Integrating Landscape Ecology Into Natural Resource Management

Book excerpt: The rapidly increasing global population has dramatically increased the demands for natural resources and has caused significant changes in quantity and quality of natural resources. To achieve sustainable resource management, it is essential to obtain insightful guidance from emerging disciplines such as landscape ecology. This text addresses the links between landscape ecology and natural resource management. These links are discussed in the context of various landscape types, a diverse set of resources and a wide range of management issues. A large number of landscape ecology concepts, principles and methods are introduced. Critical reviews of past management practices and a number of case studies are presented. This text provides many guidelines for managing natural resources from a landscape perspective and offers useful suggestions for landscape ecologists to carry out research relevant to natural resource management. In addition, it will be an ideal supplemental text for graduate and advanced undergraduate ecology courses.