Jeffrey A. McNeely Bücher

What makes our planet's natural treasures worth saving, and why should we care? With hundreds of stunning full-color photographs and more than twenty essays from some of the world's most respected scientists, this latest publication in the CEMEX Conservation Book Series aims to provide some of these answers. With scientific analyses, The Wealth of Nature offers a detailed explanation of the various ecosystem services that support and regulate all natural processes on Earth. It also provides cultural context for how these services are vital for our existence and why their futures—and ours—are at risk. The Wealth of Nature maps out the state of our global resources and clarifies the choices that lay before us. It is within our grasp to adapt to the conditions we have created and to mitigate our impact on the future, but the window of opportunity is closing. Take a moment and come and see the award-winning nature photographers capture Earth's intricate web of life and the solutions we are working toward.

Soul of the Tiger takes us to an exotic world where human life is intimately linked with rhinos and cobras, crocodiles, elephants and man-eating tigers.During two decades, the authors, American conservationists and adventurers, lived and learned in Southeast Asia - from Thailand and Burma, to Cambodia and Vietnam, to Malaysia and Indonesia. Their fascinating, bizarre, and often hilarious accounts reveal the vital connection between these people and their animal neighbors. To the villagers, animals are omens, deities, meat, leather, jungle tractors, competitors, and even ancestors.They authors tell of a Borneo farmer who, though an Evangelical Christian, waits to plant his rice until the yellow wagtail arrives. Of animal fights that fill the needs once met by headhunting. Of Indonesians who hunt whales by leaping onto their backs from small sailboats. Of Malaysians and Indonesians who believe that man-eating tigers carry the souls of their victims. From such encounters, the authors learned ways to preserve the delicate balance between human and animal lives in all economically developing parts of the worldSoul of the Tiger is an invitation to join the search for nature's answers in exotic places and states of mind.