Geography & the Environment

History and Future of Plants, Planet and People

Towards a New Ecologically Sustainable Age in People’s Relationships With Plants

by Alan Hamilton, Pei Shengji

Description

This fascinating book presents the experiences and pooled knowledge of two very different conservation scientists; Pei Shengji from Sichuan, China and Alan Hamilton from London, UK. They have been drawn together over many years through working on some of the same conservation projects and have discovered that they overlap in their ideas about the sorts of work that needs to be done and how it can best be carried out. The book describes some of their own experiences, set within the contexts of their varied careers and the development of their thinking. Plant conservation is crucial to the preservation of natural ecosystems, but conventional approaches have met with only limited success. The authors have concluded that plant conservationists need social allies - elements of society that have other primary concerns, but whose efforts, if successful, will bring benefits to plant conservation too. It is the state and condition of plants on the ground that ultimately matter in conserving ecosystems, and therefore it is the role of local people who interact directly with them which enables success. Ethnobotany is a key skill required of practical plant conservationists. Its techniques enable them to explore connections between people and plants, learn about local perspectives and establish relationships with the people upon whom conservation and sustainable development relies. This book: recommends how to advance plant conservation, based on real experiences. will inspire more people to become involved in plant conservation. demonstrates how the very different backgrounds of the authors have influenced the courses of their careers, but have enabled them to come to very similar conclusions about conservation practice. demonstrates the importance of geographically-based biocultural diversity, as a counterbalancing force to globalisation.

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Author Biography

Alan Hamilton has been a lecturer in botany, geography and environmental science, variously in the UK and Uganda. His research has been mainly on the environmental history of East Africa during the Quaternary, for which he was awarded a Doctorate in Science from the University of Cambridge. He served as Plants Conservation Officer for WWF-International (1989-2004) and as Plants Conservation and Livelihoods Officer for Plantlife International (2005-2008), in which roles he was responsible for many plant conservation projects around the world. He was one of the originators and the overall manager of the People and Plants Initiative (PPI) of WWF, UNESCO and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which aimed to increase global capacity in applied ethnobotany. One of his duties in PPI was to organise publication and distribution of a number of manuals on plant conservation in three languages (English, Spanish and Chinese). He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the Chinese Academy of Sc

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CABI (CAB International)

CABI (CAB International)

CABI (CAB International) is an international, non-profit body improving lives by providing information & scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture & the environment.

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Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher/Imprint CABI / CAB International
  • Publication Date October 2024
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9781789248920 / 1789248922
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatHardback
  • Primary Price 115 GBP
  • Pages400
  • ReadershipCollege/higher education; Professional and scholarly
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions244 X 172 mm
  • Reference Code5074

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