A new book that I’m proud to have had a hand in writing is just about to come out with Oxford University Press called Conservation Biology for All. Edited by the venerable Conservation Scholars, Professors Navjot Sodhi (National University of Singapore) and Paul Ehrlich (Stanford University), it’s a powerhouse of some of the world’s leaders in conservation science and application.
The book strives to “…provide cutting-edge but basic conservation science to a global readership”. In short, it’s written to bring the forefront of conservation science to the general public, with OUP promising to make it freely available online within about a year from its release in early 2010 (or so the rumour goes). The main idea here is that those in most need of such a book – the conservationists in developing nations – can access the wealth of information therein without having to sacrifice the village cow to buy it.
I won’t go into any great detail about the book’s contents (mainly because I have yet to receive my own copy and read most of the chapters!), but I have perused early versions of Kevin Gaston‘s excellent chapter on biodiversity, and Tom Brook‘s overview of conservation planning and prioritisation. Our chapter (Chapter 16 by Barry Brook and me), is an overview of statistical and modelling philosophy and application with emphasis on conservation mathematics. It’s by no means a complete treatment, but it’s something we want to develop further down the track. I do hope many people find it useful.
I’ve reproduced the chapter title line-up below, with links to each of the authors websites.
- Conservation Biology: Past and Present (C. Meine)
- Biodiversity (K. Gaston)
- Ecosystem Functions and Services (C. Sekercioglu)
- Habitat Destruction: Death of a Thousand Cuts (W. Laurance)
- Habitat Fragmentation and Landscape Change (A. Bennett & D. Saunders)
- Overharvesting (C. Peres)
- Invasive Species (D. Simberloff)
- Climate Change (T. Lovejoy)
- Fire and Biodiversity (D. Bowman & B. Murphy)
- Extinctions and the Practice of Preventing Them (S. Pimm & C. Jenkins)
- Conservation Planning and Priorities (T. Brooks)
- Endangered Species Management: The US Experience (D. Wilcove)
- Conservation in Human-Modified Landscapes (L.P. Koh & T. Gardner)
- The Roles of People in Conservation (A. Claus, K. Chan & T. Satterfield)
- From Conservation Theory to Practice: Crossing the Divide (M. Rao & J. Ginsberg)
- The Conservation Biologist’s Toolbox – Principles for the Design and Analysis of Conservation Studies (C. Bradshaw & B. Brook)
As you can see, it’s a pretty impressive collection of conservation stars and hard-hitting topics. Can’t wait to get my own copy! I will probably blog individual chapters down the track, so stay tuned.
ConservationBytes.com 