Research Catalog

Title

The international regulation of extinction / Timothy M. Swanson.

Author

Swanson, Timothy M.

Publication

New York : New York University Press, 1994.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 289 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

"During the summer of 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro was hailed as a watershed moment in the ecology movement. Over 100 nations signed a new international treaty intended to conserve biological diversity. Yet, every day, species - many not even discovered - are driven into extinction and the ecological crisis remains a pressing global problem." "Stressing the need to build bridges between the scientific community and international policymakers, Timothy Swanson here develops a new theory of the interplay between human society and the biological world. Biodiversity regulation, he argues, must focus specifically on the regulation of the global economic forces driving species into extinction. As the global development process becomes increasingly sophisticated, the specter of a homogenized biosphere looms large." "Yet, while biological diversity is responsible for a host of global benefits, it confers few tangible gains upon individual nations comparable to the immediate advantages of exploiting these same natural resources. The same economic rationale that drives farmers to grow coca leaf instead of grain compels countries to exploit natural resources rather than conserve them. In order to stave off the decline of biological diversity, Swanson proposes the creation of specific policies that will internalize the benefits of biodiversity on a national level."--Jacket.

Subject

• Biodiversity conservation > Government policy
• Biodiversity conservation > International cooperation
• Economic development > Environmental aspects
• Extinction (Biology)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- Global Biodiversity: Some Background and a Preview -- The economics of Extinction Revisited and Revised -- The Global Conversion Process -- The commons and the State: Regulating Overexploitation -- The global Biodiversity Problem -- International Intervention in National Resource Management -- International Regulation of the Wildlife Trade -- The International Regulation of Extinction -- Conclusions.

ISBN

0814779921 :

LCCN

^^^93036643^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library