Common Ground

Mark Everard is the author of six other books, over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and over 150 technical magazine articles. He has served on numerous government advisory and expert groups in the UK, as well as advising other governments and multinational corporations on sustainability matters.

We have inherited a pattern of land ownership, which has a feudal and more recently, a market-driven derivation. However, we are only now starting to recognise the full multifaceted value of services associated with land and the surrounding ecosystem. The process of recognition, quantification and economic valuation of ecosystem services has been rapidly refined as the environmental limits of the functionality of ecosystems becomes clearer and nearer. In some cases markets for the newly described ecosystem service commodities develop, normally where transaction costs are low and economic beneficiaries can be clearly identified. This could be a positive step but the question remains, how can market forces be regulated to ensure that the needs of society are met locally and globally and that the services with a very diffuse, often remote benefit and with no exploitable market value, like biodiversity, are not lost in fray? This is the job for those who govern in the coming years and Mark's text sets out the task at hand, its origins and the current status quo and he uses graphic case studies to annotate his discussion and give life the his amazing overview of the subject area.

• Introduction1. Privatisation of the Land2. Reclaiming the Common Good3. The Ends of the Earth4. Shifting Conceptual Landscapes5. A Landscape at our Service6. The Great Food Challenge7. Valuing Land and Landscapes8. Living Landscapes9. Lessons for Tomorrow's World10. The People's Land