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Conservation pays

THE NEW ECONOMY OF NATURE . Gretchen C Daily and Katherine Ellison . Published by Island Press . 260 p . Price : Not stated

Conservation can't succeed by charity alone. This realisation has dawned of late and now there is an increasing tribe which is trying to harness a more potent force - self interest - to preserve the environment. The ecologist-journalist duo take an informative look at a "new economy" that recognises the full value of natural systems and the potential profits in preserving them.

The book discusses efforts of some of the dedicated and innovative people implementing this new approach. It documents Adam Davis, an American business executive who dreams of establishing a market for buying and selling environmental services and also Dan Janzen, a biologist working in Costa Rica who devised a plan to sell an area's natural waste-disposal services to a local ornage-juice producer. Each story illustrates the challenge taken up of making sustainable living from world's resources.

The writers through vivid examples try to show the dynamic interplay of science, economics, business and politics involved in establishing a novel framework for conservation.

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