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Author and spirit of the book
Allain Bougrain-Dubourg is President of the French League for the Protection of Nature (LPO) and a leading figure in French nature conservation, giving the book a tone that is both committed and educational. The book is aimed at a broad, non-specialist readership: it explains biodiversity without jargon, with numerous concrete examples, anecdotes and cultural references (philosophy, film, literature).âeuros
Content and structure
The book contains almost 500 illustrated pages, covering a very broad spectrum, from the origins of life to contemporary issues. It includes:âeuros
The basics : biodiversity definition, origins and major biodiversity hotspots on the planet.âeuros
The diversity of life : microbes, plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, with portraits of various species and ecosystems.âeuros
The current decline : causes of erosion (habitat destruction, pollution, climate, overexploitation, invasive species) and key data on the disappearance of species.âeuros
The answers: legal tools, institutions (Muséum, CNRS, IFREMER, INRAE, etc.), associative and citizen initiatives to curb the crisis.âeuros
Testimonials and teaching approach
The author gives the floor to â??great witnessesâ? such as Jane Goodall, Pascal Picq, Alain Baraton, Boris Cyrulnik and Isabelle Autissier, who shed further light on the human-nature relationship. These contributions and the many examples from the field (coral reefs, migrations, forests, gardens...) make for lively, emotional reading, without losing scientific rigor.âeuros
Aquatic environments deciphered
The book explores oceans, rivers, lakes and wetlands, highlighting their wealth of species despite their limited surface area. Watersheds act as natural barriers to endemism for fish, crustaceans and molluscs, with examples such as French rivers, home to 130,000 known species.âeuros
Focus on fish
Bougrain-Dubourg details the diversity of freshwater and marine fish, threatened by habitat fragmentation and overfishing. He cites the pike, whose life cycle requires connections between floodplains and rivers for reproduction and juvenile migration. Portraits of invasive and declining species illustrate the impacts of climate change and pollution.
Target audience and interest
The book is aimed as much at the curious new to the subject as at teachers, nature organizers or students in search of a clear, up-to-date summary. It's a solid entry point if you want to understand why biodiversity is vital to humanity, what's threatening ecosystems today, and what levers for action exist on an individual and collective scale.
Biodiversity for Dummies
- Author : Allain Bougrain-Dubourg
- Publisher: First
- Publication date: 13/11/2025
- Collection : Pour Les Nuls
- Weight: 0.8880kg
- Number of pages: 473
- Format: 19.00 x 23.00 x 2.50 cm
- Price: ?24.95
