Abundance: Nature in Recovery

In this new collection of literary essays, Karen Lloyd explores abundance and loss in the natural world relating compelling stories of restoration, renewal and rewilding and revealing how the people working on the front line of conservation are challenging the inevitability of biodiversity loss.

How should we restore nature and species, and why does it matter? What is lost when we choose not to engage in restoration and rewilding? And which parts of ourselves might we also lose if we choose not to help restore and renew the natural world before it's too late?

In this era of urgent ecological challenge, Karen Lloyd's timely book reveals the places that people are coming together to bring species and habitats back from the edge of extinction. In contrast, elsewhere, many other species are being allowed to disappear forever. To understand why this is, Karen examines how humans have chosen to entangle themselves in nature and considers the ways we perceive the natural world, contemplating why certain aspects of nature can hold our attention when we use others merely as temporary distractions.

Touching on many current themes, Lloyd explores attitudes towards meaningful conservation as she weaves her delightful narrative through a diverse range of inspiring landscapes, including Romania's Carpathian mountains, the Hungarian Steppe, the rivers of Perthshire, the dune forests of the Netherlands, and the rice paddies of Extremadura in southern Spain.