Book description
Ecosystem services are the resources and processes supplied by
natural ecosystems which benefit humankind (for example, pollination
of crops by insects, or water filtration by wetlands). They underpin
life on earth, provide major inputs to many economic sectors and
support our lifestyles. Agricultural and urban areas are by far the
largest users of ecosystems and their services and (for the first
time) this book explores the role that ecosystem services play in
these managed environments. The book also explores methods of
evaluating ecosystem services, and discusses how these services can be
maintained and enhanced in our farmlands and cities. This book will be
useful to students and researchers from a variety of fields, including
applied ecology, environmental economics, agriculture and forestry,
and also to local and regional planners and policy makers.
Steve Wratten is Professor of Ecology at Lincoln University,
New Zealand and Deputy Director of the Bio-Protection Research Centre
there, one of the country's Centres of Research Excellence. He has
studied or worked at the universities of Reading, Glasgow, London,
Cambridge and Southampton, UK. He holds three doctorates and is an
elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. His research
focuses on evaluating and enhancing ecosystem services in agriculture,
especially the biological control of pests, pollination, and
below-soil processes.
Harpinder Sandhu is a Research Fellow in the School of the
Environment, Flinders University, South Australia. His research
focuses on ecosystem services in managed landscapes. Harpinder also
works on poverty-environment interactions in developing countries with
their implications for equitable and sustainable development. He is
also interested in land use and land cover change and its impact on
biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Ross Cullen has taught and researched at Lincoln University,
New Zealand since 1991, as Professor of Resource Economics. He is an
Editor of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource
Economics. His current research focuses on management and
evaluation of biodiversity projects, ecosystem services in agriculture
and forestry, and public perceptions of the state of the environment.
Robert Costanza is Professor and Chair in Public Policy at the
Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University,
Canberra, Australia. His transdisciplinary research integrates the
study of humans and the rest of nature to address research, policy and
management issues at multiple time and space scales, from small
watersheds to global systems. He is co-founder and past-president of
the International Society for Ecological Economics, and was chief
editor of the society's journal, Ecological Economics from its
inception in 1989 until 2002. He is founding editor-in-chief of
Solutions (www. thesolutionsjournal. org) a new hybrid
academic/popular journal.
