Our Uncommon Heritage
Biodiversity Change, Ecosystem Services, and Human Wellbeing

An important, interdisciplinary study of the many dimensions of human-driven biodiversity change.

Charles Perrings (Author)

9781107043732, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 April 2014

564 pages, 41 b/w illus. 35 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 1.04 kg

'… a comprehensive examination of the ecology, economics, and policy of human-driven biodiversity change.' M. Morgan-Davie, Choice

Biodiversity change is the biggest environmental problem of our time. It leads to much more than species extinctions, affecting the food we eat, the diseases we face, our vulnerability to fire and flood, and our ability to adapt to climate change. Our Uncommon Heritage explores the many dimensions of human-driven biodiversity change. It integrates ecology, economics and policy to examine the causes and consequences of changes in ecosystems, species and genes, and to identify better ways to manage those changes. It explores the place of biodiversity in the wealth of nations, the rights and responsibilities people have for natural resources at local, regional, national and international levels, and the challenges faced in protecting the common good at the global level. This is an important book for students and researchers in the fields of conservation and sustainability science, ecology, natural resource economics and management. It also has much to say to those engaged in international conservation, health, agriculture, forestry and fisheries policy.

Foreword
Preface
1. Biodiversity change
Part I. Diagnosing the Biodiversity Change Problem: 2. Biodiversity in the modern world
3. Biodiversity and ecosystem services
4. Biodiversity loss, sustainability and stability
5. Biodiversity externalities and public goods
6. Poverty alleviation and biodiversity change
7. Globalization: trade, aid, and the dispersal of species
Part II. The Search for Solutions: 8. Getting the prognosis right
9. Understanding what is lost
10. Managing risk, uncertainty, and irreversibility in biodiversity change
11. Conservation incentives and payments for ecosystems services
12. Paying for International environmental public goods
13. Strengthening the biodiversity-related multilateral agreements
14. Genetic resources and the poor
15. Redirecting biodiversity change
Index.

Subject Areas: Biodiversity [RNCB], Applied ecology [RNC], Environmental economics [KCN], Economics [KC]