Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics, and Culture

Nearly 90 percent of the earth's land surface is directly affected by human infrastructure and activities, yet less than 5 percent is legally "protected" for biodiversity conservation--and even most large protected areas have people living inside their boundaries. In all but a small fraction of the earth's land area, then, conservation and people must coexist. Conservation is a resource for all those who aim to reconcile biodiversity with human livelihoods. It traces the historical roots of modern conservation thought and practice, and explores current perspectives from evolutionary and community ecology, conservation biology, anthropology, political ecology, economics, and policy. The authors examine a suite of conservation strategies and perspectives from around the world, highlighting the most innovative and promising avenues for future efforts. Exploring, highlighting, and bridging gaps between the social and natural sciences as applied in the practice of conservation, this book provides a broad, practically oriented view.It is essential reading for anyone involved in the conservation process--from academic conservation biology to the management of protected areas, rural livelihood development to poverty alleviation, and from community-based natural resource management to national and global policymaking.

Table of Contents:
Preface xiii Commonly Used Abbreviations xix CHAPTER 1: The Many Roads to Conservation 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Principal Threats to Biodiversity 2 1.3 Why Conserve Nature? Instrumental Values 3 Box 1.1 The Links between Health and Conservation 9 Box 1.2 Much More Than Stocks of Wood 10 1.4 Intrinsic Values 11 Box 1.3 Ecophilosophies 12 1.5 The Changing Practice of Conservation: First, Protection 15 Box 1.4 Man versus Nature: From Hunters to Penitent Butchers 17 1.6 Then Resource Management 16 1.7 Leading to Game Management, Multiple Use, and Broader Conservation Goals 20 Box 1.5 Early Environmentalists in the Colonies 23 1.8 Conclusion 22 CHAPTER 2: The Evolution of Policy 27 2.1 Introduction 27 2.2 Global Conservation and Protected Areas 28 Box 2.1 Ancient Royal Forests 29 2.3 The Limits and Legacies of Protectionism 31 Box 2.2 Reserves: Their Comings and Goings in Peninsular Malaysia 35 Box 2.3 Coercive Conservation: Tigers, Lions, Carrots, and Sticks 38 2.4 Conservation "with a Human Face" 37 Box 2.4 The Evolution of Biosphere Reserves 40 Box 2.5 Sustainability--Mere Hopes about the Future 42 Box 2.6 The Ivory Wars: Debates over Utilization 43 2.5 The Rise of Community-Based Conservation 44 Box 2.7 Integrated Conservation and Development in Action: Annapurna 48 2.6 Imperiled Parks 49 2.7 Conclusion 50 CHAPTER 3: The Natural Science behind it All 53 3.1 Introduction 53 3.2 From Natural History Comes Ecology and its Golden Age 54 Box 3.1 Stability and Equilibrium 57 Box 3.2 Maximum Sustainable Yield 59 3.3 Things Get Messy: Disturbance and Disequilibrium 60 Box 3.3 Stability, Pastoralism, and Opportunism 63 Box 3.4 Adaptive Management 64 Box 3.5 Ecological Sustainability: Still a Slippery Term 66 3.4 A Brave New Science: Conservation Biology 67 3.5 The Fire-Brigade Discipline Comes of Age 70 3.6 Conservation Planning 75 Box 3.6 Prioritizing Conservation Efforts 76 3.7 Conclusion 79 CHAPTER 4: Indigenous Peoples as Conservationists 81 4.1 Introduction 81 4.2 Cultural and Biological Diversity 81 Box 4.1 Cultural and Biological Diversity in Central and Southern America 83 4.3 Guardians of Biodiversity 82 Box 4.2 Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Adaptive Management 86 Box 4.3 Sacred Groves 88 4.4 Ecological Impacts of Traditional Ways of Life 89 Box 4.4 Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Extinctions 90 4.5 The Long Shadow of an Ecologically Noble Savage 96 Box 4.5 Transitions in Ecological Noble Savage Thinking 98 Box 4.6 The Kayapo Controversy 100 4.6 Revisiting Cultural and Biological Diversity 101 4.7 Conclusion 103 CHAPTER 5: Conservation and Self-Interest 104 5.1 Introduction 104 5.2 An Evolutionary Viewpoint 105 5.3 Design of a Conservation Act 107 Box 5.1 Prudent Predators? 108 5.4 An Intention to Conserve 110 Box 5.2 Family Hunting Territories in Subarctic Canada 112 5.5 Ecological Outcomes 111 Box 5.3 Humans as Top Predators 115 5.6 Conservation--Where, When, and Why? 114 Box 5.4 Selling the Forest for Instant Returns 117 5.7 Expanding the Toolkit 118 Box 5.5 Studying Hunting with Hunters in Paraguay's Mbaracayu' Reserve 121 5.8 Policy Implications 120 Box 5.6 Evolutionary Aesthetics and the "Savanna Hypothesis" 126 5.9 Conclusion 125 CHAPTER 6: Rational Fools and the Commons 129 6.1 Introduction 129 6.2 The Rational Fool Fumbles the Common Good 130 Box 6.1 Freedom in the Commons Brings Ruin to All 132 6.3 Commons Classics 133 Box 6.2 Changes in the Management of the Kenya Orma Commons 137 6.4 The Cooperation Game 136 Box 6.3 Experimental Games in Economics 139 Box 6.4 Asymmetries among Herders: The Barabaig Case 142 6.5 Culture, Norms, and Cooperation 143 Box 6.5 Coordinating the Subaks of Bali 145 6.6 The Study of Common-Property Institutions 146 6.7 Property Rights, Management, and Sustainable Outcomes 149 Box 6.6 Reviving Traditions in Sagarmatha National Park 151 Box 6.7 Social Forestry: Bihar and Beyond 154 6.8 Conclusion 155 CHAPTER 7: The Bigger Picture 156 7.1 Introduction 156 7.2 What is Political Ecology? 157 Box 7.1 The Hen Has Starting Crowing 161 7.3 Tropical Forest Destruction and Population Growth 160 Box 7.2 IPAT 163 Box 7.3 Leviathan Rules 167 7.4 Biodiversity and its Human Dimensions 166 Box 7.4 Forest Islands in Guinea: Are They Man-Made? 169 Box 7.5 Social Ecology 171 7.5 Community as a Casualty 172 Box 7.6 Co-Management in a Landscape of Resistance: The Case of Alaska's Yup'ik 177 7.6 Where's the Ecology? 176 7.7 Conclusion 179 CHAPTER 8: Local People and International Conservation 181 8.1 Introduction 181 8.2 Indigenous Movements and Conservationists 181 Box 8.1 Chipko: Grassroots Environmentalism with a Sting in its Tail 183 8.3 Room for Alliance, or Cover for Dalliance? 185 Box 8.2 Environmentalists Find Common Cause with Rainforest Dayak Peoples 187 Box 8.3 Enforced Primitivism and the "Bushman Problem" 191 Box 8.4 "Forget about Gola Forest!" 193 8.4 Bioprospecting or Biopiracy? 194 Box 8.5 Drug Development and Conservation in West and Central Africa 199 8.5 Green Consumerism 200 8.6 Conservation through Self-Determination 203 Box 8.6 Whatever Happened to PEMASKY? 206 8.7 The View from the Other Side 207 8.8 Conclusion 209 CHAPTER 9: Global Issues, Economics, and Policy 210 9.1 Introduction 210 9.2 Ecological Economics and Environmental Valuation 211 Box 9.1 Does Kenya Profit from Protectionism? Ecological Economic Calculations 216 9.3 Business--Dancing with the Devil? 218 Box 9.2 Harnessing the International Market: Innovative Incentive Mechanisms 220 Box 9.3 The Business of Game Ranching 223 9.4 Buying a Nature Reserve 224 9.5 International Policy Initiatives: Who Pays? 227 Box 9.4 Debt-for-Nature Swaps 231 9.6 What Are the Rules? 233 9.7 Conclusion 237 CHAPTER 10: From How to Think to How to Act 238 10.1 Introduction 238 10.2 Protectionism in the Name of Science 238 10.3 Protected Area Outreach 241 Box 10.1 Outreach in Tanzania 243 10.4 Conservation Education 244 Box 10.2 The Saint Lucia Parrot's Comeback 245 10.5 Ecotourism 248 Box 10.3 Trouble in Paradise? The Gala'pagos Archipelago 250 10.6 Integrated Conservation and Development 254 Box 10.4 "A Lemur Will Have to Meet You at the Airport": The ICD Project at Ranomafana 256 Box 10.5 CAMPFIRE under Fire 261 10.7 Extractive Reserves 262 Box 10.6 Extraction and the Maya Biosphere Reserve 264 10.8 Monitoring and Evaluation 267 10.9 Conclusion 272 CHAPTER 11: Red Flags: Still Seeing Things in Black and White? 274 11.1 Introduction 274 11.2 No Development without Tears, and Other Debates 274 Box 11.1 Working for Water in South Africa 276 11.3 Integrative and Novel Solutions 279 Community-Based Protected Areas 279 Box 11.2 Flagging the Va'rzea in Brazil's Mamiraua' Reserve 281 Dealing with Commerce 282 Box 11.3 Even in the Last Place on Earth: Exploitation and Conservation in Nouabale Ndoki 284 Direct Payments 284 Co-management 287 Box 11.4 Co-management in Australia's Kakadu National Park 289 Box 11.5 Fisheries Co-management in the Philippines: The Case of San Salvador 292 Participation and Capacity-Building 291 11.4 Spatial Scale and Integrating Conservation and Development 295 11.5 Means and Ends: The Many Orthogonal Axes of Conservation in Practice 297 11.6 Conclusion 302 Bibliography 303 Index 341

About the Author :
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. Her research and teaching span behavioral ecology, anthropology, and conservation and development. Peter Coppolillo received a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis, and now works for the Wildlife Conservation Society, directing the Rungwa-Ruaha Landscape Conservation Program in central Tanzania.

Review :
Winner of the 2008 Gerald L. Young Book Award in Human Ecology