Author Description

Top researchers share their expertise on conservation and sustainability in areas that extend across national borders! This informative and insightful book examines strategies being used by governments and NGOs to protect wild areas that cross national borders and cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic boundaries. In addition to presenting case studies from five continents, Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional Conservation Strategies provides several theoretical overviews that suggest viable approaches to conserving biodiversity in these difficult-to-protect areas. From the editors: Historically, the borders of protected areas have been defined by convenient social, political, or proprietary boundaries rather than by ecological boundaries. Today, many scientists and practitioners are in agreement that the world's biodiversity and other natural resources can best be conserved on an ecosystem or regional scale, which may or may not be consistent with political boundaries. Efforts to protect land on an ecosystem scale have led to the creation of numerous transboundary protected areas, also referred to as international peace parks or transfrontier conservation areas. These areas, which often cross linguistic, socioeconomic, and cultural boundaries as well as national borders, represent regional conservation at its most complex. While many scientists and practitioners promote eco-regional approaches to conservation, many also advocate pursuing conservation goals on local or community scales. Conservationists therefore endeavor to achieve a seemingly incongruous mandate: to pursue top-down (regional) goals using bottom-up (local) approaches. Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional Conservation Strategies addresses the vital questions associated with this mandate: Is it reasonable and realistic to approach regional conservation this way? What strategies have been employed to achieve these goalsand how suc