Biodiversity in Canada tackles the formidable and critically important issues of our natural resources and wilderness. This excellent collection will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the future sustainability of Canada's economies and ecosystems. Professor Bocking has successfully integrated the diverse interdisciplinary perspectives that connect indigenous peoples' knowledges with the insights, and uncertainties, of Western social and natural sciences. -- Robert Boardman, McCulloch Professor of Political Science, Dalhousie University Loss of biodiversity, largely the result of habitat destruction, overexploitation and invasions of non-native species, is the most pressing environmental problem today. Surprisingly for a sparsely populated country, Canada has been adding 15 species per year to its list of species at risk, which now totals over 300. This book is the only comprehensive account of biodiversity in Canada. -- David W. Schindler, Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology University of Alberta, Edmonton (Winner of the 1991 Stockholm Water Prize and the 1998 Volvo Environment Prize)

Clearcut forests, endangered species, national parks, loss of crop varieties: in the last decade the common element of these varied concerns has become widely recognized. These are all biodiversity issues: they relate to the variety of life on Earth and our relationship with it. This relationship is now capturing the attention of activists, scientists, policymakers, and the public, from negotiations at the United Nations to concerns about the neighborhood park.

Biodiversity issues raise many questions. How many species are there, and what do they need to survive? How have we learned what we know about biodiversity? What is its value? What policies are needed to protect it? Who participates in protecting biodiversity: governments, industry, activists?

This book explores answers to these questions and, in doing so, shows how biodiversity, like other complex environmental issues, can only be understood through the insights provided by many perspecives. The authors contributing to this volume include scientists, historians, anthropologists, lawyers, political scientists, economists, and planners. Together, they provide an interdisciplinary perspective on biodiversity in Canada, especially usefol for undergraduate courses in environmental and natural resource studies, geography, and political science.