change processes and anthropogenic pressures. In this regard it offers a wealth of information such as long-term patterns in physical / atmospheric processes, biodiversity and the distribution of marine organisms, as well as the results of experimental studies designed to understand their responses under future scenarios shaped by both climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The book also covers various aspects of the past, present and potential future relationship of human beings with Patagonian coastal environments, including the utilization of sea products, tourism, and growth of cities.

The importance of the Neotropics to the world's climate, biogeochemical cycling and biodiversity cannot be questioned. This book suggests that gradients are key to understanding both these issues and Neotropical ecosystem structure, function and dynamics in general. Those gradients are either spatial, temporal or spatio-temporal, where many temporal and spatio-temporal gradients are initiated by disturbances (e.g., tree-fall, landslide, cultivation). And in particular for the Neotropics, three large spatial gradients - latitude, longitude, altitude (elevation) - are of critical importance. The editor has over 30 years of experience investigating Neotropical gradients in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Peru and Ecuador, and has published 5 previous books on different aspects of the Neotropics. Once again he has assembled top-shelf Neotropical scientists and researchers, here to focus on gradients: their nature, interactions and how they structure ecosystems.

Ethnoprimatology is situated at the intersection between the biological and cultural subfields of anthropology. Research on the interface between human and nonhuman primates has been steadily increasing since 1997, when the term ethnoprimatology was first coined. Although there have been studies on human-nonhuman primate interactions in the tropical Americas, no single comprehensive volume has been published that integrates this information to fully understand it in this region. Eighteen novel chapters written by outstanding scholars with various backgrounds are included in this edited volume. They refer to the complex interconnections between different indigenous peoples with New World monkeys that sympatrically share their ancestral territories. Geographically, the range covers all of the Neotropics, from southern Mexico through northern Argentina. This work includes topics such as primates as prey and food, ethnozoology/ethnoecology, cosmology, narratives about monkeys, uses of primates, monkeys as pets, and ethnoclassification. Multiple views as well as diverse theoretical and methodological approaches are found within the pages. In sum, this is a compendium of ethnoprimatological research that will be prized by anthropologists, ethnobiologists, primatologists, conservationists, and zoologists alike. "This book... provides a historical benchmark for all subsequent research in ethnoprimatology in the Neotropics and beyond." - Leslie E. Sponsel, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

This book highlights key results and lessons learnt from two field sites, La Suerte in Costa Rica and Ometepe Nicaragua. It provides long term data on species abundance and distribution. Primates receive specific attention in this book, as they are flagship species and good indicators for the "health" of an ecosystem, but as well a money maker. Many primate species are sensitive to habitat alteration, and are often hunted out first. But they play an important role as seed dispersal agents for the regeneration of the forest. The book then compares results from the two field sites with regional trends, and explores potential solutions such as REDD+. This book strongly calls for new approaches in conservation, it makes the case for looking beyond the pure species biology and classic conservation angle and to take into account the economic and political realities.

This book owes a great deal to the outstanding universal value of the natural heritage of Hubei Shennongjia, which offers an outstanding example of the ongoing ecological processes occurring in the development of intact subtropical mixed broad-leaved evergreen and deciduous forests in the northern hemisphere. The book demonstrates the value from the typical example of mountain altitudinal biological zones in the Oriental Deciduous Forest Biogeographical Province, and the vital origin location for global temperate flora, harboring the highest concentration of global temperate genera. Moreover, the heritage value in exceptional biodiversity and key habitat for numerous relic, rare, endangered, endemic, and type specimen species are presented. The richness of deciduous woody species in Shennongjia is the highest in the world.

Aspects of Brazilian Floristic Diversity: From Botany to Traditional Communities offers a unique approach in floristic diversity of the Neotropical region, specifically encompassing the Brazilian flora. This volume combines both theoretical and applied aspects of scientific making knowledge in different perspectives of Botanical Science. In this volume, botanical specialists discuss the many different approaches of taxonomic, reproductive, ecological and ethnobotanical aspects of Brazilian floristic diversity, thereby enlightening the global interest in Neotropical species, in particular those from the Brazilian territory. The book addresses relevant questions from many points of view, including anatomy, reproduction, palinology, conservation and ethnobotany, creating an in-depth perception of the flora in its complexity constitution. The book provides a comprehensive outlook on Botany Sciences, considering the history and traditional knowledge of plants, and relating it to contemporary problems and concerns of flora conservation today. With this current perspective, this book reaches a vast audience from the research lines of Botany, and encompasses a broader and interdisciplinary understanding of Aspects of Brazilian Floristic Diversity.

Key Features: more information on macroalgae detailed description of biotic associations updated description of biomass cultivation systems coverage of different "omic" approaches and tools used in algal investigation an expanded and updated algae utilization chapter.

This book takes readers on a journey through the history of water in the Coahuila desert. It starts by describing the beauty and mysteries of the landscape, and then explores the rock art of the original desert cultures in Coahuila, offering readers a glimpse of the sacred nature of water in the desert, as well as the rituals surrounding it. Moving on to the colonial times and the post- independence development of the region, it discusses early water management, and explores how water is managed in modern times, as well as the legal complications of the law, and how these faulty laws, designed for less arid regions, have affected a highly diverse wetland, the Cuatro Cienegas oasis. The book then examines the biological consequences of the water loss for the aquatic plants and animals in Churince - a now extinct system within Cuatro Cienegas. Further, it addresses how even bacteria can become extinct in this hyper-diverse microbial oasis. Lastly, after this despair and sense of loss, the book provides hope, offering suggestions for how we can transform the future, from a social and educational point of view as well as through good science and changes in policy.

This book brings out the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on the taxonomy, biodiversity, and ecology of climbers in India. Climbing is one of the principal plant growth habits that have long attracted the interests of ecologists and evolutionary biologists. Climbing plants can add significantly to the species richness of many tropical forests ecosystems, yet they receive relatively lesser attention than trees in ecological studies. The difficulties in taxonomic assertions and lack of standard methodologies overlook climbers in plant inventories, resulting in the underrepresentation of climbers in regional floras. There is a growing consensus about the increasing abundance of climbers and their multifaceted role in tropical forests worldwide. Therefore, it is essential to understand the taxonomic diversity and ecology of climbers at the regional scale to substantiate our efforts towards constructing a global climber database, which serves as a reference for fundamental research in climber ecology and evolution. This book is of interest to biodiversity researchers, taxonomists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists. Field biologists, forest managers, and naturalists will also find this a useful read.

This book examines the development needs of protected areas with threatened ecological biodiversity to gain deeper understanding of the local perspective of protected area ecosystems. The study focuses on the case of Nech Sar National Park in Ethiopia, a protected area facing many development challenges due to human over-utilization of its resources and threats to wildlife. The conceptual framework developed by this research makes an academic contribution in the protection and sustainable development of national parks' natural capital, since it is designed to provide a systemic analysis of the problem by showing the extent and magnitude of human induced impacts on the natural capital of protected areas. In line with this, the application of the framework produces new and evidence-based findings which will help to improve the governance of protected areas as the research will provide park authorities with a practical tool in addressing the underlying causes of the degradation of national parks before the state of degradation of these resources reach its irreversible juncture. The book will help academicians and researchers to assess the state of biodiversity resources in protected areas using Nech Sar National Park as a representative example of a threatened area common throughout Africa, and will enable development practitioners and policy makers to devise appropriate strategies such as community participation in the governance of protected areas that could help to halt the degradation of resources in protected areas.

This book critically analyzes the water quality in the lower Gangetic delta, and examines the environmental conditions and physical processes operating in this rich ecosystem. Readers with an interest in environmental science, geography, oceanography, marine biology, environmental biology, aquatic pollution and ecology will find the research presented here most appealing. Readers will discover critical aspects of the chemistry of the estuarine water (particularly that of Hooghly and Matla estuaries) in the lower stretch of the delta region along with the causes and effects of pollution in and around this region. Particular attention is given to the bioaccumulation of conservative pollutants in edible fishes and floral communities thriving in this region. Several case studies are also incorporated to highlight the vulnerability of pollution in this region. Chapters also address the impacts of climate change (specifically acidification) on the concentration and behavior of conservative pollutants. Finally, the book highlights some mitigation measures at the technology and policy level to minimize the negative impacts posed by different groups of pollutants on the estuarine biodiversity.

Provides an accessible introduction to the Environmental Humanities, a complex and interdisciplinary area, and designed to provide a foundation for future study, projects and pursuits. Written by academics with experience of teaching and writing in the field. Content is engaging and includes case studies, discussion questions, annotated bibliographies, and links to online resources. Organised by subject, this book could be used on general environmental humanities courses, or individual chapters could be used on subject specific courses i.e. Environmental History, environmental film etc.

Presents a major case study of how agriculture and biodiversity conservation can work in harmony towards more sustainable outcomes for both the environment and local communities. Shows how Cuba has provided a unique testbed for such approaches through its specific political status and focus on traditional agricultural methods. Provides the essential background for understanding future options for agriculture and conservation in Cuba, as it emerges from economic and political isolation.

The shift of weather patterns has affected the incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases, including mycoses. Mycoses have remained neglected due to a lack of training and recognition within the medical community. Nonetheless, these diseases remain common worldwide while frequently being underdiagnosed. Climate change affects the distribution of fungal communities, provoking outbreaks in locations where these mycoses were absent or in low frequencies. Moreover, the reports of clinical cases related to new fungal pathogens have increased due to the description of new fungal species or due to the ability of some species to shift to new hosts. Thus, this book, The Impact of Climate Change on Fungal Diseases, is a contribution to the knowledge of a global environmental phenomenon and its relation to these diseases, and it serves as a guide for health professionals to dive deep into the repercussions of climate change and how they can implement measures for the prevention and control of fungal infections.

The first book on zoo/captive animal behavior and how this applies to welfare. Despite growing evidence of the need to implement more suitable, naturalistic practices into zoo animal welfare, it still seems to be somewhat overlooked - this book will address this oversight. Includes specific detail and examples focusing on taxa, a huge factor in managing animals in zoos that has not previously been addressed in this way. Covers invertebrates as well as vertebrate species. Would be a recommended or core text on Zoo Biology courses, BScs in Animal Science, and Animal Welfare MScs, as well as an invaluable practitioner reference. A lot of students interested in animal behaviour are interested in zoos. Each chapter covers species-specific content include the following information: Ecology and natural history as relevant to the zoo, behaviour and welfare measures based on ecological knowledge, feeding ecology and nutritional management, mating systems and reproductive characteristics, enrichment and behavioural diversity. The chapters are consistently formatted for ease of information, with end of chapter summaries, boxes with selected enrichment devices or welfare assessment methods for assessing welfare state, and directed reading of peer reviewed and other reputable sources that help advance care. A final Part explores welfare assessment tools, quality of life, veterinary interventions and evidence-based approaches. It looks at ways to increase the value of zoo and aquarium animals by enhancing visitor interest and visitor behaviour change. Also, research needs for keepers and how to build evidence into a daily routine, as well as management of native species programmes and the future of zoo research.

The 2nd edition of this comprehensive book provides one of the most complete overviews of the aquatic beetles in the family Dytiscidae, also known as predaceous diving beetles. Dytiscids constitute one of the largest families of freshwater insects with approximately 4,650 named species that come in a variety of sizes, colors, and habitat affinities. Although dytiscid adults and larvae are ubiquitous throughout a variety of aquatic habitats, and are important predators on other aquatic invertebrates and vertebrates, there are no compilations that have focused on summarizing the knowledge on aspects of their ecology, systematics, and biology. Chapters in this book summarize hitherto scattered topics, including their anatomy and habitats, chemical and community ecology, phylogenies and larval morphology including chaetotaxy, sexual systems, predation, dispersal, conservation, and cultural and historical aspects. The 2nd edition offers updates on the newest scientific findings on dytiscids and also includes a new chapter on the subterranean fauna from Australia. The information in this new edition is potentially beneficial to anyone working in aquatic systems where dytiscids are an important part of the food web. Moreover, readers will gain a greater appreciation of dytiscids as model organisms for investigations of fundamental principles derived from ecological and evolutionary theory. Contributed chapters are by authors who are actively engaged in studying dytiscids, and each chapter provides color photos and future directions for research.

The shieldbug is an amazing and beautiful species, rich with diversity in shape, form, size, life history, ecology, physiology and behaviour. But they are not commonly known, outside of specialist circles. Richard Jones’ groundbreaking New Naturalist volume on shieldbugs encourages those enthusiasts who would otherwise be put off by the, to date, rather technical literature that has dominated the field, providing a comprehensive natural history of this fascinating and beautiful group of insects.