|
|
|
Book Review
| Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics: Past, Present and Future Hydrological Research for Integrated Land and Water Management. Edited by Michael Bonnell and Sampruno Bruijnzeel. International Hydrology Series. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xvvii+925 pp. Illustrations, maps, tables. $300.
|
| When certain books are published there is a sense that they will be the authoritative work in their fields for a good long time. Such is the case with Forest, Water and People in the Humid Tropics. At nearly ten pounds, having almost a thousand pages, and costing $300 U.S., the book will be the standard text in the field of hydrological research in the tropical world for many years to come. Thus, it is not an exaggeration that the publisher has advertised the book to be "the most comprehensive review available of the hydrological and physiological functioning of tropical rain forests, the environmental impacts of their disturbance and conversion to other land uses, and optimum strategies for managing them" (p. i). |
1
|
|
The proof of those words is visible in the book itself: It is divided into five parts (with excellent part introductions by the editors, something sorely missing in all too many edited collections these days), and thirty-eight chapters written or co-written by sixty-seven contributors from all over the world (Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Cuba, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada). Their essays represent the entirety of the humid tropics, from Southeast Asia to Africa to the neo-tropics of the Amazon and Central America. The book is part of Cambridge University Press's International Hydrology Series. |
2
|
|
However, despite the subtitle's suggestion that there would be discussion of past hydrological management in the tropics, this textbook focuses more on present research and approaches. For example, instead of a useful section on past practices and lessons, the book's first part starts right out with "Current Trends and Perspectives on People-Land Use-Water Issues." Readers interested more in the environmental history of tropical land-water use may be left disappointed, and will have to look elsewhere in the literature for such a discussion. Meanwhile, parts II and III study the tropics in undisturbed and disturbed environments respectfully, and parts IV and V appraise various methodologies for evaluating effects of land-use change and best management practices. To accomplish these goals, the various authors write on such topics as hydrological research in the tropical rainforests in general, specific research from lowlands and montane humid tropics, case studies from specific forested areas converted to agriculture and others that have been undisturbed, stream and watershed management, soil problems, irrigation and rainfall catchment issues, sustainable agroforestry, fire-management practices, and ecological restoration. Together, they create a book centered on the theme of the integration of humans and their land-water interactions in the tropical world. |
3
|
|
While the theme comes through loudly and clearly throughout the many chapters of the book (with an especially useful conclusion by the editors wrapping it all together), practical application of such a volume may be reserved primarily for those in the field of hydrological studies. The book should be a part of every university's science library—it is an excellent reference tool, but will be unwieldy for course adoptions. |
4
|
|
Sterling Evans is associate professor and Canada Research Chair in History at Brandon University in western Manitoba. He is the author of The Green Republic: A Conservation History of Costa Rica, (Texas, 1999). and is completing a monograph on the social and environmental history of hydro projects in Sonora, Mexico. |
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|