Tropical Forest Conservation: An Economic Assessment of the Alternatives in Latin America

by Douglas Dewitt Southgate

Overview

This book demonstrates that local communities rarely benefit from the environmentally sound enterprises being promoted in and around threatened habitats, either because those enterprises are unprofitable or because benefits are captured by outsiders providing key services like reliable transportation. The author contends that human capital formation and related productivity-enhancing investment is the only sure path to economic progress and habitat conservation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195109962
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	06/28/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

Part I: Deforestation and its causes and the challenge of sustainable forest-based activities
1. Deforestation in the American Tropics: the regional and global stakes
2. The causes of excessive habitat destruction
3. Putting an end to ecosystem depletion
Part II: The economic returns of environmentally sound harvesting of forest products and of nature-based tourism
4. Harvesting of nontimber products
5. Environmentally sound timber production
6. Genetic prospecting
7. Nature-based tourism
Part III. Key elements of an integrated strategy for habitat protection and economic progress
8. Another approach to habitat conservation: agricultural intensification
9. Paying for habitat conservation and investing in human and social capital

Editorial Reviews

"A timely book that elegantly makes the plea that we have many forest management alternatives that will allow is [sic] to conserve the extensive neotropical forests of the Americas. Reviews harvesting options for timber and non-timber resources, bio-prospecting for genetic raw materials, the importance of nature-based ecotourism, and the price that countries have paid for excessive harvesting of their natural resources. Essential reading for all who have interests in conservation issues."—Northeastern Naturalist

"Tropical deforestation remains one of the major environmental problems of our day. Much of the literature focuses on the problems caused by deforestation; Southgate examines potential solutions. He begins with a technical overview of the causes of tropical deforestation. The analysis is robust . . . then covers six alternatives to the current forest practices that lead to deforestation . . . Costa Rica and the Galápagos are often cited as successful examples of nature-based tourism. . . . The lessons learned from the book can be applied beyond Latin America. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals."—Choice

"This book developed partly out of Southgate's work as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank to assess the contributions that nontimber extraction, low-impact logging, genetic prospecting, and ecotourism can make to tropical forest conservation in Latin America. He begins with a review of the causes of deforestation, then examines the challenges of sustainable forest-based activities, and details the economics of environmentally sound harvesting. His conclusion offers an integrated strategy for habitat protection and economic progress."—SciTech Book News

From the Publisher