This book offers a comprehensive account of the current state of inland waters in tropical and subtropical East Asia, exploring a series of case studies of freshwater fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals and water bodies at particular risk. The book highlights the rich freshwater biodiversity of tropical East Asia and draws attention to the various threats it faces due to human activities and rapid environmental change. It addresses the question of whether the contributions of these animals and habitats, or biodiversity in general, to ecosystem functioning and service provision provide sufficient basis for arguments supporting nature conservation. Drawing on instances from the rivers and lakes of tropical East Asia, the book also asks whether the benefits accruing from intact ecosystems are likely to be enough to ensure their preservation. If the answer to either or both these questions is ‘no’, then what are the prospects for freshwater biodiversity in rapidly changing tropical East Asia? This book will be of interest to students and scholars of biodiversity, conservation, freshwater ecology, ecosystem services and Asian Studies.

An updated edition of the only book dedicated to the terrestrial ecology of the East Asian tropics, authored by a world-renowned tropical ecologist

This volume brings together a collection of case studies examining wildlife ecology and conservation across India. The book explores and examines a wide range of fauna across different terrains and habitats in India, revealing key issues and concerns for biodiversity conservation, with a particular emphasis on the impact of humans and climate change. Cases are as wide ranging as tigers, leopards, sloth bears, pheasants, insects and birds, across a diverse range of landscapes, including forests, wetlands, nature reserves and even a university campus. Split into three parts, Part I focuses on how the distribution of animals is influenced by the availability of resources such as food, water, and space. Chapters examine key determinants, such as diet and prey and habitat preferences, with habitat loss also being an important factor. In Part II, chapters examine human-wildlife interactions, dealing with issues such as the impact of urbanization, the establishment of nature reserves and competition for resources. The book concludes with an examination of landscape ecology and conservation, with chapters in Part III focusing on habitat degradation, changes in land-use patterns and ecosystem management. Overall, the volume not only reflects the great breadth and depth of biodiversity in India, but offers important insights to the challenges facing biodiversity conservation not only in this region, but worldwide. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of wildlife ecology, conservation biology, biodiversity conservation and the environmental sciences more broadly.

The book examines concurrent green initiatives and their spillover effects on environmental conservation and management to reveal their impact on conservation effectiveness, drawing on a range of international case studies. Green initiatives are programs, payments, or endeavors that restore, sustain, or improve nature’s capacity, with examples including payments for ecosystem services and the development of nature reserves and protected areas. This book explicitly examines concurrent green initiatives, where initiatives overlap either geographically or in terms of recipients of multiple payments. The book provides a detailed analysis of case studies in the USA and China, including the USA-based Conservation Reserve Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and the China based Grain-to-Green Program and the Forest Ecological Benefit Compensation Fund. Through this comparison, the book shows the impact of concurrent green initiatives, including additional or unintended benefits for conservation and local communities as well as negative spillover effects. The book complements these case studies by drawing on other global examples ranging in size from local to continental, including planting native trees and shrubs in Australia and green initiatives in the Baltic Sea region. Overall, this book demonstrates the importance of analyzing concurrent green efforts to better understand both the positive and negative impacts to ensure the optimal effectiveness of these policies and programs for conservation and environmental management. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental conservation and management, land use, ecosystem services and environmental policy, as well as policymakers and practitioners working on environmental initiatives and programs.

This book explores the fascinating and complex lives of the honey badger, the African jackals (black-backed and side-striped), African golden wolves, and Eurasian golden jackals. In recent years, interest in these creatures has grown exponentially, through wildlife documentaries and media clips showing the aggressive, fearless, and tenacious behaviour of the honey badger, with jackals often presented in a supporting role. Written by renowned journalist and educator Keith Somerville, this accessible volume includes historical narratives, folklore, and contemporary accounts of human–wildlife relationships and conflicts. It traces the evolution of the species; their foraging and diet; the development of their relationships with humans; and their commensal, kleptocratic, and symbiotic relationships with other carnivores, raptors and birds. It also charts the recent expansion in European jackal numbers and ranges, now including as far west as the Netherlands and as far north as Finland. Blending historical observations by non-scientists, colonial officials, administrators, and early conservationists with contemporary scientific accounts, it presents a new multidisciplinary approach that will interest researchers, scientists, and students in wildlife conservation, human–wildlife relations, zoology, biology, and environmental science.

This book delivers a realistic and feasible framework for creating resilient landscapes in an era of anthropogenic climate change. From across six continents, this book presents fifteen case studies of differing sociocultural, economic, and biophysical backgrounds that showcase opportunities and limitations for creating resilient landscapes throughout the world. The potential to create socio-ecological resilience is examined across a wide range of landscapes, including agricultural, island, forest, coastal, and urban landscapes, across sixteen countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Samoa, South Africa, the United States, Turkey, Uruguay, and Vanuatu. Chapters discuss current and future issues around creating a sustainable food system, conserving biodiversity, and climate change adaptation and resilience, with green infrastructure, nature-based architecture, green-tech, and ecosystem services as just a few of the approaches discussed. The book emphasizes solution-oriented approaches for an "ecological hope" that can support landscape resiliency in this chaotic era, and the chapters consider the importance of envisioning an unpredictable future with numerous uncertainties. In this context, the key focus is on how we all can tackle the intertwined impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and large-scale land-cover conversion in urban and non-urban landscapes, with particular attention to the concept of landscape resiliency. The volume provides that much-needed link between theory and practice to deliver forward-thinking, practical solutions. This book will be of great interest to students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers who are interested in the complex relationship between landscapes, climate change, biodiversity loss, and land-based conversion at local, national and global scales.

This book presents a broad array of global case studies exploring the interaction between religion and the conservation of nature, from the viewpoints of the religious practitioners themselves. With conservation and religion often being championed as allies in the quest for a sustainable world where humans and nature flourish, this book provides a much-needed compendium of detailed examples where religion and conservation science have been brought together. Case studies cover a variety of religions, faiths and practices, including traditional, Indigenous, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. Importantly, this volume gives voice to the religious practitioners and adherents themselves. Beyond an exercise in anthropology, ethnobiology and comparative religion, the book is an applied work, seeking the answer to how in a world of nearly eight billion people, we might help our own species to prevent the extinction of life. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of nature conservation, environment and religion, cultural geography and ethnobiology, as well as practitioners and professionals working in conservation.