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AbstractThis article provides a brief overview of biodiversity on military lands, highlights a number of biodiversity conservation success stories that serve as models for aspects of an ecosystem‐based natural resource management approach, and offers perspectives on conditions for the broader implementation of ecosystem management approaches by the Department of Defense (DOD).

Biological diversity, a term that encapsulates all of life - the diversity of plants and animals and the places they live, has changed the way we think about nature conservation. The conservation of biodiversity demands that we understand the role of natural systems and ecological processes in sustaining landscapes. Landscapes and the issues embedded within them vary enormously from the protection of remote wilderness areas to maintaining the productivity of agricultural regions and the quality of life within cities. This report seeks to answer questions from an outsider's perspective about the roles central government, regional councils and the non-government sector should play in conserving biodiversity; how effective working partnerships with landholders should be developed; what the most appropriate policy mix is; and who should fund biodiversity conservation programmes. It draws on Australian and international experience in the management of biodiversity. In consultations with officials and stakeholders mixed views were expressed on whether holistic approaches to biodiversity conservation are required or whether a model of protection through dedicated public and private (covenanted) conservation reserves will be sufficient. The view taken in this report is that protection is necessary but not sufficient. Ultimately on- ground programmes are required that target and reward land managers who actively manage areas of indigenous biodiversity on their land. However, it is also necessary to understand the economic and social factors that are driving the land-uses and management practices that are causing the continuing loss of biodiversity. Successful approaches to biodiversity conservation require coordinated responses from all scales of management. The critical role of regional planning in balancing the need for scientific assessment, leadership and centralised planning from the "top down" with strategies for engaging landholders and local communities from the "bottom up" is highlighted. The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) provides a solid framework for developing effective regional responses. However the challenges of coordination across spheres of government, clarification of regulation and engaging the non-government sector remain. A number of policy options, such as funding and tax incentives and capacity building, are suggested to address these.

Abstract
The evolution of information infrastructures has shaped nature conservation related to wild species, landscapes and collections of biological diversity, efforts that are germane to nation-building and many other political projects. Extensive practices of quantification are now embedded in environmental monitoring, biodiversity protection and the banking of plant genetic resources. This suggests a kaleidoscope of human intentions and institutional mandates that are embodied within fluidly changing information systems. These technologies have come to condense cultural assumptions, values, and orientations to the Anthropocene. The conservation of biodiversity must continually generate not only spectacles of nature, but also spectacles of expert knowledge and management. Information itself is the new frontier of green capitalism, affirming a paradigm of perpetual growth.

This open access book features essays written by philosophers, biologists, ecologists and conservation scientists facing the current biodiversity crisis. Despite increasing communication, accelerating policy and management responses, and notwithstanding improving ecosystem assessment and endangered species knowledge, conserving biodiversity continues to be more a concern than an accomplished task. Why is it so? The overexploitation of natural resources by our species is a frequently recognised factor, while the short-term economic interests of governments and stakeholders typically clash with the burdens that implementing conservation actions imply. But this is not the whole story. This book develops a different perspective on the problem by exploring the conceptual challenges and practical defiance posed by conserving biodiversity, namely: on the one hand, the difficulties in defining what biodiversity is and characterizing that "thing" to which the word 'biodiversity' refers to; on the other hand, the reasons why assessing biodiversity and putting in place effective conservation actions is arduous. ; Features essays that are explicitly critical of the species approach to biodiversity Presents bio-philosophical perspectives on the interaction between biodiversity's units, levels, and scales Serves as an interdisciplinary contribution to the emergent field of biodiversity studies

Written for anyone interest in green development, this practical guide focuses on the central question of how to conserve biodiversity in neighbourhoods and to minimize development impacts on surrounding habitats.