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Book Review
| The Maya Tropical Forest: People, Parks, and Ancient Cities. By James D. Nations. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2006. xviii + 323 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliography, and index. Cloth $60.00, paper $22.95.
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| Perhaps it's evidence of the maturation of environmental history as a field that we have begun to see environmental histories aimed at a more popular audience. James D. Nations's, The Maya Tropical Forest is one of those texts. Nations, a conservationist at the Nation Parks Conservation Association, has spent some twenty-five years researching and working in the "Maya Arch," a swath of tropical forest land that encompasses parts of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. From these experiences as a conservationist, Nations has written a book for a wide readership. More descriptive than analytical, it reads like a very well researched edition of the Lonely Planet, the ubiquitous travel guides that eco (and economy) travelers have been using for years. The book is split into three parts. Nations introduces the reader to the history and the geography in "Time, Land, and Forest." In part 2, he devotes separate chapters describing the tropical forest reserves and indigenous peoples in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Part 3 is composed of a single chapter on contemporary ecological problems the region faces and possible solutions. |
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