Perspectives on biodiversity : valuing its role in an everchanging world / Committee on Noneconomic and Economic Value of Biodiversity, Board on Biology, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

National Research Council Staff, Corporate Author.

Contributor:

National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Noneconomic and Economic Value of Biodiversity.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biodiversity conservation--Social aspects.

Biodiversity conservation.

Natural resources.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (165 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Resource-management decisions, especially in the area of protecting and maintaining biodiversity, are usually incremental, limited in time by the ability to forecast conditions and human needs, and the result of tradeoffs between conservation and other management goals. The individual decisions may not have a major effect but can have a cumulative major effect. Perspectives on Biodiversity reviews current understanding of the value of biodiversity and the methods that are useful in assessing that value in particular circumstances. It recommends and details a list of components-including diversity of species, genetic variability within and among species, distribution of species across the ecosystem, the aesthetic satisfaction derived from diversity, and the duty to preserve and protect biodiversity. The book also recommends that more information about the role of biodiversity in sustaining natural resources be gathered and summarized in ways useful to managers. Acknowledging that decisions about biodiversity are necessarily qualitative and change over time because of the nonmarket nature of so many of the values, the committee recommends periodic reviews of management decisions.

Contents:

Front Matter

Reviewers

Preface

Contents

Executive Summary

1 Introduction

2 What Is Biodiversity?

3 The Values of Biodiversity

4 Different Ways of Thinking About Value

5 Economic Methods of Valuation

6 Management and Decision-Making

7 Broadening the Biodiversity Manager's Perspective

A Statement of Task

B Biographical Sketches

C Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780309520003

0309520002

9780585135830

0585135835

OCLC:

53471889