Showing 1–12 of 107 results
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Learning from Agri-Environment Schemes in Australia: Investing in Biodiversity and other Ecosystem Services on Farms
Artist/Author: Ansell, Dean, Fiona Gibson, David Salt (Editors)$55.00 Add to cartLearning from Agri-Environment Schemes in Australia is a book about the birds and the beef — more specifically it is about the billions of dollars that governments pay farmers around the world each year to protect and restore biodiversity. After more than two decades of these schemes in Australia, what have we learnt? Are we getting the most out of these investments, and how should we do things differently in the future? Involving contributions from ecologists, economists, social scientists, restoration practitioners and policymakers, this book provides short, engaging chapters that cover a wide spectrum of environmental, agricultural and social issues involved in agri-environment schemes.
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Extreme Conservation: Life at the Edges of the World
Artist/Author: Berger, Joel (Author), John G Robinson (Foreword By)$70.00 Add to cartOn the Tibetan Plateau, there are wild yaks with blood cells thinner than horses’ by half, enabling the endangered yaks to survive at 40 below zero and in the lowest oxygen levels of the mountaintops. But climate change is causing the snow patterns here to shift, and with the snows, the entire ecosystem. Food and water are vaporizing in this warming environment, and these beasts of ice and thin air are extraordinarily ill-equipped. A journey into some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, Joel Berger’s Extreme Conservation is an eye-opening, steely look at what it takes for animals like these to live at the edges of existence. But more than this, it is a revealing exploration of how climate change and people are affecting even the most far-flung niches of our planet.
Berger’s quest to understand these creatures’ struggles takes him to some of the most remote corners and peaks of the globe: across Arctic tundra and the frozen Chukchi Sea to study muskoxen, into the Bhutanese Himalayas to follow the rarely-sighted takin, and through the Gobi Desert to track the proboscis-swinging saiga. Known as much for his rigorous, scientific methods of developing solutions to conservation challenges as for his penchant for donning moose and polar bear costumes to understand the mindsets of his subjects more closely, Berger is a guide bar none. He is a scientist and storyteller who has made his life working with desert nomads, in zones that typically require Sherpas and oxygen canisters. Recounting animals as charismatic as their landscapes are extreme, Berger’s unforgettable tale carries us with humor and expertise to the ends of the earth and back. But as his adventures show, the more adapted a species has become to its particular ecological niche, the more devastating climate change can be. Life at the extremes is more challenging than ever, and the need for action, for solutions, has never been greater.
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Bush Heritage Australia: Restoring Nature Step by Step
Artist/Author: Martin, Sarah$40.00 Add to cartWith a plan to own or manage one per cent of Australia by 2025, Bush Heritage Australia is an organisation with big ambitions.
Started by Bob Brown in 1991, Bush Heritage was born from an urgent mission: to protect pristine land from logging. After buying two blocks of land in Tasmania’s Liffey Valley, Brown built a philanthropic organisation to help pay for them. As donations flowed in and the organisation grew, Bush Heritage set its sights on acquiring tracts of land across the country, repairing environmental degradation and bringing native plants and wildlife back to health.
Twenty-five years later, with more than one million hectares in its care, Bush Heritage’s achievements are celebrated in this book along with its growth from humble beginnings into a large non-profit with benefactors all over the world. Central to this story are the ecologists, researchers, land managers, local Indigenous groups, staff, donors and a brigade of volunteers who have helped the organisation to thrive.
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Fire Effects on Soil Properties
Artist/Author: Pereira, Paulo, Jorge Mataix-Solera, Xavier Úbeda, Guillermo Rein, Artemi Cerdà (Editors)$195.00 Add to cartBrings together research on the effects of fire on the physical, biological and chemical properties of soil.
Wildland fires are occurring more frequently and affecting more of Earth’s surface than ever before. These fires affect the properties of soils and the processes by which they form, but the nature of these impacts has not been well understood. Given that healthy soil is necessary to sustain biodiversity, ecosystems and agriculture, the impact of fire on soil is a vital field of research. -
The Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment and Management (Second Edition)
Artist/Author: Hutchings, Pat, Michael Kingsford, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (Editors)$125.00 Add to cartDescribes the animals, plants and other organisms of the reef, and the biological, chemical and physical processes that influence them.
The iconic and beautiful Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is home to one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world.
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An Extraordinary Land: Discoveries and Mysteries from Wild New Zealand
Artist/Author: Hayden, Peter (Author), Rod Morris (Photography)$45.00 Add to cartNew Zealand is an extraordinary land. It has been called ‘the closest thing to life on another planet’ and ‘a planetary lifeboat’. The main reason behind this land’s uniqueness is that the islands have remained an isolated outpost for life in the midst of the ocean. this isolation has been a huge advantage. It has turned New Zealand into a wild laboratory where evolution could conduct experiments that led to weird and wonderful outcomes. And this uniqueness has also made New Zealand a magnet for scientists from around the world; yet many locals have no idea what’s so special about their environment. These stories will present new Zealand’s wildlife as never before. It will solve some mysteries and explode some myths with the help of those at the front line of science and conservation.
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The World’s Heritage: The Definitive Guide to all 1073 World Heritage Sites (Fifth Edition)
Artist/Author: UNESCO$46.00 Add to cartBestselling guide to all 1,073 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Fully updated to include the latest sites added to the World Heritage List in July 2017. The List is managed by the World Heritage Committee and each site is judged under strict criteria – only the world’s most spectacular and extraordinary sites make it on to the List. UNESCO World Heritage sites include some of the most famous places in the world, such as the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in Jordan, the legendary Acropolis in Athens, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and Machu Picchu, the ‘Lost City of the Incas’, in Peru.
26 sites were added to the List by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in July 2017. These included the first sites inscribed for Eritrea (Asmara: a Modernist City of Africa) and Angola (Mbanza Kongo, Vestiges of the Capital of the former Kingdom of Kongo). Other sites included The English Lake District (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Los Alerces National Park (Argentina), Aphrodisias (Turkey), and extensions to 5 existing sites.
• Descriptions of all 1073 UNESCO World Heritage sites
• Location map for every site
• Over 750 colour photographsBackground
The World Heritage List includes properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. In 1972 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Convention concerning the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage. Since then, 1073 sites in 167 State Parties have been inscribed onto the list, 832 of which are cultural, 206 natural and 35 mixed properties. -
World’s Most Endangered
Artist/Author: McCallum, Sophie$30.00 Add to cartA new book that highlights the plight of critically endangered species, as classified by the WWF and IUCN. It focuses on 25 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, presenting each account in an interesting and informative way, with colour photographs and a fact panel giving key information.Animals covered include famous species such as South China Tiger, Mountain Gorilla, Pangolin, Leatherback Turtle and California Condor, together with lesser-known animals in peril, such as the Lemur Leaf Frog, Geometric Tortoise and Red Wolf. Each written account provides insight into the lives of these species, including details of their behaviour and habitat, the threats they face and the conservation efforts being made to ensure their survival. Existing books on endangered species tend to either concentrate on one animal, or are heavily academic, or are focused directly at children. This title, which is a handy size, gives an entertaining and engaging take on the subject, and is ideal for either reading right the way through or just dipping into one chapter at a time. It makes the perfect read for anyone with an interest in the natural world.
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Austral Ark: The State of Wildlife in Australia and New Zealand
Artist/Author: Stow, Adam(Editor), Norman MacLean (Editor), Gregory I Holwell (Editor)$75.00 Add to cartAustralia and New Zealand are home to a remarkable and unique assemblage of flora and fauna. Sadly though, by virtue of their long isolation, and a naïve and vulnerable biota, both countries have suffered substantial losses to biodiversity since European contact. Bringing together the contributions of leading conservation biologists, Austral Ark presents the special features and historical context of Austral biota, and explains what is being conserved and why. The threatening processes occurring worldwide are discussed, along with the unique conservation problems faced at regional level. At the same time, the book highlights many examples of conservation success resulting from the innovative solutions that have been developed to safeguard native species and habitats in both New Zealand and Australia. Austral Ark fills an important gap regarding wildlife gains and declines, and how best to take conservation forward to keep this extraordinary area of the world thriving.
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Lake Eyre Basin Rivers: Environmental, Social and Economic Importance
Artist/Author: Kingsford, Richard (Editor)$60.00 Add to cartOutlines the environmental, social and economic values of the rivers from a diverse range of perspectives.
Water is scarce in the Lake Eyre Basin in the heart of Australia. The region goes through natural cycles of boom and bust, and the flooding of the basin rivers is accompanied by spectacular responses from wildlife and vegetation. However, the Lake Eyre Basin faces the threat of diversion of water from rivers and wetlands and development of floodplains for irrigation and mining. Around the world, such water resource developments have caused widespread degradation of rivers and loss of habitats.
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Burning Planet: The Story of Fire Through Time
Artist/Author: Scott, Andrew C.$41.00 Add to cartRaging wildfires have devastated vast areas of California and Australia in recent years, and predictions are that we will see more of the same in coming years, as a result of climate change. But this is nothing new. Since the dawn of life on land, large-scale fires have played their part in shaping life on Earth.
Andrew Scott tells the whole story of fire’s impact on our planet’s atmosphere, climate, vegetation, ecology, and the evolution of plant and animal life. It has caused mass extinctions, and it has propelled the spread of flowering plants.
The exciting evidence we can now draw on has been preserved in fossilized charcoal, found in rocks hundreds of millions of years old, from all over the world. These reveal incredibly fine details of prehistoric plants, and tell us about climates from deep in earth’s history. They also give us insight into how early hominids and humans tamed fire and used it.
Looking at the impact of wildfires in our own time, Scott also looks forward to how we might better manage them in future, as climate change has an increasing effect on our world.
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Restoring Farm Woodlands for Wildlife
Artist/Author: Lindenmayer, David, Damian Michael, Mason Crane, Daniel Florance, Emma Burns$40.00 Add to cartFeaturing best practice approaches to restoration based on 19 years of long-term research.
Millions of hectares of temperate woodland and billions of trees have been cleared from Australia’s agricultural landscapes. This has allowed land to be developed for cropping and grazing livestock but has also had significant environmental impacts, including erosion, salinity and loss of native plant and animal species.
