This book gathers interdisciplinary reflections from researchers, educators, and other experts on the subject of biodiversity closer to education and learning. The book also highlights its role as an added value to strategic principles for healthy ecosystems and sustainable human development. It promotes critical thinking and foster practices and attitudes for Education for Sustainable Development reconciling education with principles of human behaviour and nature. Readers especially find this book a timely resource in light of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, the Aichi Targets, and the new EU biodiversity strategy “Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020”. Along with the challenge of ecosystems and public health, biodiversity conservation is essential for humanity’s continued security and sustainability, as it touches on all aspects of people’s lives.

Drawing on experiences and insights from 16 megadiverse countries, this report examines how biodiversity is being mainstreamed in four key areas.

Support in higher education is an emerging area of great interest to professors, researchers and students in academic institutions. Sustainability in Higher Education provides discussions on the exchange of information between different aspects of sustainability in higher education. This book includes chapter contributions from authors who have provided case studies on various areas of education for sustainability. - Focus on sustainability - Present studies in aspects related with higher education - Explores a variety of educational aspects from an sustainable perspective

This book offers a perspective on Education for Sustainable Development in Early Childhood (ESDEC) that is far removed from the ‘business as usual’ notion of an extended, predominantly environmental, educational curriculum for preschools. It presents a vision of sustainable development that has relevance to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) from birth to school; it is relevant as much to homes, family support and health settings as it is to educational settings, and is as much concerned with health and wellbeing as with education. The book provides a perspective that is fundamentally embedded in notions of interdependency. It places an emphasis upon the importance of recognising the interdependency of peoples within and between nation states; the ecological interdependencies of the natural world; of humanity and nature; and most significantly the interdependency of adults and children. These emphases have their origins in the grassroots studies included in the ten chapters representing countries from around the world. The book reflects the idea that only global solutions and initiatives are capable of addressing the global challenges of climate change, environmental pollution, and global threats to ecological systems and biodiversity.

Biodiversity research and prospecting are long-standing activities taking place in a new legal and ethical environment. Following entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1993, and other recent policy developments, expectations and obligations for research and prospecting partnerships have changed. However, to date there are few guides to integrating these concepts with practice. This book offers practical guidance on how to arrive at equitable biodiversity research and prospecting partnerships. Drawing on experience and lessons learned from around the world, it provides case studies, analysis and recommendations in a range of areas that together form a new framework for creating equity in these partnerships. They include researcher codes of ethics, institutional policies, community research agreements, the design of more effective commercial partnerships and biodiversity prospecting contracts, the drafting and implementation of national 'access and benefit-sharing' laws, and institutional tools for the distribution of financial benefits. As part of the People and Plants initiative to enhance the role of communities in efforts to conserve biodiversity and use natural resources sustainably, Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge will be invaluable to students, researchers and local communities, academic institutions, international agencies, government bodies and companies involved in biodiversity research, prospecting and conservation.

This novel publication includes summaries of the main issues arising from an internet discussion on the changing perspectives on environmental education in the light of the global initiative on sustainable development. Fifty experts from around the world discussed in five rounds how they see the field evolving. The accompanying CD-ROM allows you to delve into the points made by each participant. It also contains a top-10 list of books and sites on the subject. It explains how the web site discussion was managed, for those interested in learning more about mobilizing knowledge using the opportunities of the worldwide web.

The loss of the earth's biological diversity is widely recognized as a critical environmental problem. That loss is most severe in developing countries, where the conditions of human existence are most difficult. Conserving Biodiversity presents an agenda for research that can provide information to formulate policy and design conservation programs in the Third World. The book includes discussions of research needs in the biological sciences as well as economics and anthropology, areas of critical importance to conservation and sustainable development. Although specifically directed toward development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and decisionmakers in developing nations, this volume should be of interest to all who are involved in the conservation of biological diversity.