The Bird of Time The Science and Politics of Nature Conservation - A Personal Account

About this book

The Bird of Time is a plea to everyone but especially to politicians, administrators, farmers and businessmen to take conservation seriously and as a result to integrate conservation with other activities. Through research work and land management the author shows how he came to realise that conservation matters much more fundamentally than is accepted by conventional wisdom. He maintains that the significance of conservation will not be recognised until it is seen within its proper contents of time and this provides the theme of The Bird of Time. The newness of conservation as an idea and its complexities still provide obstacles to understanding its real significance. In the past too much emphasis has been put on the negative and esoteric aspects of conservation. The Bird of Time is important because it emphasises its positive and common-sense aspects and in so doing demonstrates that conservation should now be accepted as a major national and international objective of vital concern to everybody now and in the future.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Words
List of figures
Introduction

Part I. Time and Conservation:
1. Evolutionary time
2. Human time

Part II. The Past - Experience from Conserving Habitats:
3. Disappearing heathlands
4. Disappearing hedges and ponds
5. The loss of special places
6. Choosing National nature reserves
7. Choosing sites of special scientific interest
8. Farms and farmers
9. The habitat crisis and the involvement of government

Part III. The Past - Experience from Controlling Disease and Pollution:
10. The consequences of a disease
11. The politics of myxomatosis
12. Pesticides - a new problem
13. Planning research on pesticides
14. Persistence
15. The results of research
16. Peregrines and people
17. Guillemots and industry
18. Zinc smelting and Brussels
19. Wider implications

Part IV. Towards the Future:
20. Failure to communicate
21. Predicting the future
22. The holding operation required
23. Education for the future
24. Long-term conservation strategy
25. The Bird is on the Wing…

Postscript
References
Index

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