The Living Planet in Crisis : Biodiversity Science and Policy

Contents: Foreword. Introduction : the living planet in crisis: biodiversity science and policy/Joel Cracraft and Francesca T. Grifo. I. Science of diversity and extinction: 1. The magnitude of global biodiversity and its decline/Nigel E. Stork. 2. Dimensions of biodiversity: targeting megadiverse groups/Norman I. Platnick. 3. The medium is the message: freshwater biodiversity in peril/Melanie L.J. Stiassny. 4. Requiem eternam: the last five hundred years of mammalian species extinctions/Ross D.E. MacPhee and Clare Flemming: i. Perspective: soil biodiversity-life in soil/Diana H. Wall. ii. Perspective: Petruchio's paradox: the oyster or the pearl?/G. Carleton Ray. II. Consequences of biodiversity loss: science and society: 5. Regional and global patterns of biodiversity loss and conservation capacity: predicting future trends and identifying needs/Joel Cracraft. 6. Biodiversity, agricultural productivity, and people/John Burnett. 7. The implications of biodiversity loss for human health/Francesca T. Grifo and Eric Chivian. 8. Biodiversity loss and its implications for security and armed conflict/Arthur H. Westing. 9. The economic consequences of biodiversity loss/Dominic Moran and David Pearce: i. Perspective: biodiversity in agricultural and forestry systems/David Pimentel. III. Biodiversity science and policy formulation: 10. Saving biodiversity and saving the biosphere/Noriman Myers. 11. The facts of life (on earth)/Thomas E. Lovejoy. 12. Convention of biological diversity: program priorities in the early stage of implementation/Kalemani J. Mulongoy, Susan Bragdon and Antonella Ingrassia. IV. What needs to be done: 13. Strange bedfellows: why science and policy don't mesh and what can be done about it/Jeffrey A. McNeely. 14. Seeing the world as it really is: global stability and environmental change/Peter H. Raven and Joel Cracraft: i. Perspective: scientists' public responsibilities/Strachan Donnelley. Contributors. Index.

"Cracraft and Grifo bring together internationally known experts from the arena of biodiversity science and policy to address integrated responses to the problem of biodiversity loss, including current gaps in scientific knowledge; how scientific information helps inform conservation priorities; how long-term, often hidden values of conservation are weighed against the more immediate value of land development; the need to integrate the social consequences of biodiversity loss when implementing conservation projections; and how lack of knowledge about biodiversity can impede conservation efforts and effective policy decisions.

United in their belief that conservation of biological diversity is a primary concern of humankind, the contributing authors address the full scope of global biodiversity and its decline--threatened fresh water ecosystems, the extinction of mammals in the modern era, biodiversity's relation to global patterns of development, and the implications of its loss of human health, agricultural productivity, and the economy. The Living Planet in Crisis is the result of a 1995 conference of the same name at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for biodiversity and conservation."