Preface

Summary

The common theme for this text is that a resilient biodiversity is an indicator of healthy planet and a sensitive human family that cares for its neighbours and its offspring. For this human family to be at peace with itself, it must also be at peace with biodiversity. Species mix is less important for future biodiversity than the connections between species, habitats and social, economic and political outlooks that care, anticipate an adapt. The diversity of species will be maintained only by a diversity of management styles and cultural outlooks that both protect the protected, and recreate biodiversity for a changing society and economy. To monitor, assess and evaluate the great variety of biodiversity management ‘styles’ will enable local action to become global trusteeship. In this spirit of enquiry and hope, the editors and authors will address four objectives.

1. To assess the current and future threat to biodiversity in terms of recorded losses, current dangers, and possible prognoses based on foreseeable developments in landuse change, alterations in climate futures, alien invasions of plants, animals and pathogens, pollution and toxification, all connected to global and regional agreements, and likely shifts in property rights and management regimes.

2. To develop the scope for combining ecological and social resilience by coupling the established management approaches of placing ‘ecology’ and ‘people’ first in the design and operation of safeguarding protected areas and recreating new biodiversity corridors and patches linked to such protected areas.