Released in September 1996

24 authors, 14 chapters, 365 pages, photos, figures, tables, index hardback price: $50 paperback price: $18 (U.S. dollars)

This book promises to be a key resource for researchers and scholars on the human ecology of deforestation for many years to come.

The first chapter is an exhaustive review of the literature on the causes, consequences and solutions to deforestation throughout the tropics, and includes a bibliography of 462 citations. The book covers several major world areas, including Africa, Asia, Amazonia, and the Pacific.

The three editors are professors of anthropology and specialists on the human ecology of tropical forests (Sponsel for the Amazon, Headland for SE Asia, and Bailey for Central Africa).

Studies of tropical deforestation frequently neglect indigenous peoples who inhabit forests. The authors in this book illuminate the insights local people have into conservation of their ecosystems, the effects of habitation on those ecosystems, and the impact of development and deforestation on forest peoples' lives. Tropical Deforestation: The Human Dimension brings fresh perspectives to the major global crisis of deforestation touching on a wide range of themes in the tropical world including biological ecology, forest history, conservation biology, anthropology, political economy and economic development.

The book provides an extensive bibliography and review of studies concerning the causes, consequences and possible solutions to deforestation. It presents a background in the prehistory and colonial history of tropical regions examining how past inhabitants used natural resources, how governments took control away from local communities, and how such historical factors influence today's environments.

The authors then turn to the effects of economic development programs such as logging, mining, cattle ranching, and hydroelectric dams. They explore cases where local communities work toward conserving their ecosystem, but also investigate instances where short-term subsistence needs override concern for the long-term health of the region. In the concluding section, authors propose ways to combat tropical deforestation, including the use of satellite imagery technology to determine rates of deforestation and the involvement of indigenous peoples in conservation and development projects.

Enriched with more than forty photographs and illustrations along with ten tables, the book includes studies of the processes underlying deforestation in Central and South America, Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Indian subcontinent.

LESLIE E. SPONSEL is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii, where he directs the Ecological Anthropology Concentration.
THOMAS N. HEADLAND teaches anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington, and is an anthropology consultant with the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
ROBERT C. BAILEY is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
CONTRIBUTORS: Elliot Abrams, Janis Alcorn, Robert Bailey, Eduardo Bedoya, Alfonso Peter Castro, Carolyn Cook, Billie DeWalt, James Eder, AnnCorinne Freter, Glen Green, Thomas Headland, Lorien Klein, Jeffrey McNeely, Brien Meilleur, Augusta Molnar, Emilio Moran, David Rue, Leslie Sponsel, Susan Stonich, Linda Sussman, Robert Sussman, John Vandermeer, David Wilkie, John Wingard. ___________________________________________________________________________

(APFT-INFO) N°3 (Juin 1997)
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Updated Samedi, 6 septembre, 1997