Principles of sustainable development

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Gretchen C. Daily

Nature's Services brings together world-renowned scientists from a variety of disciplines to examine the character and value of ecosystem services, the damage that has been done to them, and the consequent implications for human society. Contributors present a detailed synthesis of our current understanding of a suite of ecosystem services and a preliminary assessment of their economic value. Nature's Services represents one of the first efforts by scientists to provide an overview of the many benefits and services that nature offers to people and the extent to which we are all vitally dependent on those services. The book enhances our understanding of the value of the natural systems that surround us and can play an essential role in encouraging greater efforts to protect the earth's basic life-support systems before it is too late.

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Peter Kareiva ... [et al

The editors have assembled the world's leading scientists in the fields of conservation, policy analysis, and resource economics to provide the most intensive and best technical analyses of ecosystem services to date.

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Virginia D. Nazarea

Virginia Nazarea now makes a case for preserving cultural memory along with biodiversity. Interweaving a wealth of ecological and cognitive data with oral history, Nazarea details a "memory banking" protocol for collecting and conserving cultural information to complement the genetic, agronomic, and biochemical characterization of important crops. She shows that memory banking offers significant benefits for local populations - not only the preservation of traditional knowledge but also the maintenance of alternatives to large-scale agricultural development and commercialization. She also compares alternative forms of germplasm conservation conducted by a male-dominated hierarchy with those of an informal network of migrant women. Cultural Memory and Biodiversity establishes valuable guidelines for people who aspire to support community-based in situ conservation of local varieties. Perhaps more important, it shows that the traditional methods of local farmers are often as important as the "advanced" methods encouraged by advocates of modernization.

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Steven W. Purcell

"Sea cucumbers are important resources for coastal livelihoods in more than 40 countries. Sadly, widespread overexploitation of wild stocks risks biodiversity loss and the long-term viability of fisheries. Spawned from an FAO international workshop of experts, this document presents a 'roadmap' to guide fishery managers in choosing appropriate regulatory measures and management actions for sea cucumber fisheries. It elaborates on their use, limitations and modes of implementation, with Examples and lessons learned from various fisheries. Achieving sustainable management of sea cucumber fisheries requires an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), precautionary regulations, improved enforcement and stronger commitment of fishery managers and policy-makers"--P. [4] of cover.