Ð Although there has been increasing interest in trying to link the livelihoods of people living near natural resources to the conservation of those resources, there has been little attempt to systematically assess or measure this linkage. We develop a conceptual framework for de®ning the linkage between livelihood activities and conservation. We then develop a scale to assess the strength of l...

Corruption is a worldwide phenomenon, particularly in many developing countries, which contain a large proportion of global biodiversity. Most alarming, from a biodiversity-conservation perspective, is the frequent corruption of government officials who manage valuable natural resources, such as timber, oil and precious minerals. A recent study by Joyotee Smith and colleagues describes rampant ...

Biodiversity is the basis for ecosystem goods and services that provide for human survival and prosperity. With a rapidly increasing human population and its demands for natural resources, landscapes are being fragmented, habitats are being destroyed, and biodiversity is declining. How can biodiversity be effectively conserved in the face of increasing human pressures? In this paper, I review c...

Today, our planet is in a state of crisis and many of its natural resources have been destroyed by human activities. One of the principle aims of conservation biology is to promote concrete management programs to limit any further increase in the number of extinct and threatened species and ecosystems. Different approaches may be followed to maintain the world’s biodiversity: the in situ approa...

This article examines the following case. A set of countries produce goods from labor, government input and natural resources. Because the conservation of natural resources in any country yields utility (e.g. through biodiversity) in every country, and because there is no benevolent international government, a resident of the countries is chosen as the regulator to whom conservation policy is d...

International organizations and biodiversity scientists recognize three levels of biodiversity: genetic, species, and ecosystem. However, most studies with the goal of assessing biodiversity collect data at only a single level--that of the species. Even when multiple levels of biodiversity are considered, usually only ecosystem diversity is also evaluated. Genetic diversity is virtually never c...

*University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Institute of Botany, Gregor Mendel-Strasse 33, 1180 Wien, Austria, and Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS), Archaeobotany, c/o Institute of Palaeontology, Geozentrum, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Wien, Austria; yUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Institute of Integrative Nature Conservation Research, Greg...

Research on the interactions between human behaviour and ecological systems tends to focus on the direct effects of human activities on ecosystems, such as biodiversity loss. There is also increasing research effort directed towards ecosystem services. However, interventions to control people's use of the environment alter the incentives that natural resource users face, and therefore their dec...

The most useful definition of biodiversity is that given by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources; biodiversity encompasses all life forms, ecosystems and ecological processes and acknowledges the hierarchy at genetic, taxon and ecosystem levels. Microbial diversity on the other hand includes the diversity of bacteria, protozoans, fungi, unicellular algae and ...