ePub Threatened Landscapes: Conserving Cultural Environments by From Taylor Francis in Arts-Photography

Description

Few; if any; environments are free of human intervention. Often this generates ecosystems which are rich in biodiversity; historical interest; recreational opportunity and scenic beauty just as worthy of conservation as the more natural ecosystems on which protection programmes have been almost exclusively focussed.These cultural landscapes; ranging from the farm and forest lands of Europe and Eastern North America; through to the pasture lands and savannas of the Middle East and Africa to the paddylands of the Pacific Rim; are usually the product of relatively low-level; sustainable exploitation of the environment over long periods of time. Many have survived for centuries; if not millennia; but now urban expansion; depopulation of rural areas and; most damagingly; the intensification of agricultural and sylvicultural practices; are everywhere leading to a loss of their cherished biodiversity and amenity. Whilst past changes have mostly added to the valued characteristics of these landscapes; modern farming and forestry are creating sterile monocultures on the better land whilst marginal lands are being abandoned.This book documents these changes; illustrates them through detailed case studies of a representative selection of threatened landscapes; analyses their underlying causes and explores ways by which they can continue to be maintained; or new landscapes created which maintain their desired characteristics.