This book was published in 2007. Protected areas have emerged as major arenas of dispute concerning both indigenous and environmental protection. In the Malay Archipelago, which contains two of the twenty-five biodiversity hotspots identified globally, rampant commercial exploitation is jeopardizing species and rural livelihoods. While protected areas remain the only hope for the imperiled biota of the Malay Archipelago, this protection requires consideration of the sustenance needs and economic aspirations of the local people. Putting forward the views of all the stakeholders of protected areas - conservation practitioners and planners, local community members, NGO activists, government administrators, biologists, lawyers, policy and management analysts and anthropologists - this book fills a niche in the area of biodiversity, and is a highly valuable and original reference book for graduate students, scientists and managers, as well as government officials and transnational NGOs.

Navjot S. Sodhi is currently an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan, and has been studying the effects of rain forest loss and degradation on Southeast Asian fauna for the past eleven years. He is a former Bullard Fellow at Harvard, and has conducted research for many organizations, including the National Geographic Society.

Greg Acciaioli graduated with a Ph.D in Anthropology from the Australian National University, and currently lectures in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia. He has been a research Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, City University of Hong Kong, the Asia Research Centre and Murdoch University.

Maribeth Erb is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. She received her Ph.D from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and has been involved in anthropological and sociological research in eastern Indonesia for over twenty years.

Alan Khee-Jin Tan is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. He has been a Justice's Law Clerk at the Chief Justice's Chambers, Supreme Court of Singapore, and is an Executive Committee member of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law.