Lepidoptera Conservation in a Changing World - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9400714416 ISBN 13: 9789400714410

Publisher: Springer, 2011

Synopsis

The Convention on Biological Diversity set a world target: “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss”. The EU went further, aiming to halt biodiversity loss by 2010. In March 2010, the charity Butterfly Conservation held its 6th International Symposium on ‘The 2010 Target and Beyond for Lepidoptera’. This book, edited by John Dover, Martin Warren and Tim Shreeve and with a Forward by Sir David Attenborough, is a collection of papers from that meeting. The book documents the failure to achieve the 2010 targets and the urgent need to redouble conservation efforts. Papers presented on ‘Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation’, ‘The Science of Conservation Management’, ‘Landscape-scale Conservation’ and ‘Future Challenges’ illustrate some of the problems we face, but also demonstrate that, with the application of the right tools and knowledge and with sufficient determination, butterflies, moths, and their habitats can have a secure future.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

To scientists and conservationists alike Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths, are attractive species, not simply because many are exceptionally beautiful, with fascinating life cycles, delicate habitat associations, and astonishing interactions with other species, but because they are extraordinarily sensitive to changes in their environment. They act as a bellwether, alerting us to changes that human beings are doing to our environment. This book, edited by John Dover, Martin Warren and Tim Shreeve, is a collection of 31 of the papers presented at the International Symposium: ‘The 2010 Target and Beyond for Lepidoptera’ organised by the environmental charity Butterfly Conservation. The meeting was convened to assess whether the Convention on Biological Diversity and EU targets to halt biodiversity loss by 2010 had been met. The papers presented at the meeting were sobering; butterflies and moths are still in severe decline in countries across the world. As butterflies and moths can be regarded as an above-ground ‘miner’s canary’, then humans have cause to worry if these trends continue. The meeting, and this book, is not all about doom and gloom – yes, it documents problems and highlights very serious challenges, but it also shines light on research that promises to help reverse conservation losses. The book is wide in scope and, for example, includes research on how to improve road verges for rare butterflies in the Netherlands and how agri-environment schemes in Switzerland and the UK can boost butterfly numbers. It shows how studying butterflies in natural bog systems in the USA can help us understand how to conserve butterflies in fragmented prairie habitats and what determines where we find butterflies in the urban landscape of western Australia. The Convention on Biological Diversity is formulating new targets for 2020, and a vision for 2050 - if we are to improve the status of Lepidoptera by 2020 the research documented in this book will help us get there – but the book outlines the huge challenges we face.

Review:

From the reviews:

“This volume is an essential resource for anyone interested in conservation for insects in general, and especially for Lepidoptera. I would also recommend this to those interested in lepidopteran biology in general since significant articles within cover the natural history, behavior, and ecology of many key species. Most notably the papers on efficient surveying techniques will be valuable for monitoring lepidopteran biodiversity in our current environment of fiscal austerity.” (Jason J. Dombroskie, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 89 (2), June, 2014)

About this edition

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 9400714416
• ISBN 13: 9789400714410
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 390
• Editor: Dover John, Warren Martin, Shreeve Tim