This volume presents the results of 18 case studies of sites in developing countries, with contributions from 68 authors from 23 nations. Funded by the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation, the research provided an opportunity for scientists from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mali, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda and Viet Nam to collaborate with colleagues from developed countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. They worked under the umbrella of the University of Amsterdam's Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management Programme (www.prem-online.org).

The case studies focus on the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being, a promising perspective. Three of the cases address biodiversity-related ecosystem services, three cover marine-related ecosystem services, four look at forest-related ecosystem services, four more consider water-related ecosystem services, and the last four are on land-related ecosystem services. Despite some ambiguity of the categories, these divisions provide an opportunity for the editors to introduce the set of cases to come. This is especially helpful because the case studies do not include abstracts and the book has no concluding chapter.

Topics covered by the case studies include human–wildlife conflict (elephants in Sri Lanka, rhinos in Nepal), marine protected areas, fishing rights allocation in South Africa's Western Cape, charcoal in Tanzania, copper and forests in Zambia, environmental and social impacts of flood defences in Bangladesh, pasture management in Mongolia, and many more. All of the cases are strengthened by at least some economics, although the quality of the data is variable. Still, taken as a whole, the case studies will provide useful material to those considering ways to both conserve nature and contribute to poverty alleviation among the people who are living closest to the species and ecosystems that are under threat.

The topic of the book is timely but the approach seems a little out of date. Some of the cases appear to have been written in the 1990s, judging from the dates the data cover and the literature cited. Readers of this journal seeking new insights into the relationships between poverty and ecosystem services may feel disappointed to learn that more research is needed to clarify these relationships, which in any case are seen to depend on many factors. Few will be surprised with the conclusion that many benefits of ecosystem services are felt at landscape or even global scales, whereas the costs of conservation are paid locally (often by the poor). Nor is the call for ‘state and social institutions to work in the interests of poor people’ likely to raise many eyebrows, especially when the call is not accompanied by recommendations for specific actions.

The main recommendations are to promote opportunity and enhance capacity, strengthen ownership and facilitate empowerment, and enhance security—little controversy here. Readers will also learn that income poor and food insecure households consider products from nature more important than do those living in wealthy households; that communities need to trust protected area managers and perceive the sites to be legitimate before they can be expected to be supportive; that public revenues are needed to fund targeted poverty alleviation projects; that well-defined property rights and clarity about who is going to pay for what are essential foundations of any project aimed at improving the plight of the poor; that water is essential to sustaining life; that individuals often fail to favour the interests of distant communities at cost to themselves; that wealth can cause more damage to ecosystems than poverty. Many good points, long known.

The book would have benefited from a biologist to help with fact checking, thereby avoiding calling elephants ‘keynote species’; naming Costa Rica and South Africa as ‘the two countries best known for their biodiversity’ (this will come as a surprise to Brazil and Indonesia, for example); or claiming that a wetland in Costa Rica was declared a Ramsar Site in 1951, a few decades before the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance came into force. Small problems, easily fixed.

While the conclusions may be familiar, it is useful to have some specific examples, backed up by economics, to give them greater currency and broader application. Who knows, if enough people can recognize that poverty alleviation is likely to be beneficial to conservation when these two enterprises are undertaken appropriately and in recognition of relative costs and benefits, then maybe loss of biodiversity can be slowed and eventually stopped. This book helps clarify the challenges that need to be faced before this happy state can be reached.