permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Sounds like typical good permaculture practice.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] 10 guiding principles for commodity production landscapes
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:18:02 -0400
From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hello folks,

The following review article may be of interest:

Joel

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 80–86.

Biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resilience: ten guiding principles for
commodity production landscapes Joern Fischer,a David B Lindenmayer,a and
Adrian D Manninga

aCentre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National
University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia (joern@cres.anu.edu.au)

Biodiversity conservation in forestry and agricultural landscapes is
important because (1) reserves alone will not protect biodiversity; (2)
commodity production relies on vital services provided by biodiversity; and
(3) biodiversity enhances resilience, or a system's capacity to recover from
external pressures such as droughts or management mistakes. We suggest ten
guiding principles to help maintain biodiversity, ecosystem function, and
resilience in production landscapes. Landscapes should include structurally
characteristic patches of native vegetation, corridors and stepping stones
between them, a structurally complex matrix, and buffers around sensitive
areas. Management should maintain a diversity of species within and across
functional groups. Highly focused management actions may be required to
maintain keystone species and threatened species, and to control invasive
species. These guiding principles provide a scientifically defensible
starting point for the integration of conservation and production, which is
urgently required from both an ecological and a long-term economic
perspective.

Joel Gruver
Dept of Soil Science
NC State University
jgruv@hotmail.com