Human Ecology Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development

This volume provides an accessible introduction to the fundamental concepts and issues of sustainable development and contains extensive examples, case studies and exercises. It explains how ecosystems are organized and function; the interactions of human social systems with them; and how social institutions and processes contribute to or conflict with sustainability. It integrates long-standing ecological principles with more recent concepts from complex systems theory.

'The scope and clarity of this book make it accessible and informative to a wide readership. Its messages should be an essential component of the education for all students from secondary school to university... [It] provides a clear and comprehensible account of concepts that can be applied in our individual and collective lives to pursue the promising and secure future to which we all aspire' -From the Foreword by Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council and former Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) The most important questions of the future will turn on the relationship between human societies and the natural ecosystems on which we all, in the end, depend. The interactions and interdependencies of the social and natural worlds are the focus of growing attention from a wide range of environmental, social and life sciences. Understanding them is critical to achieving the balance involved in sustainable development. Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development presents an extremely clear and accessible account of this complex range of issues and of the concepts and tools required to understand and tackle them. Extensively supported by graphics and detailed examples, this book makes an excellent introduction for students at all levels, and for general readers wanting to know why and how to respond to the dilemmas we face.

Introduction * Populations and Feedback Systems * Human Population * Ecosystems and Social Systems as Complex Adaptive Systems * Ecosystem Organization * Ecological Succession * Coevolution and Coadaptation of Human Social Systems and Ecosystems * Ecosystem Services * Perceptions of Nature * Unsustainable Human-Ecosystem Interaction * Sustainable Human-Ecosystem Interaction * Examples of Ecologically Sustainable Development * Glossary * Further Reading

Gerald G Marten is a professor at the School of Policy Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan, and author of Traditional Agriculture in Southeast Asia.