Conserving Living Natural Resources

In the Context of a Changing World

Bertie Josephson Weddell

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9780511074677
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Conserving Living Natural Resources is an introductory textbook for students of conservation biology and resource management. It presents the historical and conceptual contexts of three seminal approaches to the management of living natural resources: utilitarian management for harvest of featured species and control of unwanted species, protection and restoration of populations and habitats to maintain biodiversity, and management of complex ecosystems to sustain both productivity and biodiversity. The book shows how the first two approaches were grounded in the belief that nature is 'in balance' and that people are outsiders, and then goes on to show how the 'flux-of-nature' paradigm suggests new strategies for conservation grounded in a view of nature as dynamic, and people as participants in the natural world. Rather than endorsing a single approach as the only correct one, this book investigates the historical and philosophical contexts, conceptual frameworks, principal techniques, and the limitations of each approach.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Balance and flux
• Methodology: Getting the information we need to manage living natural resources
• PART ONE Management to maximize production of featured species – a utilitarian approach to conservation
• PART TWO Protection and restoration of populations and habitats – a preservationist approach to conservation
• PART THREE Management to maintain processes and structures – a sustainable-ecosystem approach to conservation
• Postscript
• Appendix: Scientific names of organisms mentioned in the text
• Index