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A comprehensive text and reference book covering all the aspects of biodiversity science for students and researchers of biodiversity, plant science, biotechnology, as well as zoology. ... Read more

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This is a high-level scientific text and reference work on the properties of land-water ecotones and their role in maintaining local, regional, and global biological diversity. It reviews current knowledge of the subject, explains the importance of land-water ecotones in maintaining biodiversity and the factors controlling biodiversity, identifies the role of biodiversity in the functioning of transition systems between ecosystems as well as the main scientific issues for future research leading to the development of a general theory of biological diversity, and examines the impact of human activity on land-water ecotones. The book's eleven chapters cover microbiological diversity, plant diversity, invertebrate biodiversity, bird diversity, mammal diversity, and ecotonal biodiversity and sustainability in tropical landscapes. ... Read more

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This book describes the biodiversity and biogeography of nothern Mexico, documents the biological importance of regional ecosystems and the impacts of human land use on the conservation status of plants and wildlife. It should become the standard source document for the conservation status of species and ecosystems in this region, which is of unusual biological interest because of its high biodiversity and highly varied landscape and biological zonation. ... Read more

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Seeds have been exchanged among cultures for millennia, but suddenly the means of controlling seed trade and genetic transfers have been dramatically altered. This book offers the best means to understand how this issue affects you and every person, present and future, who deserves to know where their food comes from, and through whose hands.Gary Nabhan Director, Center for Sustainable Environments, USA Providing vital information to a cross-section of stakeholders, this book highlights the need for strategic policy alternatives to sustain biodiversity. I recommend it for reading by all those practitioners involved in economic development and food policy issues. Godwin Y. MkamangaDirector, SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre, ZambiaThis book is a testimony of how biodiversity is integrated into the African culture of open hands exchanging seeds freely for the benefit of humanity. Although this practice is under threat, Africans continue to offer options for sharing nature s heritage. I recommend this book to all those struggling to grasp how different cultures can co-exist and interact to advance socio-economic development that is driven by our collective needs. Melaku Worede Founding Director, National Gene-Bank, EthiopiaBecause seeds are a gift to each one of us, they are a gift to all. Ancient cultures increased this wealth by sharing cultivated seed, by giving it away. Today rich countries and corporations are taking seed and making it private property.They are also destroying seed by polluting fields with genetically modified organisms. Like pirates, they loot the wealth of others. The struggle for control of biodiversity is passionate: Corporate leaders assume they can make billions; many scientists aspire to manufacturingnewspecies; the promise of new cures tantalizes.But no scientist, no patent lawyer, or economist can depict the whole picture. This book gives voice to those in Africa who know better and are willing to help ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

READ THIS BOOK!!!
"Africa has answers to its food deficits and its food insecurity."This remarkable sentence, free of the condescension of so much written about Africa, is backed up by history and current practice in this book.Examples of indigenous farmers sharing and protecting their seed diversity are examined beside the continuing interference and attempted global control of their lands' commodities by giant corporate agribusiness.With wisdom and hope, the story of the farmers' integrity and their capability of solving the problems globalization has created become accessible in this book and, quite simply, a revelation.

A Few Lessons
This book is useful to anyone interested in understanding the connection between biodiversity and food-security in Sub-Saharan Africa. I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

Attention! Who cares about the survival of their kids and grand-kids?

> If you do, then read this complex, but excellent academic work (co-authored by Andrew Muchita and Carol B. Thompson), for it is
> vital for their, and our, future.
>
> Totally geared to huge, immediate profit from the ballooning market (resulting
> from the -purposely uncontrolled- population explosion), backed by millions of
> dollars, and by the corrupt governments they control, the multi-national
> corporations have been destroying the biodiversity of our crops, trying to
> create instant super yields. This has been done without any regard to the
> effects it is creating for future generations and has resulted in the fact
> that the monoculture of industrial agriculture has, for instance, reduced our
> biodiversity to only 12 plants providing 75 percent of industrialized food,.
> making us sitting ducks for a worldwide, modern day "Irish Potato Famine" of
> mega proportions.
>
> So far the corporate bio-pirates have focused on the West and Asia, and have
> ignored Africa and African farmers; farmers who for generations have known
> every inch of their soil, freely exchanging seeds, creating a huge
> reservoir of potent organic biodiversity. Now, however, the fast buck boys
> and their patent attorneys have set their sights on this diverse continent
> ready to resume their agricultural rape. This book explains in fine detail
> the who, what, where, when and how, and that it is up to us to stop them
> now, if we at all care for our future survival.
>
> T. van Renterghem,
> author, researcher, historian

connecting the dots between the environment and social justice
This book hopefully represents a new genre of social critique because it bridges multiple fields in an effortlessly readable manner.Connecting contemporary concerns about the environment, corporate malfeasance, economic and social justice and local and international acts resistance, this book will undoubtedly be used by specialists, but more importantly, it should be read by countless others who simply want to understand our world.

Authors Andrew Mushita, the Director of the Community Technology Development Trust in Zimbabwe, and Carol Thompson, a Professor of Political Economy, link the environmental and global justice crises down to one essential component---the seed.Their book focuses largely on the southern African region and the current global corporations who are stealing seeds, genetically modifying them and then claiming private ownership of such seed through intellectual property rights.The brilliance of the book is that by focusing on southern Africa and seed, their story is both specific and yet sadly easy to extrapolate to others parts of the world. Interlaced with chapters about the history of past `biopiracy' from the conquest in Mesoamerica to land reform attempts in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the book also outlines real successes wrested from WTO by savvy coalitions of African and Indian scientists and diplomats in their attempt to maintain the integrity of original seed stocks.

It's a bracing book. Carefully researched (footnotes are thoughtfully lodged at the end of each chapter) and a goldmine of data-- yet the authors are doing what Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse) did for history, in terms of taking a complex subject formerly the preserve of academic study and rendering it in popular prose.And by tackling the 21st century, on-going problem of Biopiracy of Biodiversity in southern Africa, reading this book is arguably even more pressing. ... Read more

Product Description
This work addresses some of the key questions related to biosafety, enviromental impact issues and ethical issues affected by the advent of biotechnology in agriculture. Biotechnology is poised to change the field of agriculture and this work explores its potential. ... Read more

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The Global Biodiversity Assessment is an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific analysis and assessment of the biological and socio-economic aspects of biodiversity. It was commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The main conclusions drawn by the Assessment are presented in this Summary for Policy-Makers, which, together with the Executive Summary, has been prepared by the Editorial Group of the Global Biodiversity Assessment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Global Biodiversity Assessment
A useful textbook for students, scientists and policy makers. The information is extensive and detailed in a logical fashion, taking the reader from the basics of biodiversity through to human influences,economic values and conservation. ... Read more

Product Description
In order for biodiversity to be conserved, it is important to know how and where diverse populations of plants and animals exist, to understand the effects of human impacts on them, and to find the means by which these impacts can be lessened and even reversed. While tropical systems are known to be among the most diverse and most threatened globally, tropical freshwater systems have been neglected, and the tremendous variety of fish, amphibians, invertebrates and plants that live in them are poorly known yet seriously threatened. This comprehensive book brings together a wealth of information on the fish of tropical African systems, and discusses how these systems evolved, what holds them together, and what is tearing them apart. ... Read more

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Weaving together philosophical, historical, legal, scientific and
personal viewpoints, this book gives a rich sample of the vast web which makes up our cultural, spiritual and social diversity.

The volume highlights the central importance of cultural and spiritual
values in the appreciation and preservation of all life and argues that these values give us a true reflection of worth. It demonstrates how
many cultures see Nature as an extension of society, and how sensitive
stewardship is an integral part of existence.

The book includes chapters on: language and how cognition and speech encode indigenous knowledge systems and are critical for preservation of diversity; the complex issue of indigenous people and the problems of preserving their relationships both with and within their
societies; voices of the world - expressions of concern and disquiet over the declining world diversity; holistic health practices where
environment and diet are integrated into indigenous medical health
systems; the importance of developing effective intellectual property rights and territorial and land rights to enhance and maintain local control.

There are also specific examples of how local people have learned to
conserve biodiversity in an extraordinary range of environments and social conditions, and examines how many world religions are
re-assessing their roles as stewards in the light of environmental
impoverishment.

This book arose out of the Global Biodiversity Assessment (GBA), a
massive review of current knowledge in the broad field of biological diversity, comissioned by United Nations Environmental Program
(UNEP). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Soporte conceptual importante
He usado el libro para desarrollar una mejor comprensión del quehacer cultural y religioso de los pueblos originarios de América y su vinculo con la biodiversidad. Creo que es un interesante libro para quienes se introducen en este complejo tema de la relación entre los patrimonios naturales y culturales del mundo. Lo recomiendo para quienes desean componer un conocimiento más sustancial y teórico sobre la realidad de los indígenas y la naturaleza que los rodea. Es una muy buena contribución a la difusión del conocimiento ... Read more

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Biological diversity, or "biodiversity," refers to the variety of all life on earth, and the complex relationships among living things, and between living things and their environment. Biodiversity includes genetic variety, species diversity, and variability in communities, ecosystems and landscapes. Biodiversity sustains the environments in which we live and on which our lives and those of every other living creature on Earth depend. Thanks to biodiversity, we are able to obtain such necessary goods as food, clothing, medicine, and fuel. Equally important are the ecosystem services that biodiversity provides, such as clean air and drinkable water. Conservation scientists have identified a number of universal threats to biodiversity: habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, pollution, overpopulation, overexploitation and consumption, and global climate change. This book examines critical issues in this field from researchers around the globe. ... Read more

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This authoritative book presents the results of important new research into the economics of biodiversity conservation in sub-Saharan Africa.

The contributors offer case studies of the economic causes of biodiversity loss in a range of ecosystem types - wetlands, montane forests, tropical moist forests, semi-arid savannas and lakes - and discuss the policy options for biodiversity conservation in each case. They also provide an in-depth analysis of the environmental consequences of policy reform at the macro- and micro- levels and offer practical recommendations for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The Economics of Biodiversity Conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa will prove invaluable to scholars and policymakers working within the areas of environmental economics, environmental science and sustainable development. ... Read more

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Limits to expansion of protected area systems underline the importance of seeking new ways to conserve biodiversity. The twelve case studies ranging from the High Andes to Viet Nam support the view that certain traditional agricultural and pastoral systems can succeed in attaining a sustainable level of production while at the same time maintaining both a high level of biodiversity and most functional aspects of the ecosystems. ... Read more

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Contributed articles presented at the National Symposium on the "Role of Plant Tissue Culture in Bio-diversity Conservation and Economic Development" held in G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development, Kosi Katarmal, Almora from 7-9 June 1999. ... Read more

Product Description
This book focuses on biological diversity, or "biodiversity", which refers to the variety of all life on earth, and the complex relationships among living things, and between living things and their environment. Biodiversity includes genetic variety, species diversity, and variability in communities, ecosystems and landscapes. Biodiversity sustains the environments in which we live and on which our lives and those of every other living creature on Earth depend. Thanks to biodiversity, we are able to obtain such necessary goods as food, clothing, medicine, and fuel. Equally important are the ecosystem services that biodiversity provides, such as clean air and drinkable water. Conservation scientists have identified a number of universal threats to biodiversity: habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, pollution, overpopulation, overexploitation and consumption, and global climate change. ... Read more

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Global environmental problems are much more severe and complex than many of the public believe. This book explores the paradox of humanity's dependence on biodiversity and landscape systems for survival while simultaneously placing an enormous stress on the existence of these natural systems. Leading contributors to the fields of biodiversity conservation, ecology, economics, entomology, forestry, history, landscape management, philosophy and sociology draw from their unique disciplinary perspectives to consider the origins, bases and possible solutions to this pressing problem. The volume shows that the need for a solution is one of the most urgent facing humanity, yet the challenge of solving it is one that will require a major shift in the composite of human values. ... Read more