Search Results

Dragonflies as focal organisms in contemporary conservation biology

Michael J. Samways

in Dragonflies and Damselflies: Model Organisms for Ecological and Evolutionary Research

Freshwater ecosystems worldwide are highly threatened. As a consequence, many dragonfly species are also threatened. The threats to them are many and varied, including invasive alien plants and ... More

Freshwater ecosystems worldwide are highly threatened. As a consequence, many dragonfly species are also threatened. The threats to them are many and varied, including invasive alien plants and habitat loss. Global climate change is also beginning to affect them, with some species changing their geographical ranges. Worldwide assessments are being made of dragonfly conservation status. They are one of the highest profile invertebrates in conservation awareness, planning, and action. One reason for this is that they are highly valued, being iconic, aesthetic, and sensitive bioindicators of landscape change. They are both important subjects in their own right as well as important role players in overall biodiversity conservation.Less

Biodiversity

Ramprasad Sengupta

in Ecological Limits and Economic Development

The chapter explains the concept, measurement and utility of bio-diversity as a resource and its intricate relationship with forest. It discusses the issues of economics of choice and economic ... More

The chapter explains the concept, measurement and utility of bio-diversity as a resource and its intricate relationship with forest. It discusses the issues of economics of choice and economic valuation of biodiversity at conceptual level. It describes also the empirical situation in respect of biodiversity outlining both the global and the Indian scenario. In this context it explains the extent, causes and impact of the biodiversity loss in India due to the limit of eco-capacity. It further discusses the biodiversity conservation policy of India including India’s heritage of biodiversity conservation and traditional knowledge system associated with the bio-diversity resource of forest. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion on how the anthropogenic stress on ecosystem is captured by the loss of bio-diversity which is represented by indicators like living planet index among other measures.Less

Conclusion and Recommendations

Gordon W. Frankie, Alfonso Mata, and Katrina Brandon

in Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica: Learning the Lessons in a Seasonal Dry Forest

This book explores Costa Rica's biodiversity and conservation focused in the tropical dry forest. This concluding chapter presents general lessons for future projections on ecological restoration and ... More

This book explores Costa Rica's biodiversity and conservation focused in the tropical dry forest. This concluding chapter presents general lessons for future projections on ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation. It also describes the socioeconomic and political contexts that have developed around protected areas and the future of biodiversity conservation. It also presents recommendations for improvements in conserving biodiversity in Costa Rica and other regions of Mesoamerica.Less

The Legal Lives of Endangered Species: Biodiversity Laws and Culture

Ursula K. Heise

in Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species

This chapter compares laws for the protection of biodiversity in four sites (US, Germany, European Union, Bolivia) so as to highlight the divergent historical provenance and cultural framing of legal ... More

This chapter compares laws for the protection of biodiversity in four sites (US, Germany, European Union, Bolivia) so as to highlight the divergent historical provenance and cultural framing of legal engagements with endangered species. The 1973 Endangered Species Act of the United States focuses on the protection of species at risk and on "critical habitat" as a way of preserving species. In Germany, where environmentalism since the late-nineteenth century has foregrounded the conservation of cultural landscapes, the current law protects biodiversity rather than endangered species, and subordinates the conservation of animal and plant species to the maintenance of historical and cultural landscapes. The European Union protects both species and habitats, adopting a largely scientific vocabulary to create a common language and concern for a shared heritage among its diverse member states. In Bolivia, the new constitution passed in 2009 and subsequent laws combine science and indigenous traditions so as to integrate biodiversity protection into a broader vision of "Buen Vivir," the just and good society. Assessing the performance of these laws is difficult without taking into account the cultural and political frameworks that make biodiversity conservation part of national or regional identity.Less

Tracing the Roots of Neoliberal Conservation

Catherine A. Corson

in Corridors of Power: The Politics of Environmental Aid to Madagascar

This chapter chronicles the history of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) environmental funding, focusing on the expansion of its biodiversity conservation program, which ... More

This chapter chronicles the history of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) environmental funding, focusing on the expansion of its biodiversity conservation program, which grew from five million dollars in fiscal year (FY) 1987 to an estimated 184 million in FY 2012. It argues that the rising prominence of biodiversity with USAID's environmental portfolio was made possible by the neoliberal reduction of the state—a development that opened up room for nonprofit and private actors to influence state policy. As USAID turned to nonprofit and private actors for assistance in policy making, program design and implementation, evaluation, and enforcement, these actors also became key advocates for USAID's environmental program on Capitol Hill, and the agency's environmental program narrowed to mirror the priorities of its political champions.Less

Lost Dogs, Last Birds, and Listed Species: Elegy and Comedy in Conservation Stories

Ursula K. Heise

in Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species

This chapter analyzes the interplay of science and culture in narratives about species loss. Scientific assessments of biodiversity are constrained by uncertainties that reach from the definition of ... More

This chapter analyzes the interplay of science and culture in narratives about species loss. Scientific assessments of biodiversity are constrained by uncertainties that reach from the definition of "biodiversity" to appropriate ways of measuring it. In the scientific and public realms, arguments about biodiversity loss typically follow a narrative “proxy logic,” whereby charismatic megafauna stand in for species at large, species for biodiversity, and biodiversity for what humans value about nature. This value attribution, as the cases of the dodo, the Honshu wolf, the ivory-billed woodpecker, the huia, and the thylacine show in works such as David Quammen's Song of the Dodo, Lee Hyla's Wilson's Ivory-Bill, Sally McIntyre's Huia Transcriptions, and Julia Leigh's The Hunter, are associated with narratives about modernization and colonization. Endangered or extinct animals typically feature in elegiac or tragic stories that highlight what was lost in such historical processes. Conservation, therefore, is primarily a political and cultural rather than a scientific issue, and should be approached through the study of narrative and culture. Comedies such as Douglas Adams’s Last Chance To See offer an alternative perspective on conservation that focuses on contingency and the present rather than on the past.Less

Farmers’ Livelihoods and Biodiversity Conservation in a Coffee Landscape of El Salvador

V. Ernesto Méndez

in Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America

This chapter examines the coffee crisis between agriculture, rural development, and biodiversity conservation in El Salvador with the aim of understanding the association between biodiversity ... More

This chapter examines the coffee crisis between agriculture, rural development, and biodiversity conservation in El Salvador with the aim of understanding the association between biodiversity friendly coffee plantation management and socio-ecological relationships. It documents household survey research which reveals that shade trees are an alternative income source for cooperatives, and highlights the importance of integrating family livelihood strategies with shade trees. Three cooperatives with similar biophysical characteristics but different land holdings and management strategies are employed to show how different characteristics of the cooperatives affect the benefits they reap from the cultivation of shade trees.Less

From Rationalism to Reflexivity? Reflections on Change in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan

Anna Lawrence and Star Molteno

in Reflexive Governance for Global Public Goods

This chapter focuses on the changes introduced in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP). It examines the changing approach to biodiversity conservation in the country and explores the extent of ... More

This chapter focuses on the changes introduced in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP). It examines the changing approach to biodiversity conservation in the country and explores the extent of such approaches to reflexivity in the plan. The chapter adopts an empirical approach to surveying the existing conditions by analyzing documents and interviewing key entities from governmental and non-governmental organizations. The UK has responded to the Convention on Biological Diversity by implementing the UKBAP between 1994 and 1996. The original UKBAP proposed fifty-nine steps demonstrating a more holistic approach to conserving the biodiversity of the country. The UKBAP is a document, partnership, and process depending on three main activities to achieve its objectives, and has also undergone significant changes from its original form in terms of structure and process.Less

Making Wildlife Research More Meaningful by Prioritizing Science, Linking Disciplines, and Building Capacity

David E. Wildt

in Experimental Approaches to Conservation Biology

This chapter focuses on research strategies for wildlife biology and the approaches used to identify conservation priorities. It discusses the application of integrated, multidisciplinary research ... More

This chapter focuses on research strategies for wildlife biology and the approaches used to identify conservation priorities. It discusses the application of integrated, multidisciplinary research and building capacity to address challenges to biodiversity conservation.Less

Social Dimensions of Organic Coffee Production in Mexico: Lessons for Eco-Labeling Initiatives

David B. Bray, José Luis Plaza Sanchez, and Ellen Contreras Murphy

in Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America

This chapter focuses on analyzing the pros and cons of producing certified organic coffee in the context of social justice and biodiversity conservation, as revealed in the case study in Chiapas, ... More

This chapter focuses on analyzing the pros and cons of producing certified organic coffee in the context of social justice and biodiversity conservation, as revealed in the case study in Chiapas, Mexico. The importance of developing strategies that focus on consumer consciousness and coffee certification are discussed; the advantages of organic coffee production are explored in terms of costs and subsidies and environment and social benefits. The chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding the production of environmentally friendly agricultural products for better biodiversity conservation and shade-tree organic coffee marketing. The chapter states that sustainable agricultural production in Mexico and organic coffee purchase for habitat conservation are equally important. The importance of understanding the limitations of organic coffee cultivation is also explored.Less

A Model for Greening Development

Catherine A. Corson

in Corridors of Power: The Politics of Environmental Aid to Madagascar

This chapter analyzes how state and nonstate actors negotiated programmatic priorities during three phases of the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP). It concentrates on how and why ... More

This chapter analyzes how state and nonstate actors negotiated programmatic priorities during three phases of the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP). It concentrates on how and why biodiversity conservation, achieved through the expansion of protected areas, came to dominate much of Madagascar's donor-funded environmental program, marginalizing initiatives like sustainable agriculture and rural development, Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), state environmental management capacity building, and green economic planning. The chapter argues that biodiversity conservation became, with strong backing from the United States, an avenue through the tensions and contradictions of trying to create an environmental agenda in a neoliberal political-economic context. It comprised a political pathway that ensured the environmental agenda did not impede rapid economic growth.Less

Cultivating Sustainable Coffee: Persistent Paradoxes

Christopher M. Bacon, V. Ernesto Méndez, and Jonathan A. Fox

in Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Fair Trade, Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mexico and Central America

This chapter discusses the relationship and interconnections among changing the livelihoods of farmers, initiatives for sustainable coffee, and the production of shade-grown coffee. It examines the ... More

This chapter discusses the relationship and interconnections among changing the livelihoods of farmers, initiatives for sustainable coffee, and the production of shade-grown coffee. It examines the advantages and opportunities for farmers and producers engaged in coffee certification and diversification programs. The role of Fair Trade and organic networks in creating awareness of biodiversity conservation, the social and environment costs of coffee systems, and the need for supporting small farmers are also discussed. The methods to increase accountability and improve the efficiency of coffee cooperatives are presented in this chapter, as are the importance of understanding the sustainability initiatives and their implications for the regulators, along with the use of land patterns for coffee cultivation.Less

From Arks to ARKive.org: Database, Epic, and Biodiversity

Ursula K. Heise

in Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species

This chapter focuses on global biodiversity databases, Red Lists of endangered species, and works of literature and art that engage with species loss by way of a database aesthetic. Lydia Millet's ... More

This chapter focuses on global biodiversity databases, Red Lists of endangered species, and works of literature and art that engage with species loss by way of a database aesthetic. Lydia Millet's novels How the Dead Dream and Maya Lin's website What Is Missing? exemplify an aesthetic approach to vanishing species by way of enumeration, so as to redirect the reader's attention from individual last specimens to biodiversity at large. Their species inventories resemble the global biodiversity databases that have been created over the last twenty years in response to the extinction crisis, especially Red lists that classify species by their risk. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the most prominent global Red List, incorporates elements of elegy into its basic categories, but subordinates them to an epic and encyclopedic narrative logic that at certain moments even levels the difference between humans and other species. This epic approach is also visible in the photography and film database ARKive.org, as well as in the paintings of Isabella Kirkland and the photographs of Joel Sartore, which desentimentalize species elegies and tragedies by shifting to a perception of the numerical sublime of mass extinction and the epic narrative of planet Earth.Less

Biodiversity, Environmental Justice, and Multispecies Communities

Ursula K. Heise

in Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species

This chapter focuses on the political tensions between biodiversity conservation and environmental justice over the last thirty years, which have centered on the privileging of nonhuman species over ... More

This chapter focuses on the political tensions between biodiversity conservation and environmental justice over the last thirty years, which have centered on the privileging of nonhuman species over the welfare of disenfranchised human communities. Through the analysis of three fictional texts that stage this confrontation, Mayra Montero's Tú, la oscuridad (In the Palm of Darkness), the Stanford Graphic Novel Project's Virunga, and Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide, the chapter develops the notion of "multispecies justice." As a theoretical concept, multispecies justice draws on multispecies ethnography, studies of cosmopolitanism, critical animal studies, and Actor-Network-Theory to propose a model for combining justice for different human communities with justice for other species. It proposes that "the human" as a species category should not be assumed as a biological given, but assembled—in both the technical and the political senses of the word—from cultural differences. These differences will also inflect the parallel assembly of what justice means in particular contexts, especially in relation to the avoidable and unavoidable forms of violence that typically accompany encounters between different human communities and between species.Less

Diversity

JOE C. TRUETT

in Grass: In Search of Human Habitat

This chapter focuses on biodiversity, its protection and conservation. It also discusses ranching, why development threatens biodiversity conservation, and rangeland management.

Introduction: From the End of Nature to the Beginning of the Anthropocene

Ursula K. Heise

in Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species

The concern over endangered species and a possible mass extinction forms part of rapidly changing environmental discourses in the twenty-first century. Anthropologists, historians, and literary ... More

The concern over endangered species and a possible mass extinction forms part of rapidly changing environmental discourses in the twenty-first century. Anthropologists, historians, and literary scholars have shown that the ecosystems that usually function as ground zero for restoration efforts—typically, landscapes before the arrival of European colonizers—had already been previously altered by indigenous peoples around the world for millennia. Climate change makes difficult the attempt to return to an earlier state of nature in many places. Faced with these challenges, environmentalist writer Bill McKibben proclaimed the “end of nature” in 1989, the vanishing of an ideal nature separate from humans. The lament over disappearing nature and the associated critique of modernity was countered by a more optimistic emphasis on modernization and technology in the 2000s, and has morphed over the last decade into discussions over the Anthropocene, domesticated nature, intervention ecology, and novel ecosystems. In this context of increasing controversy over the reasons and methods for conserving nature, biodiversity loss emerges as an issue that is closely associated with cultural anxieties and political critiques of modernization and colonization. Biodiversity and endangered species therefore need to be understood in terms of the cultural meanings they mobilize.Less

Mass Extinction and Mass Slaughter: Biodiversity, Violence, and the Dangers of Domestication

Ursula K. Heise

in Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species

This chapter discusses intellectual and political tensions between biodiversity conservation and the animal welfare movement. Whereas both movements are centrally concerned with the welfare of ... More

This chapter discusses intellectual and political tensions between biodiversity conservation and the animal welfare movement. Whereas both movements are centrally concerned with the welfare of nonhumans and react against the modern divide between humans and animals, they differ in their visions of the nonhuman Other. Animal welfare has conventionally focused on domestic nature and on individual animals that are used as pets, farming commodities, subjects of scientific experiments, and exhibits in zoos and circuses. It has invoked the animal's capabilities and, sometimes, rights, to justify its moral consideration. Environmental conservation has emphasized wild animals and plants, species rather than individuals, and has invoked functioning ecology as that which should be protected. A comparative reading of Jacques Derrida and Aldo Leopold shows that animal welfare typically seeks to make animals members of the human community, whereas environmentalism seeks to make humans citizens of the ecological community. In practical scenarios that involve introduced species, as T. C. Boyle demonstrates in his novel When the Killing's Done, neither movement can entirely live up to its principles. But as environmentalism, under the sign of the Anthropocene, envisions nature increasingly as domesticated, the perspective of animal welfare becomes newly relevant to conservation efforts.Less