Kathmandu:

To fully appreciate the environmental resour-ce problems with resp-ect to development, it is essential to understand the concept and theories, causes and consequences, conflict issues, development progra-mmes and policy measures and practices regarding natural resources, and this is the purpose Environment and Natural Resources: Concepts, Methods, Planning and Management has tried to serve.

The book is an exquisite reference material for students of environmental science and resources, development planners and policy makers and researchers in the environmental resource sector. It can also serve as a very good beginning to familiarise oneself with issues related to environmental resource management.

The book presents an interactive study of relationship between man and environmental resources by using field observations, discussions and participatory analysis methods.

Divided into nine chapters, the book begins by giving a brief introduction to environment, environmental resources and ecology.

The second chapter is dedicated to defining and theorising the relation between human beings and environment and resources.The authors have not discussed transhumance, which is a major activity which elaborates how people in hilly region in Nepal interact with environment.

The third chapter deals with the nitty-gritty of environmental resource in Nepal. The resources use systems and ways to assess their uses and energy resources and their use in the urban and rural settlements are analy-sed in the next two chapters.

An elaborate discussion on the issues of environmental degradation in forest, water and land resources and solid waste management has also been included in the sixth chapter. This gives readers a bird’s eye view of the state of environmental pollution in Nepal and consequences in the lives of people.

The seventh chapter deals with tools and techniques designed and adopted worldwide to analyse environmental resources and their uses. The eighth chapter features suitability and capability analysis of environmental resources and their consequences and implications with respect to human activities, especially in Nepal.

There are data errors like while the preamble mentions Nepal’s highest point as 8,850 m, elsewhere it is mentioned 8,848 m. Inclusion of clear definitions of different resources, their quality and methods to analyse their quality with respect to resource use pattern in Nepal would have made the book more extensive.

Detailed description of Nepal’s agricultural practices and their impacts in the country’s economy and the ways and techniques to improve them should have also been mentioned.