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Book Review
| People in Nature: Wildlife Conservation in South and Central America. Edited by Kirsten M. Silvius, Richard E. Bodmer, and Jose M. V. Fragaso. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. xiii + 464 pp. Charts, tables, maps, bibliography, index, $39.50.
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| Biological diversity plays a critical role in maintaining the ecological processes upon which people, ecosystems and economies depend. South and Central America are widely accepted as repositories of some of the world's richest biodiversity. The region, in fact, contains five of the world's ten most biologically diverse countries—Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru — and the eastern slope of the tropical Andes is one of the single most biologically rich areas on the planet. South and Central America are also areas of immense cultural diversity. In the Amazon Basin more than two hundred groups of "first peoples" still inhabit their ancestral lands. Living along side Amazonian and other indigenous cultures are numerous groups that were either brought over or followed primarily the Spanish and Portuguese to the New World. More than five centuries of coexistence and intermingling have spawned dynamic Latin American societies, each of which is grounded in a unique environment and landscape. |
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People in Nature offers insight into the wildlife conservation philosophies that have emerged in South and Central America. The edited volume contains an introduction and twenty-six chapters based on papers presented at the International Conferences on Wildlife Management and Conservation in Latin America and the Amazon, held biannually since 1992 and well attended by South and Central American professionals, academics, indigenous peoples, and students. The book is organized into four parts: I) Local Peoples and Community Management, II) Economic Considerations, III) Fragmentation and Other Nonharvest Human Impacts, and IV) Hunting Impacts—Biological Basis and Rationale for Sustainability. Overall, the contributors do a fine job documenting the historical development and contemporary status of Latin American conservation and management strategies. Because nearly all of the contributors are either South or Central Americans, the chapters are well grounded in the biological and socioeconomic realities of the region. |
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The volume points to subsistence hunting and fishing as perhaps the most urgent conservation issue in South and Central America, and its contributors generally argue that community-based management strategies have the most potential to reverse the decline of threatened and endangered animal species. Such strategies can be rooted in tradition, as outlined in a chapter about Yanomami kin-based management of white-lipped peccaries in Northern Amazonia, or the strategies can be of more recent origin, as described in a chapter about captive breeding programs in Brazil. |
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While People in Nature is generally strong in content, and most of its chapters are thoughtful and well written, there are at least two notable deficiencies. First, the editors, although they provide a robust introduction, do not include a concluding chapter in which they tie the volume together. Second, the geographic distribution of the case studies presented in People in Nature is inadequate. Eleven are from Brazil, six from Peru, two from Bolivia, and there is one case study each from Colombia, French Guiana, Mexico, and Venezuela. There is virtually nothing in this book about Central America even though this is certainly expected given the subtitle, and the temperate region of South America is completely excluded even though it faces a number of important wildlife conservation issues. Despite these minor limitations, however, People in Nature is a welcome addition to literature on Latin American conservation and environmental history. Drawn on research largely conducted by Latin Americans themselves, People in Nature casts new light on our knowledge of environmental issues in Latin America, and demonstrates quite well that conservation approaches in the region are essentially a blend of Native American, European, and African philosophies and strategies. This book is worthy of reading lists in upper-level undergraduate courses and graduate seminars, and it would make a fine addition to the personal library of anyone interested in tropical wildlife conservation. |
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Reviewed by David Aagesen, associate professor of geography and director of environmental studies at the State University of New York, Geneseo. Articles about his research in southern South America's temperate forest appear in recent issues of Agriculture and Human Values and Geocarto International. |
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