- Email: [email protected]
Global Perspectives on River Conservation. Science, Policy and Practice
Biological Conservation 99 (2001) 261±262
www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon
Book reviews
Global Perspectives on River Conservation. Science, Policy and Practice Edited by P.J. Boon, B.R. Davies and G.E. Petts. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. 2000. 548 pp. ISBN 0-47196062-4 (hbk). Price £125.00. The editors have assembled 24 chapters to give a global overview of river conservation. The book was planned as a sequel to the previous River Conservation and Management (Boon et al., 1992), but its cover is so broad that it can be used on its own. There is an extensive Introduction, which helps the reader to ®nd their way round the mass of information in the individual chapters. The editors start by commenting that it is likely that rivers have suered the single most intense onslaught on the world's ecosystems over the past 50 years and highlight the role of dam construction in this. They predict an increasing momentum to decommission regulating dams on rivers during the coming century. Nevertheless problems of sanitation, water supply and disease make it likely that problems due to dam building, ¯ow regulation and pollution will continue, especially in the developing world, unless alternative ways are introduced to distribute water, to initiate proper costing to pay for it, and to promote educational programmes to curb overconsumption. The editors explain that the submitted chapters interpreted `Conservation' in two dierent ways. Developedworld contributions ®tted the original objectives: to examine the science, policy and practice of each region's ecosystems and biota; to detail conservation programmes, techniques and legislation aimed at the sustainable utilization of rivers as water resources and the protection of their habitats and indigenous and endemic ¯ora and fauna. However, the contributions from four of the regional reviews from the developing world used the term conservation entirely dierently, dealing with the conservation of water for human potable supply, water quantity for various uses and river channels for ¯ood control. This dierence in approach re¯ects an important dierence in priorities between developed and some developing countries. The problem is treated further in a particularly interesting chapter in the second part of
the book on ``Global disparities in river conservation: `First World' values and `Third World' realities''. Part I of the book consists of geographical overviews for the various regions. The editors have done an excellent job in ®nding authors who can provide insight into the particular features of rivers in these regions. I will comment on only two of these chapters. Madagascar has a chapter to itself, because of its extraordinary biological heritage. For anyone without long experience of rivers and their problems, this account is a useful place to start reading the book. It highlights the acute problems caused by deforestation, threats to ®sh species and the need for much more detailed physical and biological surveys on which to base conservation planning. The potential for environmental education is discussed and accounts given of the role of NGOs and of current environmental legislation, little of which appears to be targetted at rivers. The account of the Indian sub-continent by B. Gopal is much broader, but raises many of the important issues. Unlike many developing regions, there is a great deal of background scienti®c information and a long history of water management in many areas. Nevertheless there are numerous problems associated with the increasing population and pressure for development. Among those emphasized by the author are the cessation of natural ¯ow, uncontrolled discharge of untreated or poorly treated sewage and the loss of riparian forests. A speci®c example under discussion is a plan to channelize the Yamuna at Delhi and reclaim the riparian fringes for commercial and recreational use. If implemented, this will lead to further degradation of downstream areas. Bangladesh, the country which is perhaps the most dependent on rivers of any in the world, is only mentioned brie¯y, though it would be interesting to have seen how the author treated conservation here. Gopal concludes by stating that the growing human population is the single major threat to rivers in the subcontinent and even if the population stabilizes in the next 25 years or so, the rivers will have been reduced to wastewater drains. A check on population growth, strategies to minimize wasteful use of water in agriculture and ecient wastewater treatment systems and recycling are all required.
0006-3207/01/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0006-3207(00)00224-X
262
Book reviews / Biological Conservation 99 (2001) 261±262
Part II deals with more general topics grouped under the heading `Constraints and Opportunities: Problems and Solutions'. In addition to the chapter mentioned earlier, they cover conservation in relation to: ecosystem use and sustainability, tropical versus temperate, urban river conservation, river size as a factor, managing rivers with variable ¯ow regimes, interbasin water transfers, role of classi®cation, popular participation, legislation, restoration, integrated watershed management. The book is well produced, edited to a high standard and succeeds in providing an excellent overview of a wide-ranging topic. I would, however, have liked more about nutrients and primary producers than the short account for New Zealand, because there is little point in conserving the physical environment if there are marked changes in the chemical one. The book includes eight pages of colour photos of types of river, problems and solutions. Some ®gures elsewhere in the book would have greatly bene®tted from being in colour, because it is sometimes impossible to guess the limits of categories from the various shades of grey. The editors and authors make a strong and well argued case for conservation of rivers and the ways in which this can be approached in various parts of the world. The information is presented in a way that can
be understood by a wide range of scientists and parts should also be helpful to administrators with little formal scienti®c training. The book is designed to be read widely throughout the world. Unfortunately, the price of £125 means that the majority of people whom the editors would like to read the book will probably never do so. The price is in fact comparable with that for many other books of similar size and quality. The problem is that books providing so much insight to environmental and economic problems ought to be distributed widely at low cost. It is a pity that some of the aid money given by developed countries to NGOs in less developed ones cannot be use to subsidize such books.
References Boon, P.J., Calow, P., Petts, G.E. (1991). River Conservation and Management. Wiley, Chichester.
Brian A. Whitton Department of Biological Sciences University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
PII: S0006-3207(00)00224-X
A Guide to the Reptiles of Belize by Peter J. Staord and John R. Meyer, Academic Press, San Diego, 2000. 356 pp. ISBN 0 12 662760 6. Price £37.95. Belize, a small Central American country is well known for its reptile diversity, supporting over 160 species. This book goes a long way to providing a clearer understanding of reptile species composition, their distribution within the district boundaries of Belize and their ecology. Aimed more at the professional herpetologist, it is also accessible to the amateur naturalist by having a clear layout and providing over 180 clear colour photographs to aid species identi®cation. The book starts with an introductory chapter giving an excellent overview of the environment and range of ecosystems found in Belize. The latter part of this chapter relates speci®cally to the natural history of reptiles but otherwise should be compulsory reading for any biologist visiting Belize for the ®rst (or subsequent) time. The remaining four chapters are each devoted to the four reptile orders (Crocodilians, turtles and tortoises, lizards and snakes) including identi®cation keys with diagrams. Each species is clearly documented and each account includes notes on its habitat, distribution and a detailed description of its ecology and dierences to similar species. PII: S0006-3207(00)00225-1
In the ®eld the book is easy to use but the snake identi®cation keys, especially for the Colubridae family are complex and require a detailed understanding of snake anatomy and scalation, necessitating the capture of the snake and subsequent examination. However a lot of the common snake species can easily be recognised by photographs alone and, despite having dierent colour variants to the specimens shown, lizard species can also be relatively easily identi®ed. The guide also includes a useful chapter on the features and up-to-date treatment of snake bites. There are also appendices including ecological summary tables for each species, a distributional summary, glossary of biological nomenclature, references and further reading. As a practical ®eld guide the book more than lives up to its title and is a must for any biologist visiting Central America. It will also serve as a signi®cant resource to support biodiversity assessment and conservation programmes. Jan Clemons Warwickshire Amphibian and Reptile Team Rugby High School, Longrood Road Rugby, Warwickshire, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon
Book reviews
Global Perspectives on River Conservation. Science, Policy and Practice Edited by P.J. Boon, B.R. Davies and G.E. Petts. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. 2000. 548 pp. ISBN 0-47196062-4 (hbk). Price £125.00. The editors have assembled 24 chapters to give a global overview of river conservation. The book was planned as a sequel to the previous River Conservation and Management (Boon et al., 1992), but its cover is so broad that it can be used on its own. There is an extensive Introduction, which helps the reader to ®nd their way round the mass of information in the individual chapters. The editors start by commenting that it is likely that rivers have suered the single most intense onslaught on the world's ecosystems over the past 50 years and highlight the role of dam construction in this. They predict an increasing momentum to decommission regulating dams on rivers during the coming century. Nevertheless problems of sanitation, water supply and disease make it likely that problems due to dam building, ¯ow regulation and pollution will continue, especially in the developing world, unless alternative ways are introduced to distribute water, to initiate proper costing to pay for it, and to promote educational programmes to curb overconsumption. The editors explain that the submitted chapters interpreted `Conservation' in two dierent ways. Developedworld contributions ®tted the original objectives: to examine the science, policy and practice of each region's ecosystems and biota; to detail conservation programmes, techniques and legislation aimed at the sustainable utilization of rivers as water resources and the protection of their habitats and indigenous and endemic ¯ora and fauna. However, the contributions from four of the regional reviews from the developing world used the term conservation entirely dierently, dealing with the conservation of water for human potable supply, water quantity for various uses and river channels for ¯ood control. This dierence in approach re¯ects an important dierence in priorities between developed and some developing countries. The problem is treated further in a particularly interesting chapter in the second part of
the book on ``Global disparities in river conservation: `First World' values and `Third World' realities''. Part I of the book consists of geographical overviews for the various regions. The editors have done an excellent job in ®nding authors who can provide insight into the particular features of rivers in these regions. I will comment on only two of these chapters. Madagascar has a chapter to itself, because of its extraordinary biological heritage. For anyone without long experience of rivers and their problems, this account is a useful place to start reading the book. It highlights the acute problems caused by deforestation, threats to ®sh species and the need for much more detailed physical and biological surveys on which to base conservation planning. The potential for environmental education is discussed and accounts given of the role of NGOs and of current environmental legislation, little of which appears to be targetted at rivers. The account of the Indian sub-continent by B. Gopal is much broader, but raises many of the important issues. Unlike many developing regions, there is a great deal of background scienti®c information and a long history of water management in many areas. Nevertheless there are numerous problems associated with the increasing population and pressure for development. Among those emphasized by the author are the cessation of natural ¯ow, uncontrolled discharge of untreated or poorly treated sewage and the loss of riparian forests. A speci®c example under discussion is a plan to channelize the Yamuna at Delhi and reclaim the riparian fringes for commercial and recreational use. If implemented, this will lead to further degradation of downstream areas. Bangladesh, the country which is perhaps the most dependent on rivers of any in the world, is only mentioned brie¯y, though it would be interesting to have seen how the author treated conservation here. Gopal concludes by stating that the growing human population is the single major threat to rivers in the subcontinent and even if the population stabilizes in the next 25 years or so, the rivers will have been reduced to wastewater drains. A check on population growth, strategies to minimize wasteful use of water in agriculture and ecient wastewater treatment systems and recycling are all required.
0006-3207/01/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0006-3207(00)00224-X
262
Book reviews / Biological Conservation 99 (2001) 261±262
Part II deals with more general topics grouped under the heading `Constraints and Opportunities: Problems and Solutions'. In addition to the chapter mentioned earlier, they cover conservation in relation to: ecosystem use and sustainability, tropical versus temperate, urban river conservation, river size as a factor, managing rivers with variable ¯ow regimes, interbasin water transfers, role of classi®cation, popular participation, legislation, restoration, integrated watershed management. The book is well produced, edited to a high standard and succeeds in providing an excellent overview of a wide-ranging topic. I would, however, have liked more about nutrients and primary producers than the short account for New Zealand, because there is little point in conserving the physical environment if there are marked changes in the chemical one. The book includes eight pages of colour photos of types of river, problems and solutions. Some ®gures elsewhere in the book would have greatly bene®tted from being in colour, because it is sometimes impossible to guess the limits of categories from the various shades of grey. The editors and authors make a strong and well argued case for conservation of rivers and the ways in which this can be approached in various parts of the world. The information is presented in a way that can
be understood by a wide range of scientists and parts should also be helpful to administrators with little formal scienti®c training. The book is designed to be read widely throughout the world. Unfortunately, the price of £125 means that the majority of people whom the editors would like to read the book will probably never do so. The price is in fact comparable with that for many other books of similar size and quality. The problem is that books providing so much insight to environmental and economic problems ought to be distributed widely at low cost. It is a pity that some of the aid money given by developed countries to NGOs in less developed ones cannot be use to subsidize such books.
References Boon, P.J., Calow, P., Petts, G.E. (1991). River Conservation and Management. Wiley, Chichester.
Brian A. Whitton Department of Biological Sciences University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
PII: S0006-3207(00)00224-X
A Guide to the Reptiles of Belize by Peter J. Staord and John R. Meyer, Academic Press, San Diego, 2000. 356 pp. ISBN 0 12 662760 6. Price £37.95. Belize, a small Central American country is well known for its reptile diversity, supporting over 160 species. This book goes a long way to providing a clearer understanding of reptile species composition, their distribution within the district boundaries of Belize and their ecology. Aimed more at the professional herpetologist, it is also accessible to the amateur naturalist by having a clear layout and providing over 180 clear colour photographs to aid species identi®cation. The book starts with an introductory chapter giving an excellent overview of the environment and range of ecosystems found in Belize. The latter part of this chapter relates speci®cally to the natural history of reptiles but otherwise should be compulsory reading for any biologist visiting Belize for the ®rst (or subsequent) time. The remaining four chapters are each devoted to the four reptile orders (Crocodilians, turtles and tortoises, lizards and snakes) including identi®cation keys with diagrams. Each species is clearly documented and each account includes notes on its habitat, distribution and a detailed description of its ecology and dierences to similar species. PII: S0006-3207(00)00225-1
In the ®eld the book is easy to use but the snake identi®cation keys, especially for the Colubridae family are complex and require a detailed understanding of snake anatomy and scalation, necessitating the capture of the snake and subsequent examination. However a lot of the common snake species can easily be recognised by photographs alone and, despite having dierent colour variants to the specimens shown, lizard species can also be relatively easily identi®ed. The guide also includes a useful chapter on the features and up-to-date treatment of snake bites. There are also appendices including ecological summary tables for each species, a distributional summary, glossary of biological nomenclature, references and further reading. As a practical ®eld guide the book more than lives up to its title and is a must for any biologist visiting Central America. It will also serve as a signi®cant resource to support biodiversity assessment and conservation programmes. Jan Clemons Warwickshire Amphibian and Reptile Team Rugby High School, Longrood Road Rugby, Warwickshire, UK E-mail address: [email protected]