Giant pandas [[electronic resource] ] : biology and conservation / / edited by Donald Lindburg and Karen Baragona ; with a foreword by George B. Schaller

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910783388403321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkley, : University of California Press, c2004
• ISBN: 9786612357190; 0-520-93016-9; 1-282-35719-0; 1-59734-633-0
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (329 p.)
• Altri autori (Persone): LindburgDonald G. <1932->; BaragonaKaren <1967->
• Disciplina: 599.789
• Soggetti: Giant panda; Giant panda - Conservation
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- CONTENTS -- FOREWORD -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDG -- Introduction -- 1. Phylogenetic Position of the Giant Panda -- BRIEF REPORT 1.1 -- 2. What Is a Giant Panda? -- 3. A Paleontologist's Perspective on the Origin and Relationships of the Giant Panda -- 4. Variation in Ursid Life Histories -- BRIEF REPORT 4.1 -- 5. Future Survival of Giant Pandas in the Qinling Mountains of China -- WORKSHOP REPORT 5.1 -- 6. Nutritional Strategy of Giant Pandas in the Qinling Mountains of China -- BRIEF REPORT 6.1 -- 7. Chemical Communication in Giant Pandas -- BRIEF REPORT 7.1 -- 8. Reproduction in Giant Pandas -- 9. COMPARATIVE ECOLOGY OF GIANT PANDAS IN THE FIVE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF THEIR DISTRIBUTION IN CHINA -- PANEL REPORT 9.1. Assessing the Habitat and Distribution of the Giant Panda: Methods and Issues -- BRIEF REPORT 9.1 -- 10. Giant Panda Migration and Habitat Utilization in Foping Nature Reserve, China -- BRIEF REPORT 10.1 -- 11. MAPPING HABITAT SUITABILITY FOR GIANT PANDAS IN FOPING NATURE RESERVE, CHINA -- PANEL REPORT 11.1 -- 12. SYMPATRY OF GIANT AND RED PANDAS ON YELE NATURAL ; RESERVE, CHINA -- 13. BALANCING PANDA AND HUMAN NEEDS FOR BAMBOO SHOOTS IN MABIAN NATURE RESERVE, CHINA: PREDICTIONS FROM A LOGISTIC-LIKE MODEL -- PANEL REPORT 13.1 -- 14. A NEW PARADIGM FOR PANDA RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION: INTEGRATING ECOLOGY WITH HUMAN DEMOGRAPHICS, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIOECONOMICS -- PANEL REPORT 14.1 -- 15. BIOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING FUTURE EFFORTS IN GIANT PANDA CONSERVATION -- PANEL REPORT 15.1 -- THE LEGACY OF EXTINCTION RISK: LESSONS FROM GIANT PANDAS AND OTHER THREATENED CARNIVORES -- PANEL REPORT 16.1 -- 17. BIOMEDICAL SURVEY OF CAPTIVE GIANT PANDAS: -- BRIEF REPORT 17.1 -- WORKSHOP REPORT 17.1 -- Conclusion -- APPENDIX A. Keynote Address -- APPENDIX B. KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY MARSHALL JON ES -- APPENDIX C. MEMORANDUM OF CONSENSUS -- CONTRIBUTORS -- INDEX
• Sommario/riassunto: The much-loved giant panda, a secretive denizen of the dense bamboo forests of western China, has become an icon worldwide of progress in conservation and research. This volume, written by an international team of scientists and conservationists including Chinese researchers whose work has not been available in English, tells the promising story of how the giant panda returned from the brink of extinction. The most important sourcebook on giant pandas to date, it is the first book since 1985 to present current panda research and the first to place the species in its biological, ecological, and political contexts. More than a progress report on a highly endangered species, Giant Pandas: Biology and Conservation details the combination of scientific understanding, local commitment, and government involvement that has been brought into play and asks what more needs to be done to ensure the panda's survival. The book is divided into four parts-Evolutionary History of the Giant Panda, Studies of Giant Panda Biology, Pandas and Their Habitats, and Giant Panda Conservation. It combines the latest findings from the field and the laboratory together with panel and workshop summaries from a recent international conference. Taken together, the chapters highlight how international cooperation has led to better management in the wild and in captivity. The volume also shows how concepts such as buffer zones, links between forest fragments, multiple-use areas, and cooperation with local people who have a stake in the resources-highly relevant concepts for conservation problems around the world-have been key to the panda's survival.

Insatiable appetite [[electronic resource] ] : the United States and the ecological degradation of the tropical world / / Richard P. Tucker

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910780080603321
• Autore: Tucker Richard P. <1938->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2000
• ISBN: 0-520-92381-2; 1-282-35645-3; 9786612356452; 1-59734-678-0
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (567 p.)
• Disciplina: 333.7/0913
• Soggetti: Tropical crops - Economic aspects - History - 20th century; Tropical crops - Environmental aspects - History - 20th century; Investments, American - Tropics - History - 20th century; Environmental degradation - Tropics - History - 20th century
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 437-524) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. America's Sweet Tooth: The Sugar Trust And The Caribbean Lowlands -- 2. Lords Of The Pacific: Sugar Barons In The Hawaiian And Philippine Islands -- 3. Banana Republics: Yankee Fruit Companies And The Tropical American Lowlands -- 4. The Last Drop: The American Coffee Market And The Hill Regions Of Latin America -- 5. The Tropical Cost Of The Automotive Age: Corporate Rubber Empires And The Rainforest -- 6. The Crop On Hooves: Yankee Interests In Tropical Cattle Ranching -- 7. Unsustainable Yield: American Foresters And Tropical Timber Resources -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: In the late 1800's American entrepreneurs became participants in the 400-year history of European economic and ecological hegemony in the tropics. Beginning as buyers in the tropical ports of the Atlantic and Pacific, they evolved into land speculators, controlling and managing the areas where tropical crops were grown for carefully fostered consumer markets at home. As corporate agro-industry emerged, the ; speculators took direct control of the ecological destinies of many tropical lands. Supported by the U.S. government's diplomatic and military protection, they migrated and built private empires in the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. Yankee investors and plantation managers mobilized engineers, agronomists, and loggers to undertake what they called the "Conquest of the Tropics," claiming to bring civilization to benighted peoples and cultivation to unproductive nature. In competitive cooperation with local landed and political elites, they not only cleared natural forests but also displaced multicrop tribal and peasant lands with monocrop export plantations rooted in private property regimes. This book is a rich history of the transformation of the tropics in modern times, pointing ultimately to the declining biodiversity that has resulted from the domestication of widely varied natural systems. Richard P. Tucker graphically illustrates his study with six major crops, each a virtual empire in itself-sugar, bananas, coffee, rubber, beef, and timber. He concludes that as long as corporate-dominated free trade is ascendant, paying little heed to its long-term ecological consequences, the health of the tropical world is gravely endangered.