This book offers a comprehensive account of the current state of inland waters in tropical and subtropical East Asia, exploring a series of case studies of freshwater fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals and water bodies at particular risk.

David Dudgeon is Emeritus Professor of Ecology & Biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong, where he has spent more than 40 years researching and writing about the rivers and streams of tropical East Asia, and the animals that live in and around them. Dudgeon has been Editor-in-Chief of Freshwater Biology, Associate Editor of Hydrobiologia and Aquatic Sciences, and remains a member of the editorial boards of Freshwater Biology and Aquatic Conservation. In 2000, Dudgeon was awarded the Biwako Prize in Ecology; he is currently a Trustee and Executive Council member of WWF-Hong Kong.

Introduction, 1. The global context: fresh waters in peril, 2. The human-modified rivers of tropical East Asia, 3. The prevalence and intensity of threats to regional rivers, 4. The fishes 1: composition and threat status, 5. The fishes II: determinants of threat status and drivers of decline, 6. Amphibians and freshwater reptiles, 7. Freshwater birds and mammals, 8. Vanishing point?