Forest Conservation and Management in the Anthropocene: Conference Proceedings

Climate change is but one aspect of the Anthropocene, a new epoch in which the effects of human activities have become the predominant force in the global biosphere. More than just an overlay on the traditional concerns of sustainable natural resource management, the uncertainties associated with these effects are creating a “no-analog future” in which much of the existing science relating to the functioning and response of forest ecosystems—which serves as the fundamental basis for current forest management practices and policies—must be reconsidered. In these collected papers, leading scientists, resource managers and policy specialists explore the implications of climate change and other manifestations of the Anthropocene on the management of wildlife habitat, biodiversity, water, and other resources, with particular attention to the effects of wildfire. Recommendations include the need for a supporting institutional, legal, and policy framework that is not just different but more dynamic, to facilitate resource management adaptation and preparedness in a period of accelerating environmental change.

Fuel and Fire in the Ancient Roman World Towards an integrated economic understanding

The study of fuel economics in the Roman, or indeed in any ancient world, is at a pivotal point. New research in archaeological science, the ancient economy, the ancient environment, and especially, the increasing collection of bio-archaeological datasets, are together providing a greatly enriched resource for scholars. This volume makes a first attempt to bridge the gap between ‘top-down’ generalized models about Roman energy consumption with the ‘case study’ detail of archaeological data in the Mediterranean. The papers here are the work of scholars from a variety of disciplines: from archaeobotanists and historians to archaeologists specialising in social, technical and economic fields. A more nuanced view of the organization of the social and industrial structures that underpinned the fuel economy arises. Although focused on the Roman period, some papers extend beyond this era, providing contextual relevance from the proto-historic period onwards. Much exciting interdisciplinary work is ahead of us, if we are to situate fuel economics more clearly and prominently within our understanding of Roman economics, and indeed the ancient Mediterranean economy.