Our Uncommon Heritage Biodiversity Change, Ecosystem Services, and Human Wellbeing

Biodiversity change is the biggest environmental problem of our time. It leads to much more than species extinctions, affecting the food we eat, the diseases we face, our vulnerability to fire and flood, and our ability to adapt to climate change. Our Uncommon Heritage explores the many dimensions of human-driven biodiversity change. It integrates ecology, economics and policy to examine the causes and consequences of changes in ecosystems, species and genes, and to identify better ways to manage those changes. It explores the place of biodiversity in the wealth of nations, the rights and responsibilities people have for natural resources at local, regional, national and international levels, and the challenges faced in protecting the common good at the global level. This is an important book for students and researchers in the fields of conservation and sustainability science, ecology, natural resource economics and management. It also has much to say to those engaged in international conservation, health, agriculture, forestry and fisheries policy.

Foreword; Preface; 1. Biodiversity change; Part I. Diagnosing the Biodiversity Change Problem: 2. Biodiversity in the modern world; 3. Biodiversity and ecosystem services; 4. Biodiversity loss, sustainability and stability; 5. Biodiversity externalities and public goods; 6. Poverty alleviation and biodiversity change; 7. Globalization: trade, aid, and the dispersal of species; Part II. The Search for Solutions: 8. Getting the prognosis right; 9. Understanding what is lost; 10. Managing risk, uncertainty, and irreversibility in biodiversity change; 11. Conservation incentives and payments for ecosystems services; 12. Paying for International environmental public goods; 13. Strengthening the biodiversity-related multilateral agreements; 14. Genetic resources and the poor; 15. Redirecting biodiversity change; Index.

Charles Perrings is Professor of Environmental Economics at Arizona State University, where he directs the Ecoservices Group. He was for several years vice-chair of the international biodiversity science research program, DIVERSITAS, and more recently represented the International Council of Science in negotiations with national governments to establish the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).