- Hardcover: 332 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc (1 Feb 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195108930
- ISBN-13: 978-0195108934
- Product Dimensions: 24.3 x 16.3 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,906,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Green Phoenix
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"The book is a paradigm of how one man can make such a difference through dedication and perseverance ..."--Biologist
"This is a remarkable story of a valuable ecosystem rising from its own ashes-a hopeful story for our time."--Wildlife Activist
"This is a remarkable story of a valuable ecosystem rising from its own ashes-a hopeful story for our time."--Wildlife Activist
Product Description
Can we prevent the destruction of the world's tropical forests? In the fire-scarred hills of Costa Rica, award-winning science writer William Allen found a remarkable answer: we can not only prevent their destruction - we can bring them back to their former glory. In this text, Allen tells the story of a large group of Costa Rican and American scientists and volunteers who set out to save the tropical forests in the northwestern section of the country. It was an area badly damaged by the fires of ranchers and small farmers; in many places a few strands of forest strung across a charred landscape. Despite the widely held belief that tropical forests, once lost, are lost forever, the team led by the dynamic Daniel Janzen from the University of Pennsylvania moved relentlessly ahead, taking a broad array of political, ecological, and social steps necessary for restoration. They began with 39 square miles and, by the year 2000, they had stitched together and revived some 463 square miles of land and another 290 of marine area. Today this region is known as the Guanacaste Conservation Area, a fabulously rich landscape of dry forest, cloud forest, and rain forest that gives life to some 235,000 species of plants and animals. It may be the greatest environmental success of our time, a prime example of how extensive devastation can be halted and reversed.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Behind the Casona, a large house that served long ago as the residence and base of operations for Hacienda Santa Rosa, in northwestern Costa Rica, a rough stone stairway is dug into the side of a hill. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Behind the Casona, a large house that served long ago as the residence and base of operations for Hacienda Santa Rosa, in northwestern Costa Rica, a rough stone stairway is dug into the side of a hill. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Deforestation? How about rainforest restoration!?!
30 Jan 2002
Format:Hardcover
How often have you've heard the tales of gloom and doom regarding the deforestation of the tropics? Undoubtedly, the numbers are grim and the outlook for many forests is not good. This is why this story, wonderfully told by William Allen, a science writer at the ST. LOUIS DISPATCH, is particularly refreshing and guardedly optimistic.
Allen craftily weaves anecdote with history, real people with events to present a story that tells how a relatively small park in NW Costa Rica (Guanacaste National Park) developed into the Guanacaste Conservation Area, some 10 times larger than its original size. But the story is not limited to the success in creating a larger park. Rather, the author depicts the efforts of a determined group of Costa Rican and foreign scientists (led by Daniel Janzen) as they attempt to reverse the effects of deforestation and actually bring a substantial area back to some semblance of its original state.
The story delves quite a bit into Janzen's personality and raises the issue of a foreigner's role in a project such as this. Would it succeed without him? Just what would it take to restore non-virgin forest? Is this an idea that might work elsewhere? Just a few of the intriguing questions dealt with in this book.
I particularly enjoyed the beginning of each chapter, where the author introduces an anecdote upon which the rest of chapter usually builds. The anecdotal information is highly entertaining of itself, and when used as metafor, it is easier to remember the larger points made.
If you're into eco-whatever, this is great stuff...
paul e.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Good case study of an important conservation project
21 April 2006
Format:Paperback
Without duplicating the book description, I'll just explain why I would recommend this book to anyone interested in conservation.
Although the creation of Guanacaste Conservation Area -- which combines pre-existing national parks and added land between and around them, along with a marine sector -- is unique in representing the world's only large-scale tropical forest restoration project, the story illustrates elements common to nature conservation projects in general. These include the importance of understanding the local ecology (in this case, especially forest succession and the necessity of controlling fires); political aspects, both local and national (Costa Rican president, parks service, etc.); how money is raised and land purchased or otherwise secured; and ways of involving people from the local area in conservation and the importance of that.
I have just returned from Guanacaste and was impressed by the program that trains local people as "parataxonomists" to help with the huge task of identifying and cataloguing the area's many species. Another program gives instruction on natural history to children in local schools. The result has been an important cultural shift toward appreciating nature and the many benefits it provides.
The writing is sometimes long-winded and ponderous, but the careful recounting of details was worthwhile, and the integration of interesting snippets of tropical biology and anectodes of the people involved made it an enjoyable read.
Of particular interest as well was the recounting of the reaction to the revolutionary suggestion that tropical forest can indeed be restored on land taken out of agriculture, an assertion that initially met with skepticism and alarm from conservation organizations, as it conflicted with the conservation message that a tropical forest, once cut down, can "never" regenerate.
In this end, this is a great and stirring conservation success story. The book illustrates how much hard work that entailed on the part of many dedicated people.
Although the creation of Guanacaste Conservation Area -- which combines pre-existing national parks and added land between and around them, along with a marine sector -- is unique in representing the world's only large-scale tropical forest restoration project, the story illustrates elements common to nature conservation projects in general. These include the importance of understanding the local ecology (in this case, especially forest succession and the necessity of controlling fires); political aspects, both local and national (Costa Rican president, parks service, etc.); how money is raised and land purchased or otherwise secured; and ways of involving people from the local area in conservation and the importance of that.
I have just returned from Guanacaste and was impressed by the program that trains local people as "parataxonomists" to help with the huge task of identifying and cataloguing the area's many species. Another program gives instruction on natural history to children in local schools. The result has been an important cultural shift toward appreciating nature and the many benefits it provides.
The writing is sometimes long-winded and ponderous, but the careful recounting of details was worthwhile, and the integration of interesting snippets of tropical biology and anectodes of the people involved made it an enjoyable read.
Of particular interest as well was the recounting of the reaction to the revolutionary suggestion that tropical forest can indeed be restored on land taken out of agriculture, an assertion that initially met with skepticism and alarm from conservation organizations, as it conflicted with the conservation message that a tropical forest, once cut down, can "never" regenerate.
In this end, this is a great and stirring conservation success story. The book illustrates how much hard work that entailed on the part of many dedicated people.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Hope for the forest, the people, and biodiversity
31 Mar 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have the greatest respect and admiration for Dan Janzen and have supported the Rincon Rainforest project before seeing this book. This book is a good explanation for why the Guanacaste Conservation Area (GCA) in Costa Rica may be the key to all successful tropical forest conservation projects.
The author relates the detail of conservation work to restore overgrazed, eroded land and land filled with difficult to eradicate foreign weeds back to the point of reforestation with all the original species from microbes, insects, up to birds and mammals. It is encouraging to see that despite the difficulty of this work that they are achieving success and that model of success may help other tropical conservation projects.
The book also describes the life work of one of the most important conservation biologist of all time and all of those who have been pushed, coereced, reluctantly persuaded and inspired to do this most significant project. If you are discouraged in any way about the fate of the diverse tropical forests you should read this book. It truely is an inspiration.
The author relates the detail of conservation work to restore overgrazed, eroded land and land filled with difficult to eradicate foreign weeds back to the point of reforestation with all the original species from microbes, insects, up to birds and mammals. It is encouraging to see that despite the difficulty of this work that they are achieving success and that model of success may help other tropical conservation projects.
The book also describes the life work of one of the most important conservation biologist of all time and all of those who have been pushed, coereced, reluctantly persuaded and inspired to do this most significant project. If you are discouraged in any way about the fate of the diverse tropical forests you should read this book. It truely is an inspiration.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Central America & Caribbean > Central America
- Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Animal Sciences > Habitats > Rainforest
- Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Animal Sciences > Habitats > Tropical
- Books > Science & Nature > Earth Sciences & Geography > Geography > Physical > Forests & Rainforests
- Books > Science & Nature > Earth Sciences & Geography > Meteorology > Global Warming
- Books > Science & Nature > Environment & Ecology > Conservation
- Books > Science & Nature > Environment & Ecology > Deforestation
- Books > Science & Nature > Environment & Ecology > Global Warming
- Books > Science & Nature > Environment & Ecology > Natural Resources Management
- Books > Science & Nature > Environment & Ecology > Pollution > Greenhouse Effect
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Environment > Deforestation
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Environment > Environmental Conservation
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Environment > Global Warming
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Environment > Managing Land & Natural Resources
- Shops > Amazon Green
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
