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  Priorities for Conserving Global Species Richness and Endemism »

  Substantial amounts of detailed biodiversity data exist for the world, and these data can be used to guide conservation priorities. WCMC compiled key data in order to identify areas of high species richness and endemism. This book is made available by kind permission of the UK Department for International Development for whom it was prepared.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Priorities for conserving global species richness and endemism »

  Projections indicate that species and ecosystems will be at maximum risk from human activities during the next few decades. Prompt action by the world community can minimise the eventual loss of species. Highest priorities should be to: (i) strengthen the management of ecosystems containing a large proportion of global biodiversity; (ii) help developing countries complete their biodiversity strategies and action plans, monitor their own biodiversity, and establish and maintain adequate national systems of conservation areas; (iii) support actions at the global level, providing benefit to all countries in managing their own biodiversity. Generally, resources will best be spent in safeguarding ecosystems and habitats that are viable and important for global biodiversity, and which are threatened by factors that can be controlled cost-effectively. Other important criteria are representativeness, complementarity and insurance.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Environment on the Edge 2004 - 2005 »

  This publication presents five of the lectures from the 2004-5 'Environment on the Edge' lecture series. It includes the following themes:

  •The Day After Tomorrow - Sir Crispin Tickell
  •Oceans on the Edge - Dr. Jane Lubchenco
  •Antartica on the Edge? - Professor Chris Rapley
  •Biodiversity on the Edge - Dr. Cristián Samper
  •Transport on the Edge - Dr. Bernard Bulkin

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Environment on the Edge 2007 - 2008 »

  This publication presents five of the lectures from the 2007 - 2008 'Environment on the Edge' lecture series. It includes the following themes:

  •Northern Ireland - An Environment on the Edge - Professor Sharon Turner
  •Travelling First Class on the Titanic - Baroness Young
  •The economics of climate change: governments, companies and households - Lord Adair Turner
  •Creating a healthy environment in China - Professor Sian Griffiths
  •Ocean acidification: the other CO2 problem - Professor Nick Owens
  •International environmental governance - Professor Robert T. Watson

   

  
   

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Environment on the Edge 2005 - 2006 »

  This publication presents five of the lectures from the 2005-6 'Environment on the Edge' lecture series. It includes the following themes:

  •Nature's capital: the key to poverty eradication - Dr. Klaus Töpfer
  •Human development in China - Dr Zhao Baige
  •Agriculture and food production: Quo vadis - Dr Hans Rudolf Herren
  •The changing face of cities - Professor Anne Power
  •Women and conservation - Kathryn Fuller

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Using Higher-Taxon Richness as a Surrogate for Species Richness: II. Local Applications »

  Recent analyses confirm that urgent attempts to catalogue the distribution of biological diversity may be facilitated by focusing at the level of genera or families rather than species. However, questions remain over the application of higher-taxon surveys to identify networks of priority areas for conservation action. Is the close spatial match between species and higher-taxon richness at global and regional scales reiterated when sites are locally distributed? How much money is saved by the higher-taxon approach? And how does using genus or family information affect the efficiency with which spatial priorities for conservation are identified? We examined these issues using data on the diversity of woody plants in Sri Lankan forests.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Environment on the Edge 2006 - 2007 »

  This publication presents five of the lectures from the 2006 - 2007 'Environment on the Edge' lecture series. It includes the following themes:

  •Europe on the edge Professor - Jacqueline McGlade
  •Are we running out of oil? - Dr Jeremy Leggett and Dr Ian Vann
  •The impacts of the Three Gorges Dam - Professor Zhang Jing
  •Humans and carbon: a Faustian bargain? - Professor Berrien Moore III
  •Valuing sustainability - Richard Saxon CBE
  •Transport: a case of systematic sclerosis? - Professor David Fisk

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Using Higher-Taxon Richness as a Surrogate for Species Richness: I. Regional Tests »

  In the first of two papers, we explored congruence between species and higher-taxon richness across protected areas in Indo-Malaya and the Pacific rim. Our results support the use of the higher-taxon approach in guiding tropical conservation, but with certain reservations. In all three groups examined, higher-taxon richness was quite closely related to species number. However, the precision with which absolute species richness of reserves could be predicted from higher-taxon richness was often surprisingly low, particularly for rich sites where surveying higher taxa rather than species would save most time. The performance of higher taxa as surrogates also dropped sharply with increasing taxonomic rank, resulting in a trade-off between time saved by high-level surveys and the value of those surveys. Lastly, we found that species richness within individual higher taxa was potentially as powerful an indicator of the overall species diversity of a site as the number of higher taxa it contained.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Global Environment Outlook (GEO) Reports »

  Since 1997, UNEP has produced Global Environment Outlook (GEO) reports providing assessments of the interactions between environment and society. With its core mandate of “keeping the global environment under review,” UNEP coordinated a series of scientific assessments that included extensive consultations and participatory processes, resulting in the production of GEO reports in 1997, 1999 and 2002.

  GEO-4 provides an overview of global social and economic trends, and the state-and-trends of the global and regional environments over the past two decades, as well as the human dimensions of these changes. It highlights the interlinkages as well as the challenges of environmental change and opportunities that the environment provides for human wellbeing. It provides an outlook for the future, and policy options to address present and emerging environmental issues.

  It places sustainable development at the core of the assessment, particularly on issues dealing with intra- and intergenerational equity. The analyses include the need and usefulness of valuation of environmental goods and services, and the role of such services in enhancing development and human well-being, and minimizing human vulnerability to environmental change
   

  Resource Type: Reports