Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Over the past three decades scientists natural resource managers and environ- mental policy-makers have recognized that the conservation of biological diver- sity depends upon protecting and managing intact natural habitats. Such recognition has given greater importance and urgency to the international move- ment to establish and maintain biosphere reserves national parks forest reserves wildlife sanctuaries and other protected areas. Lacking such refuges biological diversity will continue to vanish from our planet in a steady stream of extinctions a trickle in some places a torrent in others. Yet for one prominent component of biological diversity ? the genetic vari- ability contained within culturally valuable plant resources ? conservation efforts have focused primarily on safeguarding these resources away from the habitats and cultural contexts in which they evolved. The off-site protection of plants in botanical gardens seedbanks and other centralized institutions has met with many successes and prevented the imminent extinction of valuable plant gene pools. However a comprehensive conservation strategy must complement off- site protection with on-site maintenance of plants in native wildlands and tradi- tionally diverse agricultural landscapes. Few management plans for protected areas currently address the conservation of native plants considered useful by human communities for their genetic potential subsistence value or ceremonial and social importance. This manual seeks to help to fill this gap by elaborating what we term an in situ (on-site) approach to useful plant conservation. The manual has two goals: first to facili- tate better management of protected natural habitats so that useful plant popula- tions will not be lost or irreversibly degraded; and second to illustrate promising approaches to conserving agricultural plant resources within the rural landscapes of their origin. The manual is intended primarily for conservation professionals protected area managers agricultural resource managers and others involved with managing plants the habitats where they occur and other natural resources.