Official IUCN publications

Eighty per cent of the world's population depends on traditional medicine for its primary health care needs, a system of medicine in which most of the drugs and cures used come from plants. Yet many of the plant involved are increasingly threatened. These Guidelines outline in clear steps the tasks that need to be done to conserve them. Of interest primarily to nature conservationists and health policy-makers, but also to ethnobiologists, ecologists, agronomists and pharmocologists.

A straight forward presentation of the keynote papers and case studies prepared for the workshop on coastal marine biosphere serves held in 1989. The keynote papers together provide an excellent digest of the different factors to be considered in biosphere reserve planning, examining constraints across the full range of physical to socio-economic spheres.

This series provides extensive details on the various issues that need to be considered in the planning of a system of marine and coastal protected areas, from legislation and administrative frameworks to key habitats and species, resource use and environmental problems. Each report concludes with a recommendations section which includes a summary of coastal and marine areas considered to be priorities for protection.

An evaluation of the potential response of mangrove communities to changes in key environmental variables associated with a warmer world. Past and present distribution patterns and ecological data on community structure and species diversity provide insights to possible responses to sea level rise.

Based on thorough bibliographic research of a highly controversial topic, this report, jointly sponsored by IUCN, UNEP and WWF, shows the potential of plantations, while also exposing problems which may arise if massive tree plantations proposed for the tropics are to be established.