In 1990, the Chicago Academy of Sciences held a conference, Sustainable Cities: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity, which led to the publication of a book entitled The Ecological City (Platt et aI., 1994). This symposium differed from others on cities at that time by focusing principally on cities as habitats for biodiversity. The thrust of the symposium was that interactions between p...

Glossary Accounting prices Accounting or shadow prices are measures of the social opportunity cost of resource use. The accounting price of a resource is the increase in social wellbeing that would be enjoyed if a unit more of the resource was made available at no cost. Ecological functions The combinations of ecosystem component and ecosystem processes that enable ecosystems to support primary...

The gap between science and practice has been highlighted in a number of scientific disciplines, including the newly developing domain of ecosystem service science, posing a challenge for the sustainable management of ecosystem services for human wellbeing. While methods to explore science-practice gaps are developing, testing and revisions of these methods are still needed so as to identify op...

In the midst of a global fisheries crisis, there has been great interest in the fostering of adaptation and resilience in fisheries, as a means to reduce vulnerability and improve the capacity of fishing society to adapt to change. However, enhanced resilience does not automatically result in improved well-being of people, and adaptation strategies are riddled with difficult choices, or trade-o...

One of our remarkable research outputs to date, produced as part of a graduate fellowship programme, is an ecological niche map for RVF in Kenya. The student involved, Dr Purity Kiunga, initiated the study by georeferencing known RVF hotspots in Kenya and analysing them together with spatial datasets on precipitation, rainfall, soil types, land use and vegetation indices. The work has generated...

Social contracts play an important role in defining the reciprocal rights, obligations, and responsibilities between states and citizens. Climate change is creating new challenges for both states and citizens, inevitably forcing a rethinking of existing and evolving social contracts. In particular, the social arrangements that enhance the well-being and security of both present and future gener...

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Satoyama–Satoumi Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Assessing Trends to Rethink a Sustainable Future T 2010 biodiversity target (committed to by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2002) to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 has not been met. In fact, the changes in biodiversity due to human activities have been more rapid in the past...