Democratic Management Of An Ecosystem Under Threat

Using case studies from Florida and the Caribbean region, this book summarizes the state of coral reef conservation today. The question this book answers is, what is the best way to protect the vulnerable coral reefs, with an ever-worsening climate crisis? The book’s contribution is looking closely at people’s avenues to participate in coral reef management, and how the public is increasingly making their voices heard in the management process.

Ecology, Engineering, and the Paradox of Management is the first book that addresses and reconciles what many take to be the core paradox facing environmental decision-makers and stakeholders: How do they restore the environment while at the same time provide ever more services reliably from that environment, including clean air, water and energy for more and more people? The book provides a conceptual framework, empirical case analyses, and organizational proposals to resolve the paradox, be it in the US, Europe, or elsewhere. Thus, Ecology, Engineering, and the Paradox of Management has multiple audiences. First are the key professions involved in the protection and improvement of ecosystems and in the provision and delivery of services from those ecosystems. These include ecologists (and other natural scientists such as conservation biologists, climatologists, forest scientists, and toxicologists), engineers (as well as hydrologists, environmental engineers, civil engineers, and line operators), modeling and gaming experts, managers, planners, and power, agriculture, and recreation communities. Another audience includes university researchers in ecology, conservation biology, engineering, the policy sciences, and resource management. Those interested in interdisciplinary approaches in these fields will also find the book especially helpful. Finally, those interested in the Everglades, the Columbia River Basin, San Francisco Bay-Delta, and the Green Heart of western Netherlands will find new insights here, as the book provides a detailed examination of the paradox in each of these cases.

A key point in the book is the need to focus more seriously at the energy problem as the real problem behind global warming. The failure of global climate policies to reduce CO2 emissions and halt climate change has led an increasing number of scientist and activists to lose confidence in democracy's ability to handle climate change and led them to look to more authoritarian measures to meet the problem. The book documents these trends, also from a historical perspective, criticize them and sketches more democratic alternatives.

"Offers new insights for collaborative approaches in marine conservation management. Drawing from ten keystone case studies, Wondolleck and Yaffee offer carefully researched, practical advice along with five different pathways for collaborating successfully from community to multinational levels."--Page 4 of cover.

This book is a compilation of recent developments in the field of ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption (Eco-DRR/CCA) globally. It provides further evidence that ecosystem-based approaches make economic sense, and showcases how research has progressively filled knowledge gaps about translating this concept into practice. It presents a number of methods, and tools that illustrate how Eco-DRR/CCA has been applied for various ecosystems and hazard contexts around the world. It also discusses how innovative institutional arrangements and policies are shaping the field of Eco-DRR/CCA. The book is of relevance to scientists, practitioners, policy-makers and students in the field of ecosystem management for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

What is the optimal political framework for environmental reform - reform on a scale commensurate with the global ecological crisis? How adequate are liberal forms of parliamentary democracy to face the challenges posed? These are the questions pondered by the contributors to this volume.

With contributions from a wide array of economists, ecologists, and government agency professionals, Economics and Ecological Risk Assessment: Applications to Watershed Management provides a multidisciplinary approach to environmental decision-making at a watershed level. It introduces the fields of ecological risk assessment (ERA) and economic ana