📗 Libro en inglés THE ECOLOGY OF TROPICAL EAST ASIA

Tropical East Asia is home to over one billion people and faces massive human impacts from its rising population and rapid economic growth It has already lost more than half of its forest cover to agriculture and urbanization and has the highest rates of deforestation and logging in the tropics Habitat loss coupled with hunting and the relentless trade in wildlife products threatens all its large and many of its smaller vertebrates Despite these problems the region still supports an estimated 15 25 of global terrestrial biodiversity and a growing environmental awareness means that it is no longer assumed that economic development justifies environmental damage and no longer accepted that this trade off is inevitable Effective conservation action now depends on integrating a clear understanding of the ecological patterns and processes in the region with the varied needs of its human population This third edition continues to provide an overview of the terrestrial ecology of Tropical East Asia from southern China to Indonesia and from Bhutan and Bangladesh to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan It retains the balance between compactness and comprehensiveness of the previous editions and the even handed geographical treatment of the whole region but it updates both