Land Use Intensification: Effects on Agriculture, Biodiversity and Ecological Processes

There can be little doubt that there are truly colossal challenges associated with providing food, fibre and energy for an expanding world population without further accelerating already rapid rates of biodiversity loss and undermining the ecosystem processes on which we all depend. These challenges are further complicated by rapid changes in climate and its additional direct impacts on agriculture, biodiversity and ecological processes. There are many different viewpoints about the best way to deal with the myriad issues associated with land use intensification and this book canvasses a number of these from different parts of the tropical and temperate world. Chapters focus on whether science can suggest new and improved approaches to reducing the conflict between productive land use and biodiversity conservation. Who should read this book? Policy makers in regional, state and federal governments, as well as scientists and the interested lay public.

Table of Contents:
List of contributors 1 Land use intensification: a challenge for humanity Part A General themes and principles 2 Combining biodiversity conservation with agricultural intensification 3 Managing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: perspectives from a research–policy interface 4 Intensive farming and its role in wildlife conservation: routes to squaring the circle? Part B Specific case studies 5 Land use changes imperil South-East Asian biodiversity 6 How agricultural intensification threatens temperate grassy woodlands 7 Mitigating land use intensification in the endemic-rich hotspots of southern Africa and western Indian Ocean 8 Land use intensification, small landholders, and biodiversity conservation: perspectives from the Eastern Himalayas 9 Riches to rags: the ecological consequences of land use intensification in New Zealand 10 Land use intensification and the status of focal species in managed forest landscapes of New Brunswick, Canada 11 Land use intensification impacts on biodiversity in the mallee/wheat landscape of central NSW 12 Ecological responses of Australian grassy woodland and shrubland ecosystems to agricultural intensification: lessons from long-term, multi-species, multi-biome studies 13 Land use intensification in natural forest settings 14 Intensification of coffee production and its biodiversity consequences Part C General discussion 15 Perspectives on land use intensification and biodiversity conservation Index