Conservation Social Science: Understanding People Conserving Biodiversity

While much of the decision-making for implementing conservation strategies requires the input of ecologists, the success of that implementation requires input primarily from the social sciences. People and their behavior is at the heart of all conservation effort.

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Earth s biodiversity is in crisis. Forests are shrinking, fisheries are collapsing, and species are disappearing around the globe. Drawing upon the biological sciences, the conservation community has responded to this crisis by investing billions of dollars in programs designed to protect endangered species and ecosystems. While conservation efforts sometimes fail because of biological ignorance, conservationists more often get the biology right, but still fail to preserve target species and ecosystems. This book is a rigorous, clearly articulated, and comprehensive introduction to the role of social scientific theory and knowledge in conservation policy and practice. The authors are leading scholars at the nexus of social science and biodiversity conservation, and seek to present a book that will transform the prevailing conservation paradigm by discussing how social scientific theory and knowledge can inform and strengthen conservation policy and practice.
Key features: * Integrates the many relevant disciplines of social sciences into Conservation Science in general * Illustrated throughout with case studies * Written by world-leaders in multidisciplinary conservation science * All illustrations from the book will be available as downloads. The book is relevant to teachers and students in the following university departments: Ecology and Evolution, Conservation Biology, Political Science, Anthropology, Geography, Sociology and Economics. With a wide readership among students, faculty, and conservation professionals, this book demonstrate the real world relevance of the field.