This volume IS one of a number of pubhcatlOns to carry the results of the flfSt research programme of the Royal Swedish Academy of SCience's BelJer Institute The Instltute was formed m 1991 m order to promote mterdlsclplmary research between natural and social sClentlsts on the mterdependency between economic and ecological systems In Its first research programme, the BlOdlverslty Programme, the Instltute brought together a number of leadmg economists and ecologists to address the theoretlcal and pohcy Issues associated with the current high rates of blOdlVefSlty loss m such systems - whether the result of direct depletlOn, the destructlOn of habitat, or speclahsatlOn m agnculture, forestry and flshenes ThiS volume reports some of the more pohcy-onented work carned out under the programme 1 The broad aim of the programme IS to further our understandmg of the causes and consequences of blOdlverslty loss, and to Identlfy the optlOns for addressmg the problem The results have turned out to be surpnsmg to those who see blOdlverslty loss pnmarlly III terms of the eroslOn of the genetlc hbrary In vanous ways the work carned out under the programme has already begun to alter our perceptlOn of where the problem m blOdlverslty loss hes and what pohcy optlOns are aVailable to deal with It Indeed, the programme has provided a powerful set of arguments for reappraISIng not Just the econormc and ecologlcallmplicatlOns of blOdlverslty loss, but the whole case for development based on speCIalisatlOn of resource use
