Harvey Locke

As humanity sits at an existential crossroads, this book introduces the need to build a nature-positive future to secure the functioning and stability of Earth systems essential to the survival and wellbeing of present and future human generations as well as the rest of Earth's amazing diversity of life.Alongside the change in climate, a more silent but equally terrifying crisis is unfolding: the loss of nature and biodiversity. These twin crises are in fact interconnected. After decades of ignoring our impacts on the natural world, we are beginning to realise that nature conservation is a security issue for humanity, and an imperative for intersectional and intergenerational justice. For these reasons, we must embrace a transition from a nature-negative to a nature-positive society, one that ensures human development and addresses today’s inequality, while conserving, restoring and sustainably benefiting from nature's resources and services. A Nature Positive future is one with more nature than today: more forests, more fish, more pollinators, more soil biodiversity, with benefits for the Planet and for us. In this book we define what becoming Nature Positive means from a variety of perspectives, what it takes to deliver it and why it is possible and, most importantly, necessary.This book is essential reading for those concerned with conserving nature and securing a safe future for humanity in the face of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and ecological collapse. The future can be bright. The choice is ours.

As humanity sits at an existential crossroads, this book introduces the need to build a nature-positive future to secure the functioning and stability of Earth systems essential to the survival and wellbeing of present and future human generations as well as the rest of Earth's amazing diversity of life. Alongside the change in climate, a more silent but equally terrifying crisis is unfolding: the loss of nature and biodiversity. These twin crises are in fact interconnected. After decades of ignoring our impacts on the natural world, we are beginning to realise that nature conservation is a security issue for humanity, and an imperative for intersectional and intergenerational justice. For these reasons, we must embrace a transition from a nature-negative to a nature-positive society, one that ensures human development and addresses today’s inequality, while conserving, restoring and sustainably benefiting from nature's resources and services. A Nature Positive future is one with more nature than today: more forests, more fish, more pollinators, more soil biodiversity, with benefits for the Planet and for us. In this book we define what becoming Nature Positive means from a variety of perspectives, what it takes to deliver it and why it is possible and, most importantly, necessary.This book is essential reading for those concerned with conserving nature and securing a safe future for humanity in the face of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and ecological collapse. The future can be bright. The choice is ours.

An expert on the buffalo tells the history of this keystone species through extensive research and beautiful photographs. The mere mention of the buffalo instantly brings to mind the vast herds that once roamed the North American continent, and few wild animals captivate our imaginations as much as the buffalo do. Once numbering in the tens of millions, these magnificent creatures played a significant role in structuring the varied ecosystems they occupied. For at least 24,000 years, North American Indigenous Peoples depended upon them, and it was the abundance of buffalo that initially facilitated the dispersal of humankind across the continent. With the arrival of Europeans and their rapacious capacity for wildlife destruction, the buffalo was all but exterminated. In a span of just thirty years during the mid-1800s, buffalo populations plummeted from more than 30 million to just twenty-three. And with them went all of the intricate food webs, the trophic cascades, and the inter-species relationships that had evolved over thousands of years. Despite this brush with extinction, the buffalo survived, and isolated populations are slowly recovering. As this recovery proceeds, the relationships the animals once had with thousands of species are being re-established in a remarkable process of ecological healing. The intricacy of those restored relationships is the subject of this book. Based on author Wes Olson's thirty-five years of working intimately with bison—and featuring 180 stunning, full-colour photographs by Johane Janelle— The Ecological Buffalo is a story that takes the reader on a journey to understand the myriad connections this keystone species has with the Great Plains.