Tropical Forests

by Rudel, Thomas K.

• ISBN13: 9780231131957
• ISBN10: 023113195X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-15
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Addressing decades of rain forest destruction, concerned scientists, often in concert with various environmental movements, have amassed an impressive amount of information on deforestation in areas throughout the world. In Tropical Forests, Thomas K. Rudel analyzes hundreds of local studies from the past twenty years to develop a much-needed global perspective on deforestation. With separate chapters on individual regions, including South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa, Rudel's work offers an up-to-date assessment of changes in the extent of the world's tropical forests. Through a meta-analysis, Rudel identifies the social, economic, and environmental forces driving forest cover change since 1980. In addition to synthesizing a range of local studies, Rudel recounts the stories of people whose work preserves, destroys, or restores forests. Rudel's explanation of what has happened in each of the world's tropical forest regions reveals continued destruction in regions with large forests and some regeneration emerging in places with small, remnant forests. In the concluding chapter, Rudel considers the implications of these trends and describes policy directions for conserving biodiversity and promoting sustainable development in each region.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Theory and method in studying regional deforestation processes	p. 11
Central America and the Caribbean : island and isthmus deforestation	p. 33
The Amazon basin : the breakdown of passive protection	p. 51
West Africa : from cocoa groves in forests to food crops in scrub growth	p. 75
Central Africa : passive protections for rain forests	p. 90
East Africa : sustainable spots surrounded by degrading expanses	p. 105
South Asia : a turning point for forests?	p. 122
Southeast Asia : deforesting the lowlands, afforesting the highlands	p. 139
Through a regional lens : conservation policies in large and small forests	p. 155
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.