Agriculture, Biodiversity and Markets Livelihoods and Agroecology in Comparative Perspective

About this book

Debate about how best to ensure the preservation of agricultural biodiversity is caught in a counter-productive polemic between proponents and critics of market-based instruments and agricultural modernisation. However, it is argued in this book that neither position does justice to the range of strategies that farmers use to manage agrobiodiversity and other livelihood assets as they adapt to changing social, economic, and environmental circumstances.

Chapters explore relationships between the exploitation and conservation of agricultural biodiversity and the livelihoods of agricultural communities, and evaluate the capacity of national and multilateral institutions and policy settings to support the protection and capture by communities of agrobiodiversity values. The place of ecosystem services in valuing biodiversity in the marketplace is emphasized. A number of authors assess the potential for market-based instruments and initiatives to encourage the protection of biodiversity, while others compare agrobiodiversity/community relationships, and the effectiveness of instruments designed to enhance these, across international boundaries.

The book takes a comparative approach, drawing on empirical case studies from across the developed and developing worlds. In doing so, it shows how global trade and multilateral institutions bring otherwise disparate communities together in networks that exploit and/or preserve agrobiodiversity and other resources.

Contents

Contributors
Preface
1 Agriculture, Biodiversity and Markets

Part I Agrobiodiversity in Context
2 The Ecological Role of Biodiversity in Agroecosystems
3 Multilateral and National Regulatory Regimes for Agrobiodiversity
4 The Human Ecology of Agrobiodiversity

Part II Agriobiodiversity and Modernization
5 Complementarity in the Conservation of Traditional and Modern rice Genetic Resources on the Philippine Island of Bohol
6 The Contribution of Biodiversity to Modern Intensive Farming Systems
7 Genetic Erosion and Conservation of Agrobiodiversity of Rice and Rice Fields: A Case Study from Western Ghats, India
8 Plant Breeders' Rights and On-farm Seed-saving

Part III Agrobiodiversity, Standards and Markets
10 Environmental and Social Standards
11 Geographical Indicators
12 Quality Assured: Private Quality Standards and the Transformation of International Agriculture
13 Value Chain Coordination for Biodiversity Conservation

Part IV Agrobiodiversity and Payment for Ecological Services
14 Protected Areas and Payment for Ecological Services
15 The 'Green Box': Multifunctionality and Biodiversity Conservation in Europe
16 Targeting Payments for Ecological Services
17 Market Instruments and Collective Obligations: Reconciling Payment for Environmental Services with Community-based Approaches to Natural Resource Management

Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Stewart Lockie is Associate Professor of Rural and Environmental Sociology and Director of the Centre for Social Science Research, Central Queensland University, Australia. David Carpenter is Manager of the Development Research Program, Australian Agency for International Development.