Understanding the Changing Planet

Understanding the Changing Planet PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2010-07-23

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 0309150752

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From the oceans to continental heartlands, human activities have altered the physical characteristics of Earth's surface. With Earth's population projected to peak at 8 to 12 billion people by 2050 and the additional stress of climate change, it is more important than ever to understand how and where these changes are happening. Innovation in the geographical sciences has the potential to advance knowledge of place-based environmental change, sustainability, and the impacts of a rapidly changing economy and society. Understanding the Changing Planet outlines eleven strategic directions to focus research and leverage new technologies to harness the potential that the geographical sciences offer.

Biodiversity II

Biodiversity II PDF

Author: A Joseph Henry Press book

Publisher: Joseph Henry Press

Published: 1996-09-16

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 0309176565

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"The book before you...carries the urgent warning that we are rapidly altering and destroying the environments that have fostered the diversity of life forms for more than a billion years." With those words, Edward O. Wilson opened the landmark volume Biodiversity (National Academy Press, 1988). Despite this and other such alarms, species continue to vanish at a rapid rate, taking with them their genetic legacy and potential benefits. Many disappear before they can even be identified. Biodiversity II is a renewed call for urgency. This volume updates readers on how much we already know and how much remains to be identified scientifically. It explores new strategies for quantifying, understanding, and protecting biodiversity, including: New approaches to the integration of electronic data, including a proposal for a U.S. National Biodiversity Information Center. Application of techniques developed in the human genome project to species identification and classification. The Gap Analysis Program of the National Biological Survey, which uses layered satellite, climatic, and biological data to assess distribution and better manage biodiversity. The significant contribution of museum collections to identifying and categorizing species, which is essential for understanding ecological function and for targeting organisms and regions at risk. The book describes our growing understanding of how megacenters of diversity (e.g., rainforest insects, coral reefs) are formed, maintained, and lost; what can be learned from mounting bird extinctions; and how conservation efforts for neotropical primates have fared. It also explores ecosystem restoration, sustainable development, and agricultural impact. Biodiversity II reinforces the idea that the conservation of our biological resources is within reach as long as we pool resources; better coordinate the efforts of existing institutionsâ€"museums, universities, and government agenciesâ€"already dedicated to this goal; and enhance support for research, collections, and training. This volume will be important to environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, educators, students, and concerned individuals.

Biological Diversity: Current Status and Conservation Policies

Biological Diversity: Current Status and Conservation Policies PDF

Author: Vinod Kumar

Publisher: Agro Environ Media, Publication Cell of AESA, Agriculture and Environmental Science Academy,

Published: 2021-10-25

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 8195499643

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The present book has been designed to bind prime knowledge of climate change-induced impacts on various aspects of our environment and its biological diversity. The book also contains updated information, methods and tools for the monitoring and conservation of impacted biological diversity.

Protection of Global Biodiversity

Protection of Global Biodiversity PDF

Author: Lakshman D. Guruswamy

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13:

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The rate of extinction of biological species is greater today than at any time in the last 65 million years. Some predict that if this rate continues, two-thirds of all living species will disappear during the next century. Because reaching consensus on specific courses of action involves complex issues, any adequate response to this impending crisis must include coverage of many areas of inquiry and understanding. Protection of Global Biodiversity features essays by distinguished international experts who communicate with each other across disciplinary boundaries to address the challenge of formulating policies to protect biodiversity. Although the global community has recently adopted a Convention of Biological Diversity, the agreement sets forth only abstract goals. Contributors to this volume advance the Convention's initial steps by providing workable solutions that can be implemented regionally, nationally, and locally. The contributors--including natural, social, and political scientists; economists; lawyers; and environmentalists; and decisionmakers in business, agriculture, and government--have united to create a common discourse and to evaluate and propose strategies for halting this alarming loss of biodiversity. In recognizing the diverse aspects of this task--scientific, economic, institutional, moral, and legal--this book presents a new picture of emerging action. Contributors. S. James Anaya, Gregory Benford, Graciela Chichilnisky, S. Todd Crider, Yvonne Cripps, Robert T. Fraley, Anil K. Gupta, Lakshman D. Guruswamy, G. M. Heal, Brent Hendricks, Robert B. Horsch, Laura L. Jackson, Annie Lovejoy, Ariel E. Lugo, Jeffrey A. McNeely, Brian G. Norton, Elinor Ostrom, Peter H. Raven, John W. Reid, Walter V. Reid, Mark Sagoff, Roger A. Sedgo, R. David Simpson, Ana Sittenfeld, Christopher D. Stone, Gary H. Toenniessen

Conservation Biogeography

Conservation Biogeography PDF

Author: Richard J. Ladle

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-11

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 1444390023

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CONSERVATION BIOGEOGRAPHY The Earth’s ecosystems are in the midst of an unprecedented period of change as a result of human action. Many habitats have been completely destroyed or divided into tiny fragments, others have been transformed through the introduction of new species, or the extinction of native plants and animals, while anthropogenic climate change now threatens to completely redraw the geographic map of life on this planet. The urgent need to understand and prescribe solutions to this complicated and interlinked set of pressing conservation issues has lead to the transformation of the venerable academic discipline of biogeography – the study of the geographic distribution of animals and plants. The newly emerged sub-discipline of conservation biogeography uses the conceptual tools and methods of biogeography to address real world conservation problems and to provide predictions about the fate of key species and ecosystems over the next century. This book provides the first comprehensive review of the field in a series of closely interlinked chapters addressing the central issues within this exciting and important subject.

Biological Diversity and International Law

Biological Diversity and International Law PDF

Author: Mar Campins Eritja

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-07-16

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 3030729613

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The book focuses on the interactions between international legal regimes related to biodiversity governance. It addresses the systemic challenges by analyzing the legal interactions between international biodiversity law and related international law applicable to economic activities, as well as issues related to the governance of biodiversity based on functional, normative, and geographic dimensions, in order to present a crosscutting, holistic approach. The global COVID-19 pandemic, the imminent revision of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and the Aichi Targets have created the momentum to focus on the interactions between the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international environmental regimes. Firstly, it discusses the principles that inspire biodiversity-related conventional law, the soft law that conveys targets for enforcement of the Biodiversity Convention, their structural, regulatory and implementation gaps, the systemic relations arising from national interests, and the role of scientific advisory bodies in biodiversity-related agreements. The second part then addresses interactions in specific conventional frameworks, such as the law of multilateral trade and global public health, and the participation of communities in the management of genetic resources. Lastly, the third part illustrates these issues using four case studies focusing on the challenges for sustainability and marine biodiversity in small islands, the Arctic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, as a way to strengthen a horizontal and joint approach. The book is primarily intended for academics, researchers, and students interested in international environmental law and policy and in interactions for creating conditions for fair, sustainable, and resilient environmental development. By offering an analysis of instruments and criteria for systemic relations in those areas, it will also appeal to public and private actors at the domestic and international level.

Conserving Biodiversity

Conserving Biodiversity PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1992-02-01

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 0309046831

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The loss of the earth's biological diversity is widely recognized as a critical environmental problem. That loss is most severe in developing countries, where the conditions of human existence are most difficult. Conserving Biodiversity presents an agenda for research that can provide information to formulate policy and design conservation programs in the Third World. The book includes discussions of research needs in the biological sciences as well as economics and anthropology, areas of critical importance to conservation and sustainable development. Although specifically directed toward development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and decisionmakers in developing nations, this volume should be of interest to all who are involved in the conservation of biological diversity.

International Law and the Conservation of Biological Diversity

International Law and the Conservation of Biological Diversity PDF

Author: Michael Bowman

Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.

Published: 1996-01-10

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9041108637

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This work presents a thorough analysis of the biodiversity concept in international law and commentary on the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity which was opened for signature following the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. This Convention is the first international treaty explicitly to address all aspects of biodiversity ranging from the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources, to access to biotechnology and the safety of activities related to modified living organisms. The work extends beyond the ambit of the Convention itself to examine the conservation of biodiversity in international law generally, including measures for the protection of the terrestrial, marine and Antarctic environment and particular features relating to sustainable use of biological resources, ex-situ conservation and plant genetic resources. It further analyses the controversial issue of intellectual property rights, the problems of implementation in the European Union and the United States, differences between developing and developed states and the role of indigenous peoples. This major new work has been written by members of the Committee on Environmental Law of the British Branch of the International Law Association following an earlier study on the subject of International Law and Global Climate Change (Graham & Trotman, 1991). It is the first major study of the Convention of the context in which it was negotiated, and of the prospects for its implementation, following the entry into force of the Convention on 29 December 1993.

Saving Biological Diversity

Saving Biological Diversity PDF

Author: Robert A. Askins

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2010-10-29

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781441934956

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The Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary program that builds on one of the nation’s leading undergraduate environmental studies programs. The C- ter fosters research, education, and curriculum development aimed at understanding contemporary ecological challenges. One of the major goals of the Goodwin-Niering Center is to enhance the understanding of both the College community and the general public with respect to ecological, political, social, and economic factors that affect natural resource use and preservation of natural ecosystems. To this end, the C- ter has offered six conferences at which academicians, representatives of federal and state government, people who depend on natural resources for their living, and in- viduals from non-government environmental organizations were brought together for an in-depth, interdisciplinary evaluation of important environmental issues. On April 6 and 7, 2007, the Center presented the Elizabeth Babbott Conant interdisciplinary conference on Saving Biological Diversity: Weighing the Protection of Endangered Species vs. Entire Ecosystems. The Beaver Brook Foundation; Audubon Connecticut, the state of?ce of the National Audubon Society; the Connecticut Chapter of The Nature Conservancy; Connecticut Forest and Park Association and the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program joined the Center as conference sponsors. During this two-day conference we learned about conservation and endangered species fromawiderange ofperspectives. Likeallof theconferences sponsored bythe Goodwin-Niering Center, this conference was broadly interdisciplinary, with pres- tations by economists, political scientists, and conservation biologists.