In this, the latest in the People and Plants series, plant conservation is described in the context of livelihoods and development, and ways of balancing the conservation of plant diversity with the use of plants and the environment for human benefit are discussed. A central contention in this book is that local people must be involved if conservation is to be successful.
Also examined are ways of prioritizing plants and places for conservation initiatives, approaches to in situ and ex situ conservation, and how to approach problems of unsustainable harvesting of wild plants. Roles for botanists, foresters, sociologists, development workers and others are discussed.
This book acts as a unifying text for the series, integrating case studies and methodologies considered in previous volumes and pointing out in a comprehensive, accessible volume the valuable lessons to be learned.

With this book the authors achieved a real synthesis of the results the 'People and Plants' program has amassed over fourteen years. The book gives any reader a great wealth of information about all facets of a difficult topic...it is a resource that nobody with serious interest in plant conservation can ignore.' Economic Botany, 2006, Vol. 60 'I have been waiting for this book. Firstly it is part of a consistently excellent range of books from the People and Plants programme and, secondly, the lead author Alan Hamilton is a widely admired leader in plant conservation...The Hamiltons are to be congratulated. The book is well written and the text reflects Alan's lively conversational style and his ability to tell a good story. This book is practical, with techniques for information gathering clearly outlined, relevant to much of the world, timely and fascinating. As with others in this series the book deserves to be translated and handed to every rural development officer, forester and conservationist as a reference and inspiration.' Mike Maunder, Oryx, 2006, 40(3)