The Science of Sustainable Development - Local Livelihoods and the Global Environment

Hardback  288 pages 35 line diagrams 4 tables  ISBN 0521827280      £65.00

Paperback  288 pages 35 line diagrams 4 tables  ISBN 0521534569      £28.00

Science faces major challenges in tackling the interlinked problems of poverty and environmental sustainability. This book reviews how practical science can be applied to real-life conservation and development problems, and aims to de-mystify the sometimes obscure science of natural resources management, interpreting it for the benefit of those who need to deal with the day to day problems of managing complex natural resource systems. The authors give practical guidance to those who design and manage conservation programmes and demonstrate that new technologies are now available that enable integrated natural resource management to move from a theory to a reality. They argue that the threats to the natural environment posed by globalisation require an integrated response encompassing different scales, system components, disciplines and knowledge types, and that such a response can yield real benefits to those living in tropical developing countries, whilst also achieving global environment objectives.

Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Rising to the Challenge of Complexity: 1. The challenge: alleviating poverty and conserving the environment; 2. Dealing with complexity; 3. Getting into the system - multiple realities, social learning and adaptive management; 4. issues of scale; 5. Confronting complexity - models, knowledge and negotiation; Part II. Realities on the Ground: 6. Institutions for managing natural resources in African savannahs; 7. Forest margins in Indonesian Borneo; 8. Learning by doing on tropical American hillsides; Part III. Achieving Successful Researched-Based Management: 9. The spread of innovations; 10. Measuring success; 11. Achieving research-based management; Index.