Written by an author with longstanding experience in the ecology of insects and birds and with a stellar academic record in molecular life sciences, this is a welcome challenge to the widely held beliefs in conventional environmental policies. Werner Kunz convincingly explains why maintaining high biodiversity in Europe depends heavily on the existence of open space and sparse ground vegetation that is neither used for intensive modern agriculture, nor eliminated by reforestation. He questions the commonly propagated opinion that nature conservation is equivalent to species protection - and shows that technical habitat design can rescue endangered species. A musthave for environmental agencies, policy makers, ecologists and all who are witnessing the current loss of species in Central Europe.

Currently a professor in Düsseldorf, Germany, Werner Kunz studied biology, chemistry, and physics in Münster and spent two postdoc years at Yale University in New Haven, U.S.A. Although he was educated as a zoologist, he switched to Drosophila genetics and worked on chromosomes and ribosomal DNA. He later changed his field of interest again, carrying out research into molecular parasitology, and for the past ten years has participated in the teaching of philosophy of science. Professor Kunz is currently continuing the hobby he began at a very early age, photographing birds and butterflies as a field biologist all over the globe.