The importance of conservation is growing each year, with increasing concerns over the destruction of biodiversity and the rising awareness of ecosystem services generating new debates on the human-nature relationship. This compact overview integrates the process, theory and practice of conservation for a broad readership, from non-specialists to students and practitioners. Taking a global perspective, it uses examples from around the world to illustrate general themes and show how problem...

This full colour book explains the design process and is based on course worksheets which have been designed, refined and tested on students over time. If you already have a basic knowledge of permaculture, from either reading another book or attending a course, then this guide is probably just what you need to build on your prior knowledge and put it into practical application. While it includes the ethics, principles and philosophies, it places them directly into the context of the design p...

During recent years, environmental debate worldwide has been dominated by climate change, carbon emissions and eff orts to achieve low carbon economies. But a number of academic, technical, political, business and NGO initiatives indicate that there is a new wave of environmental attention focused on a wholly different set of subjects: namely that of natural capital, ecosystem services and biodiversity, or in other words, what Nature does for us. From recycling miracles in the soil to the ...

How much of global warming is due to human activities? How far will it be possible to adapt to changes of climate? Sir John Houghton's definitive, full colour guide to climate change answers these questions and more by providing the best and latest information available, including the latest IPCC findings. The simple, logical flow of ideas gives an invaluable grounding in the science, as well as the physical and human impacts of climate change, for undergraduate students across a wide rang...

More energy is encapsulated in every drop of good spring water than an average-sized power station is presently able to produce. Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) Water – all life depends on it. Yet how often do we stop to consider its true significance, its essential nature? The Water Wizard, the first volume of the Eco-Technology series which presents the original, passionate and convincing research of Viktor Schauberger in translation for the first time, looks at the importance of water to...

In his bestseller Affluenza, David Wann and his co-authors diagnosed the debilitating disease of over-consumption. In Simple Prosperity he shows readers how we can overcome this disease by investing in a variety of real wealth sources. To recapture a more abundant and sustainable lifestyle, try:- Creating a richer life story through personal growth incentives- Forming higher-yield friendships and stronger bonds through social capital- Taking preventiv...

Encouraging students to engage in the challenges and complexity of sustainability, this text considers not only the theories underlying sustainability, but more importantly how theories are translated into practice and the difficulties of achieving this in the world in which we live. This pragmatic focus gives students a greater understanding of the practice of sustainability and highlights the challenges involved. Models and theories are illustrated throughout with real world examples to ...

What light does nearly twenty-five years of scientific study of the Exxon Valdez oil spill shed on the fate and effects of a spill? How can the results help in assessing future spills? How can ecological risks be assessed and quantified? In this, the first book on the effects of Exxon Valdez in fifteen years, scientists directly involved in studying the spill provide a comprehensive perspective on, and synthesis of, scientific information on long-term spill effects. The coverage is multidi...

Despite their often dangerous and unpredictable nature, landslides provide fascinating templates for studying how soil organisms, plants and animals respond to such destruction. The emerging field of landslide ecology helps us understand these responses, aiding slope stabilisation and restoration and contributing to the progress made in geological approaches to landslide prediction and mitigation. Summarising the growing body of literature on the ecological consequences of landslides, this...

Centring on South Africa's Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, this book synthesizes a century of insights from the ecology and conservation management of one of Africa's oldest protected wildlife areas. The park provides important lessons for conservation management, as it has maintained conservation values rivalling those of much larger parks sometimes through, and sometimes despite, strong management interventions, including the rescue of the white rhino from extinction. In addition, the book highl...

Conflicts over the conservation of biodiversity are increasing and are serious obstacles to wildlife conservation efforts worldwide. Changing patterns in land use, over-exploitation, pollution, climate change and the threat posed by invasive species all challenge the way we currently maintain and protect biodiversity - from the local management of single species to the international management of resources. Integrating approaches from different academic disciplines, policy makers and pract...

Freshwater fish are one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates, but are also amongst the most threatened. With contributions from leaders in the field, this is the first assessment of the global state of freshwater fish diversity, synthesising the opportunities, challenges and barriers facing the conservation of freshwater fish biodiversity. The book includes the first global assessment of the number, type and distribution of threatened freshwater fish species, discussing the features o...