This is the most comprehensive book to address the economic, social and institutional difficulties in conserving biodiversity. It covers a wide range of issues such as biodiversity, ecosystem services and valuation in the context of diverse ecosystems such as tropical forests, marine areas, wetlands and agricultural landscapes, non-timber forest products, incentives and institutions, payments for ecosystem services, governance, intellectual property rights and the protection of traditional knowledge, management of protected areas, and climate change and biodiversity.

It also covers the application of environmental economics and institutional economics to different cases and the use of techniques such as contingent valuation method and game theory. The book spans the globe with case studies drawn from a cross section of regions and continents including the UK, US, Europe, Australia, India, Africa and South America.

Contributors include Jeffrey McNeely, Charles Perrings, Clem Tisdell, Timothy Swanson, Lucy Emerton, R Kerry Turner, Ian Batemen, John Loomis, Leslie Richardson, Unai Pascual, Timothy Hass, Krystyna Swiderska, Regina Birner, Randall Kramer, Jane Kabubo-Mariara, Ernest L Molua, and others.