Nature and Farming: Sustaining Native Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes

Description

Conserving and enhancing native biodiversity on farms brings many benefits as well as providing many challenges. Nature and Farming explains why it is important to sustain native plants and animals in agricultural landscapes, and outlines the key issues in developing and implementing practical approaches to safeguarding native biodiversity in rural areas. The book considers the range of ecological and agricultural issues that determine what native biodiversity occurs in farmland and how it can be secured. Many inspiring case studies are presented where innovative approaches towards integrating biodiversity and farm management have been successful, resulting in win-win outcomes for both nature and society.

David Norton is a Professor in the School of Forestry at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Nick Reid is a Professor in Ecosystem Management in the School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia. Both have degrees in ecology and teaching and research interests including native biodiversity in farming systems, ecosystem restoration, threatened community and species conservation, ecosystem management and mistletoe biology. They enjoy working with farmers and appreciate rural people's understanding and insights, acquired through a lifetime of observation and practical experimentation. David and Nick have written this book in the hope that it will help farmers sustain native biota in production landscapes, encourage agency staff and others to work with farmers in achieving sustainable biodiversity conservation in farming areas, and enthuse students to study this under-appreciated aspect of biodiversity conservation.

"Norton and Reid dare to be optimistic that a considerate and integrated management program can educate farmers about the economic benefits of biodiversity and teach policymakers about the diversity of farming operations. This book is a welcome read for teachers and farmers who want to celebrate the farm as an ecosystem, implicitly tasking them with the responsibility to carefully manage it as one."--Andrew Flachs, Washington University (1/1/2015 12:00:00 AM)