THE LIVING PLANET IN CRISIS. - Biodiversity science and policy

Ccracraft and Grifo bring together internationally known experts from the arena of biodiversity science and policy to address integrated responses to the problem of biodiversity loss, including current gaps in scientific knowledge; how scientific information helps inform conservation priorities; how long-term, often hidden values of conservation are weighed against the more immediate value of land development; the need to integrate the social consequences of biodiversity loss when implementing conservation projects; and how lack of knowledge about biodiversity can impede conservation efforts and effective policy decisions. United in their belief that conservation of biological diversity is a primary concern of humankind, the contributing authors address the full scope of global biodiversity and its decline-threatened freshwater ecosystems, the extinction of mammals in the modem era, biodiversity's relation to global patterns of development, and the implications of its loss for human health, agricultural productivity, and the economy. The living planet in crisis is the result of a 1995 conference of the same name at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.