Biodiversity of Fishes in Arunachal Himalaya: Systematics, Classification, and Taxonomic Identification provides a detailed piscatorial resource of the fish species living in the rich mountain waterbodies of the eastern Himalayan region. It presents the latest classifications and updated taxa of fish dwelling in high-altitude cold waters, mid-altitude cold and warm waters, and warm waters in the low altitude foothill regions of the Arunachal Himalaya. The book includes the scientific and vernacular names of more than 200 fish species, as well as coloration, distributional and conservational status. It addresses increasing threats to the endemic fishes of this region, including habitat shrinkage, habitat destruction, and more. This book will be a valuable resource for biodiversity and conservation researchers, especially those specializing in ichthyo-faunal diversity. Fishery researchers and students will also find the information presented on taxonomic and classification very useful to their initiatives.

The Rise, the Fall, and the Recovery of Southeast Asia's Minidragons offers a comprehensive study of recent Asian economic history. As the global economy adjusts to an increasing Asian presence, David Hollingsworth examines specific case models from the 1990s to draw conclusions, create paradigms, and prepare guidelines for the future. With studies ranging from Taiwan to Malaysia and an in-depth analysis of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998, this is one of the most in-depth studies of contemporary Asian economic history. With clear focus and a wide range, Hollingsworth shows the relevance of recent history to the current economic situations. Contract principle is essentially the driving force that propelled East Asia to engage in a series of policies that were responsible for its economic growth and sustainability since the late 1950s. The book discusses such growth and examines the economic history of this period. It examines the move from Import-Substitution-Industrialization to Export-Orientation and the forces leading to the subsequent Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998. The book applies a structural investigation to case studies of: Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. It concludes by shaping the historical lessons into a vision for the future.

The international community is putting some pressure on scientific researchers to come up with reliable indicators to estimate emissions from greenhouse gases. The development towards integrative multi gas strategy approaches has allowed the inclusion of the agricultural sector in the political agenda. Modelling alternatives for the estimation of emission factors, definition of policy instruments for greenhouse gas emission abatement as well as measurement of their economic effects are at this stage quite important for the coming multilateral negotiations.

This study discusses an original proposal aimed at critically analyzing the power relations that exist in contemporary agriculture. The author endeavors herein to clarify some of the strategies that industrial agribusiness, in collusion with the state and multilateral structures, sets in motion in order to functionalize the lives of millions of farmers, so that their bodies, enunciations, and sensibilities can be repurposed in accordance with the dynamics of capital accumulation. The argument is based on the idea that agro-extractivism cannot be thought of exclusively as an economic-political and technological system, but as a complex interweaving of cultural meanings, aesthetics, and affections, which, amalgamated under the abstract name of "development", act as a support for the whole system's scaffolding. The book also explores the other side of the coin, describing how, and under what conditions, social movements are responding to the calamities generated by this model. The central thesis is that many ongoing agroecological processes are providing one of the most interesting guidelines at present for visualizing transitions towards post-development, post-extractivism, and the construction of multiple worlds beyond the sphere of capital. Political ecology of agriculture joins the calls that question the cultural project of modernity and the predatory sense imposed by the globalized food empire, and invites recognition of the importance of agroecology in the context of the end of the fossil-fuel era and the likely collapse of our industry-based civilization.

This book offers a five-part model companies can follow to "green" themselves. Moreover, it shares the success, and failures, of forerunners in this fast-growing business trend. This book details why and how businesses are becoming more environmentally firendly. It sites seventeen case studies that illustrate "green" advantages enjoyed by companies like Interface, Inc., Patagonia, IBM, Mitsubishi Corporation, and others. Winning "green" practices like the following have enahanced the performance of companies, both in employee retention, customer loyalty, and overall profits. * Patagonia encouraged employees to be active outdoor and paid them to work for non-profit organizations, and enjoyed a rise in loyalty among its staff * IBM saved $17.8 million dollars one year simply by encouraging employees to turn off unused lights and equipment * The implementing of greener practices is credited for a 1,100-percent increase in stock value since 1992 for Suncor Energy * By encouraging green practices and making sustainability a company-wide goal, Interface, Inc. was named one of Fortune's "Top 100 Places to Work in the Country" * Since it started producing "greener" products, Electrolux has experienced a 3.5-percent increase in profit margins This groundbreaking book suggests that the future of green business may lie in the new field of "business ecology." Learn what is driving this movement and what a company needs to do to improve its environmental performance. While many companies have made great strides in improving their environmental performances, there is little standardization for what is "greened."

This book presents a series of possible future scenarios in wildlife and animal tourism by combining critical thinking and imagination to stimulate reflection and ways forward. The future of wildlife tourism faces uncertainties that revolve around many factors, including climate change, mass wildlife extinction, human population growth, deforestation, sustainability and ethical assumptions. For wildlife tourism to meet these challenges, new ways of thinking are necessary. The chapters in this volume focus on future wildlife tourism development and management; the experiential value, educational components and ethical relevance of tourism-animal encounters; and the technology applied to wildlife tourism. They offer critically-imagined futures in order to encourage readers to reflect on the possibility of shaping a better future. The book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners in wildlife tourism, environmental studies, sustainability and conservation.

Separate Fact from Fiction with This Fun, Fascinating GuideWe need bats to eat mosquitoes, pollinate plants, and more. Karen Krebbs has been studying the world's only flying mammals for more than 35 years-and she's sharing her expertise with you. Learn the bat basics, such as how they use echolocation, why they hibernate, and what they eat. Then use the field guide section to identify common and important species to know.Inside You'll Find Bat myths debunked-they won't really fly in your hair or try to bite Identification guide to 32 North American species Instructions on how to bat-proof a house and what to do if you find a bat indoors Projects, activities, and tips to help bats Get Bat Basics, and celebrate the amazing lives of bats!

This book examines the global, local, and specific environmental factors that facilitate illegal fishing and proposes effective ways to reduce the opportunities and incentives that threaten the existence of the world's fish. Humans are deeply dependent on fishing-globally, fish comprise 15 percent of the protein intake for approximately 3 billion people, and 8 percent of the global population depends on the fishing industry as their livelihood. The global fishing industry is plagued by illegal fishing, however, and many highly commercial species, such as cod, tuna, orange roughy, and swordfish, are extremely vulnerable. Through criminological analysis, The Last Fish Swimming emphasizes the importance of looking at specific environmental factors that make illegal fishing possible. It examines such factors as proximity to known ports where illegally caught fish can be landed without inspection (i.e., ports of convenience), fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance efforts, formal surveillance, and resource attractiveness in 53 countries that altogether represent 96 percent of the world's fish catch. The book calls upon the global community to address the illegal depletion of the world's fish stock and other similar threats to the world's food supply and natural environment in order to ensure the sustainability of the planet's fish and continuation of the legal fishing industry for generations to come. Provides a criminological analysis of illegal fishing through the application of two important environmental criminology perspectives (rational choice and situational crime prevention) Highlights the countries most at risk, i.e. hot spots of illegal fishing, and the ports most frequently used to land illegally caught fish Discusses environmental factors that increase or reduce the risk of illegal fishing Includes summary tables on the most vulnerable species and on global, regional, and local factors contributing to illegal fishing Provides a toolbox of empirically founded policy recommendations on how illegal fishing can be stopped

The battle to save the world is being joined by a powerful new group of warriors. Celebrities are lending their name to conservation causes, and conservation itself is growing its own stars to fight and speak for nature. In this timely and essential book, Dan Brockington argues that this alliance grows from the mutually supportive publicity celebrity and conservation causes provide for each other, and more fundamentally, that the flourishing of celebrity and charismatic conservation is part of an ever-closer intertwining of conservation and corporate capitalism. Celebrity promotions, the investments of rich executives, and the wealthy social networks of charismatic conservationists are producing more commodified and commercial conservation strategies; conservation becomes an ever more important means of generating profit. Celebrity and the Environment provides vital critical analysis of this new phenomena and argues that, ironically, there may be a hidden cost to celebrity power to individual's relationships with the wild. The author argues that whilst wildlife television documentaries flourish, there is a significant decline in visits to national parks in many countries around the world and this is evidence that t a time when conservationists are calling for us to restore our relationships with the wild, many people are doing so simply by following the exploits of celebrity conservationists.

Resolving a conflict is based on the art of helping people, with disparate points of view, find enough common ground to ease their fears, sheath their weapons, and listen to one another for their common good, which ultimately translates into social-environmental sustainability for all generations. Written in a clear, concise style, Resolving Environmental Conflicts: Principles and Concepts, Third Edition is a valuable, solution-oriented contribution that explains environmental conflict management. This book provides an overview of environmental conflicts, collaborative skills, and universal principles to assist in re-thinking and acting toward the common good, integrates a variety of new real-world conflicts as a foundation for building trust, skills, consensus, and capacity, and explains pathways to collectively construct a relationship-centric future, fostering healthier interactions with one another and the planet. The new edition illustrates how to successfully mediate actual environmental disputes and how to teach conflict resolution at any level for a wide variety of social-environmental situations. It adds a new chapter on water conflicts and resolutions, providing avenues to healthy, sustainable, and effective outcomes and provides new examples of conflicts caused by climate change with discussion questions for clear understanding. Land-use planners, urban planners, field biologists, and leaders and participants in collaborative environmental projects and initiatives will find this book to be an invaluable resource. University students in related courses will also benefit, as will anyone interested in achieving greater social-environmental sustainability and a more responsible use of our common natural resources for themselves and their children.

The Natura 2000 network of protected areas is the centrepiece of European Union nature policy, currently covering almost one-fifth of the EU's entire land territory plus large marine areas. This vast EU-wide network, which aims to conserve Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats, has major impacts on land use throughout all Member States of the EU. This book critically assesses the origins and implementation of the Natura 2000 network, established under the Birds Directive of 1979 and the Habitats Directive of 1992. Based on original archival research and interviews with key participants, the book records a detailed history of the origins and negotiation of Natura 2000 policy and law, with the history of EU environmental policy provided as a framework. An historical institutionalist approach is adopted, which emphasises the importance of understanding legal and policy development as processes that unfold over time. Three phases in the history of EU environmental policy are identified and described, and the history of EU nature policy is placed within the context of these three phases. Informed by this history, the author presents a comprehensive summary and assessment of the law and policy that protects Natura 2000 sites at EU level, and reviews the nature conservation outcomes for the targeted species and habitats. The book reveals how a knowledge of the history of Natura 2000 enriches our understanding of key issues such as conflicts in establishing and conserving the Natura 2000 network, EU integration in the field of nature conservation, and the future of EU nature policy.

Forest canopies not only support high terrestrial biodiversity but also represent a critical interface between the atmosphere and the earth. They provide goods and services to support diverse human communities and offer opportunities to explore sustainable use of these resources for many generations of local livelihoods. Forest canopies are important carbon sequestration units, and in this sense, serve as climate control for the planet. Canopies are important energy production centers for the planet, and serve as the basis for many food chains. The canopy can also act as a hook for education outreach and conservation, inspiring ecotourism through recreation and other sustainable uses such as treetop walks, zip lines, and birding. Despite these critical services provided by forest canopies, almost no dedicated research in the treetops was initiated until as recently as the late 1970s when single rope techniques were developed by mountaineering professionals and adapted for use in the canopy. Subsequently, an array of canopy access tools was designed in the 1980s and early 1990s that have opened up this "eighth continent" for global exploration and discovery. This volume uses the major findings of the 5th international canopy conference as a platform for organization, but it does not mimic the sessions and presentations of the conference itself. Instead, it builds on the important themes that emerged from the conference and solicits articles that represent future priorities and advancements for canopy science in the next decade. Despite the global efforts of hundreds of forest scientists over the past 3 decades, forests are degrading at an accelerated rate and biodiversity is increasingly threatened by human activities. Given these trends - despite the very best efforts of the world's best scientists - other approaches must be taken. This volume summarizes the issue of "treetops at risk" and assembles a global authorship to examine past accomplishments and future initiatives critical in forest conservation.

China is currently afflicted by enormous environmental problems. This book, drawing on ancient and modern Chinese environmental thinking, considers what it is that makes an environment a desirable place for living. The book emphasises ideas of beauty, and discusses how these ideas can be applied in natural, agricultural and urban environments in order to produce desirable environments. The book argues that environment is both a product of nature and of human beings, and as such is potentially alterable by culture. The book explores the three aspects of environmental beauty whereby such alteration might be beneficially made: integrated and holistic; ecological and man-made; and authentic and everyday. This book addresses environmental issues by distinctively suggesting that an aesthetic approach inspired from ancient Chinese tradition could help us overcome the many problems that human beings have created at local and global levels. Although its main focus is the traditional and current contexts of the People's Republic of China, the book transcends national borders. A typical example is the ancient Chinese thought system and cultural practice of Feng Shui ( ) that sought to negotiate how the natural environment and human constructions can cohabit without destructing each other. The author evokes that sought-after harmony through the powerful image of gardens of life whose environmental beauty can be found in traditional Chinese gardens and palaces as well as historically and culturally preserved cities.

Anthropologists know that conservation often disempowers already under-privileged groups, and that it also fails to protect environments. Through a series of ethnographic studies, this book argues that the real problem is not the disappearance of "pristine nature" or even the land-use practices of uneducated people. Rather, what we know about culturally determined patterns of consumption, production and unequal distribution, suggests that critical attention would be better turned on discourses of "primitiveness" and "pristine nature" so prevalent within conservation ideology, and on the historically formed power and exchange relationships that they help perpetuate.

This book takes a multi-disciplinary and critical look at what has changed over the last ten years in one of the world's most important and dynamic ecosystems, the Amazon floodplain or varzea. It also looks forward, assessing the trends that will determine the fate of environments and people of the varzea over the next ten years and providing crucial information that is needed to formulate strategies for confronting these looming realities.

In recent years, the field of study variously called local, indigenous or traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) has experienced a crisis brought about by the questioning of some of its basic assumptions. This has included reassessing notions that scientific methods can accurately elicit and describe TEK or that incorporating it into development projects will improve the physical, social or economic well-being of marginalized peoples. The contributors to this volume argue that to accurately and appropriately describe TEK, the historical and political forces that have shaped it, as well as people's day-to-day engagement with the landscape around them must be taken into account. TEK thus emerges, not as an easily translatable tool for development experts, but as a rich and complex element of contemporary lives that should be defined and managed by indigenous and local peoples themselves.

The Amazon region is the focus of intense conflict between conservationists concerned with deforestation and advocates of agro-industrial development. This book focuses on the contributions of environmental organizations to the preservation of Brazilian Amazonia. It reveals how environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and others have fought fiercely to stop deforestation in the region. It documents how the history of frontier expansion and environmental struggle in the region is linked to Brazil's position in an evolving capitalist world-economy. It is shown how Brazil's effort to become a developed country has led successive Brazilian governments to devise development projects for Amazonia. The author analyses how globalization has led to the expansion of international commodity chains in the region, particularly for mineral ores, soybeans and beef. He shows how environmental organizations have politicized these commodity chains as weapons of conservation, through boycotting certain products, while other pro-development groups within Brazil claim that such organizations threaten Brazil's sovereignty over its own resources.

The Yew Hedge by Martin Gardner from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh tells the fascinating story of some remarkable native forests and heritage trees of the European yew (Taxus baccata) located in the UK and overseas. The progeny of the trees have been planted to form a unique conservation hedge which now surrounds the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. It comprises of almost 2000 trees collected from 16 countries where they are threatened.

Cheetahs: Biology and Conservation reports on the science and conservation of the cheetah. This volume demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of research and conservation efforts to study and protect the cheetah. The book begins with chapters on the evolution, genetics, physiology, ecology and behavior of the species, as well as distribution reports from range countries. These introductory chapters lead into discussions of the challenges facing cheetah survival, including habitat loss, declining prey base, human-wildlife conflict, illegal trade, and newly-emerging threats, notably climate change. This book also focuses on conservation strategies and solutions, including environmental education and alternative livelihoods. Chapters on the role of captive cheetahs to conservation and the long-term research of the species are included, as are a brief discussion of the methods and analyses used to study the cheetah. The book concludes with the conservation status and future outlook of the species. Cheetahs: Biology and Conservation is a valuable resource for the regional and global communities of cheetah conservationists, researchers, and academics. Although cheetah focussed the book provides information relevant to the study of broader topics such as wildlife conservation, captive breeding, habitat management, conservation biology and animal behaviour. Cover photograph by Angela Scott

In Watering the Revolution Mikael D. Wolfe transforms our understanding of Mexican agrarian reform through an environmental and technological history of water management in the emblematic Laguna region. Drawing on extensive archival research in Mexico and the United States, Wolfe shows how during the long Mexican Revolution (1910-1940) engineers' distribution of water paradoxically undermined land distribution. In so doing, he highlights the intrinsic tension engineers faced between the urgent need for water conservation and the imperative for development during the contentious modernization of the Laguna's existing flood irrigation method into one regulated by high dams, concrete-lined canals, and motorized groundwater pumps. This tension generally resolved in favor of development, which unintentionally diminished and contaminated the water supply while deepening existing rural social inequalities by dividing people into water haves and have-nots, regardless of their access to land. By uncovering the varied motivations behind the Mexican government's decision to use invasive and damaging technologies despite knowing they were ecologically unsustainable, Wolfe tells a cautionary tale of the long-term consequences of short-sighted development policies.

As the impacts of anthropogenic activities increase in both magnitude and extent, biodiversity is coming under increasing pressure. Scientists and policy makers are frequently hampered by a lack of information on biological systems, particularly information relating to long-term trends. Such information is crucial to developing an understanding as to how biodiversity may respond to global environmental change. Knowledge gaps make it very difficult to develop effective policies and legislation to reduce and reverse biodiversity loss. This book explores the gap between global commitments to biodiversity conservation, and local action to track biodiversity change and implement conservation action. High profile international political commitments to improve biodiversity conservation, such as the targets set by the Convention on Biological Diversity, require innovative and rapid responses from both science and policy. This multi-disciplinary perspective highlights barriers to conservation and offers novel solutions to evaluating trends in biodiversity at multiple scales.

As the dazzling economic and social changes in China have imposed substantial impact upon the quality of environmental governance, it is time to review the problems and progress in the politics of China's environmental protection. This book analyzes the factors in China's governance and political process that affect and restrain its capacity to handle the mounting environmental problems. It argues that solutions to China's ecological woes to a larger extent lie in the political and institutional changes rather than in engineering, technological and investment input. The book talks about new policies and reform measures in the green area taken by the government since 2007, arguing that some of them may be quite effective in the long run, as long as they alter institutional factors and the "growth-first" mindset that obstruct the green effort.

The book also includes discussion of China's climate change policy not only because global warming has come under the limelight of the international community in recent years, but also because it offers a unique dimension to analyze the country's environmental diplomacy and domestic bureaucratic structure on emissions cutting and related energy issues. China is currently at the crossroads of further political and economic reform, and the intensified public attention to environmental pollution may help the Chinese Communist Party to decisively push forward the long-sluggish political reforms.