processes; (3) ensure the integrity of ecosys The theory and practice of ecosystem manage tems; and (4) advocate the sustainable use of ment is pivotal to the debate over how to sustain the health and productivity of our envi natural resources. In this book, each of these ronment. In particular, the role of ecosystems four topics is addressed by a set of eight key in preserving biological diversity, their contri journal articles. The first article in each section bution to economic growth, and their influence provides an overview, followed by case histo ries and a concluding paper which is a...

The frontier images of America embrace endless horizons, majestic herds of native ungulates, and romanticized life-styles of nomadie peoples. The images were mere reflections of vertebrates living in harmony in an ecosystem driven by the unpre- dictable local and regional effects of drought, frre, and grazing. Those effects, often referred to as ecological "disturbanees," are rather the driving forces on which species depended to create the spatial and temporal heterogeneity that favored ecological prerequisites for survival. Alandscape viewed by European descendants as monotony interrupted...

The frontier images of America embrace endless horizons, majestic herds of native ungulates, and romanticized life-styles of nomadie peoples. The images were mere reflections of vertebrates living in harmony in an ecosystem driven by the unpre- dictable local and regional effects of drought, frre, and grazing. Those effects, often referred to as ecological "disturbanees," are rather the driving forces on which species depended to create the spatial and temporal heterogeneity that favored ecological prerequisites for survival. Alandscape viewed by European descendants as monotony interrupted...