Book Description

This true-life adventure-travel story follows John Harrison and his wife Heather deep into an unexplored region of the Amazon rainforests in the Guiana Highlands that border Brazil. With just a canoe and a shotgun, the newlyweds followed the most remote tributary of the Amazon River without any means of contacting civilization. Harrison tells their story as, unaided and off the map, they encounter jaguars and poisonous frogs, are threatened by malaria, and almost lose their way entirely. While experiencing travel at its most raw, they struggle to keep their deteriorating sanity and relationship intact in one of the most hostile and unforgiving places in the world. Far more harrowing than reality shows like Survivor and Amazing Race, this is armchair adventure at its most honest and compelling. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Larry Pynn, a reporter for the Vancouver Sun, has spent his life among the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest--and not just as a chronicler. When he was young, he writes in Last Stands, he labored on the "green chain" of a sawmill, a job in a lean economy that brought the possibility of earning enough for the motorcycles and cars of a teenager's dreams. Half a century later, Pynn harbors evident regret for his work, but his experience affords him an unusual depth of firsthand knowledge in exploring the controversies surrounding the temperate rain forest--a threatened ecosystem that has been much in the environmental news since the spotted owl first flushed into the public spotlight in the late 1980s. Although the forest is supposedly better protected now than in the past with updated logging regulations, it has still been trimmed to something like 13 percent of its former extent, and old-growth continues to fall at a terrific rate.

Having traveled the length of the rain forest from northern California to southern Alaska, Pynn turns in a report on this embattled ecosystem that rings with both hard data and anecdotes from loggers, Native Americans, forestry industry officials, and Canadian and U.S. government workers. Preserving the remaining forests and the wildlife they shelter will require much additional work, he reckons. And it will require overcoming the "obscenity of polarized debate" that turns the forest into an object of rhetoric rather than a living place. It is that real place, and not an abstraction, that Pynn celebrates in these pages. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Which book did you read, Kelowna?
I wouldn't normally post a review of a book but I stumbled across the previous reader's opinion and could not let it rest unchallenged. Mr. (or Mrs.) Kelowna leaves readers with the impression that Pynn is a neophyte writer who went straight from Journalism 101 to attempting the arduous task of researching and authoring a book. Nothing could be further from the truth. Already the author of The Forgotten Trail: One Man's Adventure's on the Canadian Route to the Klondike, Pynn has spent almost three decades as a prominent and award-winning BC writer. His prose is crisp, concise, laced with humour and a genuine, down-to-earth human feel. And all while tackling a subject that, admittedly, would normally be as dry as a Prince George winter. Had Pynn authored the biology and chemistry texts of my high school years I might have chosen not to drop those courses. There are few people who can take a reader on a journey through often incomprehensible scientific data and make that reader feel welcome. While Pynn's environmentally left-of-centre leanings are perhaps evident when he affords himself the luxury of editorializing (and why not, it's his book!), he nevertheless provides evidence for and against both sides of an extremely important issue on the Pacific Coast...allowing the reader to make up his or her own mind. Overall, an excellent book for anyone looking to explore the current state of our temperate rainforests; it will make you laugh, perhaps make you weep, but ultimately enlighten you.

The Last Word on Last Stands It's Not
Although the subject matter of Pynn's book is fascinating--the last old growth stands of forest left in North America, Pynn's writing leaves a lot to be desired. Pynn, who cut his teeth writing small pieces for newspapers, needs to gain experience in writing full-length books before tackling another major topic. He does, however, provide a quick glimpse into an important topic, and one hopes that a more seasoned writer will carry the banner from here. ... Read more

Book Description

The rain forests of tropical America, Africa, Asia, and Australia are rapidly vanishing. With a focus on ecology, this book discusses rain forests as complex natural systems that are continually changing in response to climate and soil conditions, as well as to shifting cultivation, logging, and other human activities. The completely revised edition includes new chapters on climate (contributed by R.P.D. Walsh), microclimates and hydrology (contributed by R.P.D. Walsh), soils (contributed by I.C. Baillie) and an appendix on quantitative methods (contributed by P. Greig-Smith). This book, first published in 1952, is now a classic and represents an important record of what has become of the rain forest in the twentieth century and will be meaningful reading for botanists, ecologists, tropical biologists, conservationists, and general readers. ... Read more

Book Description

Paul Alan Cox has been honored worldwide for his work as an ethnobotanist, searching for plants that can be used to cure breast cancer, AIDS, and other diseases.Cox was recently hailed by Time magazine as a "hero of medicine" and awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in Samoa, where in one year he made important ethnobotanical discoveries, gained official protection for a rare species of flying fox, launched an international campaign to save a 30,000-acre rain forest from logging, and then helped to rebuild a village destroyed by a hurricane.

In Nafanua, Cox describes his experiences in Samoa, where he studied traditional rain forest remedies with native healers and was honored by the villagers of Falealupo with the chiefly title of Nafanua, the legendary goddess who saved Samoa. A gifted storyteller, Cox describes a world that is an amalgam of the indigenous and the industrial, where ancient beliefs and communal values coexist with Jeeps, SPAM, and transistor radios.In addition to describing his research, Cox discusses the historic misperception of the South Seas, early explorers, and missionaries, who today are more often ecological than religious. A beautifully written story of scientific and personal discovery, Nafanua is a testament to the power of nature to both heal and destroy - and to the equally powerful human capacity for faith and perseverance against seemingly impossible odds. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Important implications for conservation-with-development
This unique and fascinating book by Dr. Cox has important implications for development practitioners and academics interested in political ecology as well as ethnobotanists.The challenges faced by the people of Falealupo village in choosing between preserving their forest or building a school for their children are typical of the environmental trade-offs that many people in developing countries feel compelled to make simply to achieve, by our standards, a minimally acceptable standard of living.The solution presented by Dr. Cox, in which social networks are built such that people willing to invest in the preservation of ecosystems are put into direct contact with those people overseeing these ecosystems (without government or NGO intervention) has important lessons for people interested in promoting "Conservation-with-Development" approaches to economic development.This text also illustrates the complex ways that the human imprint on ecosystems is embedded in power-laden social networks and that change involves contestation and negotiation of power within these networks.This book thus holds important insights for those interested in political ecology.(For those interested in these topics, Dr. Cox's contribution to People, Plants and Justice - Charles Zerner, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2000 - makes an informative companion-piece to Nafanua.)

Finally, as a person who has lived in Samoa for several years as a volunteer teacher and as someone who conducts ecological research there, I find Dr. Cox's presentation of the people of Samoa, shown from a more personalized perspective rather than an academic one, to be open, honest and fair.He avoids falling into the trap of romanticizing or essentializing the people as "ecologically noble savages" that live in perfect harmony with their environment that has become so common in depictions of indigenous peoples in the popular media.When I read the book, I often saw the Samoa that I knew from my own personal experience.

Not a boring ethnobotanical work
First I must say that I am not saying that ethnobotany is boring.I am just saying it seems boring to me and it might to others, but even if you know nothing of botany and have little interest in it you will find great interest in this book.It is a fascinating narrative and Paul brings you into the Samoan world as well as a palagi really can.

I had a chance to hear Paul Cox speak and he talked about how the rainforest became his mother.The book starts with the death of his mother by cancer.He travels to Samoa to search for a possible cure in the rain forest, his quest however becomes to save the rainforest from the forces of globalization.I think the most compelling issue of this book is the positive and negative aspects of western scholarship when it comes in touch with another land and culture.

Paul is a very good storyteller and makes you want to continue reading.

Married to a Hamo (Samoan)
This was an outstanding work.I am a palagi who has been married to a Samoan woman for 9 years and have had extensive dealings with Samoans for 14 years. We visited Western Samoa in 1988, so I have seen the culture first-hand, as well as my state-side exposure with Samoan American organizations. I could almost see myself interacting with the people as he related his accounts... although my 50 or so word Samoan vocabulary can't be compared with the author. He truly captures the essence of Samoa and its people.

Great Book!
This is a most interesting book, the story of how the author came to live in Samoa,and fell in love with the people and their tropical forest environment. When faced with a seemingly hopeless situation, namely thedestruction of a huge area of tropical forest, the author recounts hisexperience in helping to save these sacred lands--through purchasing thelogging rights from the outsiders who were beginning to bulldoze theforests, and turning the control of the forests over to the localcommunity. The book is filled with fascinating stories, and the people andtheir forests come alive in its pages. I was particularly moved by Cox'saccount of living through a typhoon and barely managing to save his familyand Samoan friends as the waves continued to pound apart each of theshelters that they took refuge in. A wonderful narrative of live on thisremote Pacific Island, of botanical studies, conservation and committmentto a cause. Truely this book will be an inspiration for people who arelooking for real life heroes--in this case the lineage of elderly healerswho have been the guardians of their sacred traditions for thousands ofyears, who worked with Paul Cox to ensure that their plants, many withprofoundly important uses, would be preserved for future generations. Igave this book to several friends. It is, quite simply, a wonderful read.

Great Book!
This is a most interesting book, the stody of how the author came to live in Samoa,and fell in love with the people and their tropical forest environment. When faced with a seemingly hopeless situation, namely thedestruction of a huge area of tropical forest, the author recounts hisexperience in helping to save these sacred lands--through purchasing thelogging rights from the outsiders who were beginning to bulldoze theforests, and turning the control of the forests over to the localcommunity. The book is filled with fascinating stories, and the people andtheir forests come alive in its pages. I was particularly moved by Cox'saccount of living through a typhoon and barely managing to save his familyand Samoan friends as the waves continued to pound apart each of theshelters that they took refuge in. A wonderful narrative of live on thisremote Pacific Island, of botanical studies, conservation and committmentto a cause. Truely this book will be an inspiration for people who arelooking for real life heroes--in this case the lineage of elderly healerswho have been the guardians of their sacred traditions for thousands ofyears, who worked with Paul Cox to ensure that their plants, many withprofoundly important uses, would be preserved for future generations. Igave this book to several friends. It is, quite simply, a wonderful read. ... Read more

Book Description

Tropical Rainforests takes a broad, fresh perspective on the ecology, environment and people of the world's most vital ecosystem, using case studies from all the major forest areas ... Read more

Book Description

A tropical rain forest primer for Belize and nearby countries, this authoritative and entertaining book is a must for travelers, students, teachers and conservationists.Written by internationally renowned zoologist Dr. Robert Horwich and ecologist Dr. Jon Lyon, and now in its third printing, A Belizean Rain Forest offers detailed yet easy to read descriptions of the flora, fauna natural history and people of the Community Baboon Sanctuary. Conveniently arranged by topic, this book allows the reader to quickly look up in-depth information on subjects of interest.It gives a thorough understanding of the importance of the rain forest and also presents a community-based method of rain forest conservation. ... Read more

Book Description

The author takes us on a trek through one of the earth's last great frontiers and reveals the complexity of the lives and the problems facing the Amazon and its inhabitants. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Brazilian peoples fighting to survive in the AMAZON
This very readable and well researched book explains the daily struggles of the people who actually live in the rainforest: the Indians, the rubber tappers, the loggers, the ranchers, the miners, and the river people. The author traveled across the vast Amazon areas to talk with the forest people and hear their stories. This book is very moving because it offers a real insight into the lives of the people that are suffering them most from the destruction of the rainforest. That the forest peoples trusted Ms. Lebreton is wonderful, and the stories they share are truly fascinating. Kudos to LeBreton for making the somewhat dangerous trek across the country of Brazil so that readers could have an accurate and honest view of the problems that plague the area.

Effective presentation of the views of ordinary Amazonians.
This book does a fine job of letting the ordinary men & women of Brazilian Amazonia speak for themselves. While it does not have the analytical or scholarly depth of some other books on the subject (e.g. Hecht & Cockburn's "Fate of the Forest"), its strength comes from the author's ability to listen to the people she meets. For both the general public & college undergraduates, it is a handy & accessible introduction to issues of environment & development in Latin America. It definitely stimulated discussions in my course on Global Environmental History, & it would work equally well in courses on Modern Latin America. ... Read more

Book Description

A tiny rufous-tailed hummingbird hovers before the bright inflorescence of a heliconia. Undetected by the foraging bird a golden eyelash viper is curled motionless around the plant. An instant later, this subtle configuration of flora and fauna is shattered by the snake's sudden strike.

Portraits of the Rainforest explores the precarious contingencies that determine the nature of tropical life, and award-winning Adrian Forsyth approaches his subject with a "mixture of hope and trepidation." A biologist who has spent 20 years working in the rainforest, Forsyth has observed firsthand the ravaging effects of agricultural, economic and environmental policies on an ecosystem under siege.

Yet in this collection of essays, he has chosen to celebrate the rainforest rather than to lament its loss. The rainforest plays a variety of roles -- as a genetic reservoir, a pharmacy of natural products and a carbon dioxide exchange system -- but for Forsyth, its true value rests with something less functional. The rainforest, he argues, represents the pinnacle of biological diversity and evolutionary sophistication on this planet.

Forsyth draws on his own extensive experience in the rainforest to make this fascinating habitat tangible for his readers. The result is a creative, anecdotal text that in each chapter follows a thread of adaptive Darwinian logic through some part of the rainforest. The exquisite photography of Michael and Patricia Fogden helps to make Portraits of the Rainforest an unforgettable journey. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Monteverde residents bring rain forest to life
The author and photographers are part time residents of the Monteverde area of Costa Rica. Many of the photos in this book also are displayed at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, near Santa Elena, in Central Costa Rica. Anyone who has been to a Central or South American rain forest or cloud forest will enjoy the ecological explanations -- similar to briefer explanations by guia naturalistas (guides) in the reserves -- and will especially enjoy the dramatic photos. Those who haven't visited the forest in person may be motivated to do so. ... Read more

Book Description

John Oates tackles one of the most serious challenges facing theworld's conservation leaders today: How can the needs of wildlands and wildlifebe reconciled with the needs of people? Current conservation theory holds thatwildlife can best be protected through the promotion of human economicdevelopment. Oates disagrees. Drawing on his extensive experience as a primateecologist who has worked on rainforest conservation projects in Africa andIndia, he argues that the linking of conservation to economic development hashad disastrous consequences for many wildlife populations, especially in WestAfrica. He maintains that in those parts of the world where people are verypoor, human well-being is more likely to be promoted by large-scale political,social, and economic reforms than by community development schemes associatedwith conservation projects. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A very important conservation book
If you are at all interested in conservation, then you have to read this book. John Oates shows how the modern concept of community based conservation that looks so good on paper, in reality has been a dismal failure in West Africa. He provieds several examples from his 30 year long career in West Africa. He shows that you have to be realistic when designing conservation programs, and that many people making conservation decisions are more interested in prestige and money than they are in preserving natural ecosystems. It is sad when you read that the World Wildlife Fund conservation planners are not interested to even go see the areas that they are supposed to protect. The intrinsic value of nature is a hard sell, but finally the utilitarian view of nature seems to always lead to exploitation, and increased pressure on the areas that are supposed to be protected. He also very clearly demonstrates that the idea of using zoos for conservation is a bad one. Zoos are probabally the best way to educate the public about conservation, but are very poor ways to protect species, in fact zoos can even do more harm that good. This book really open your eyes, the situation isn't hopeless, but if conservation projects in Africa are going to work, then it has to be done with a realistic approach and the intrinsic value of nature needs to be on the fore front of the effort.

The real truth about the harsh realities of saving wildlife.
This is a must read for environmentalist, conservationists and everyone who donates money to the cause of saving endangered species. From Oates own experiences in Africa and Asia, Oates tells us how the myth of sustainable development is failing to protect species and parks. He informs us about that what is needed is a return to protecting nature for its own sake. It is a well written book that weaves personal history with the history of the conservation organizations that are telling us they are "saving life on earth." The reality is they are failing and they must change tactics and soon. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

capturing complexity
This is, quite simply, the best set of pictures of North America's west-coast maritime forests that I have come across. These forests are interesting, beautiful, and abundantly alive; they are also very hard to photograph. Through the lens they can seem messy and disordered. The unaided human eye screens out extraneous clutter, but the camera eye does not. There is order there, of course, but it is a chaotic sort of order, with many levels of order-within-disorder. Some photographers strive for excessively neat, tidy compositions, which give an entirely misleading impression of these forests; Graham, on the other hand, conveys the rhythms within the disorder. Many of the pictures are texture-rich without a sharp focus of interest. It is a style well suited to the subject. The text by Wade Davis, what there is of it, is good, but this is most definitely a picture book first.

I spy with my 'large-format' eye...
This book is really special. Ok I am a mate of Graham's which some might see as a bias - but this book is oustanding none the less. Osborne is a biologist (infact a botanist) by trade I believe. It simply doens't matter though, because clearly what he does best is take photos. *Very* good photos. I don't mean as in 'Oh, thats a nice photo' as my mum would say to me when from four packets of snaps I produced one relatively balanced composition. I mean as in drop-that-frying pan, walk-into-that lampost, draw droppingly good photographs. This guy has had three or four calanders of his work produced for goodness sake. The book, which, ok I admit, he gave me, is always on my coffee table, and I must confess, I have chopped up the calendars and made them into nice framed pictures.

Reasons to buy it:

i) it will enhance your life ii) it will take your breath away iii) it is pretty reasonably priced

reasons not to buy it..

i) you hate temporate rainforests... ... Read more

Book Description

We drive cars with "Save the Whales" bumper stickers, buy aerosol sprays that advertise "no chlorofluorocarbons," and wear T-shirts made from organically grown cotton. All of these "earth friendly" choices and products convince us that we are "thinking globally, acting locally" and saving the planet. But are we really?In this provocative book, J. Robert Hunter asserts that using catchy slogans and symbols to sell the public on environmental conservation is ineffective, misleading, and even dangerous. Debunking the Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth approach, Hunter shows that there are no simple solutions to major environmental problems such as species extinction, ozone depletion, global warming, pollution, and non-renewable resource consumption.The use of slogans and symbols, Hunter argues, simply gives the public a false sense that "someone" is solving the environmental crisis--while it remains as serious now as when the environmental movement began. Writing in plain yet passionate prose for general readers, he here opens a national debate on what is really required to preserve the earth as a habitat for the human species. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent and simply stated message on our ecological future

For the ecologically interested but untrained and uninitiated lay people, Hunter offers a real connection between the Homo sapiens (humans) and mother nature through his symbolic use of the Hevea rubber tree as well as his exploration of petroleum as an alternative to natural rubber.From the most developed to the new developing countries, a majority of people can relate to the rubber tree either as consumers of its final products or as providers of the raw materials in plantations.The rubber tree offers an example of the discovery, exploitation, and abuse of earth's resources.

In simple language and unsophisticated, clear analogies, Hunter exposes basic assumptions of technological development.Most of us are blinded by the Cartesian mentality where the scientific method is always expected to yield answers in all matters of mother nature; the only impediment is time.Hunter offers sufficient but not overwhelming statistics on humans' need for rubber and the realities of growing such a single-tree crop.

Without using the "doomsday" style characteristic of much of the popular ecological literature, Hunter present a sober picture of earth's future, should we continue our current rate of exploitation of natural resources justified by human's insatiable needs.Our behavior is compared to the insects or microorganisms that, finding a large supply of their preferred nourishment, abandon all logic and proceed to feed and multiply until the source of food is gone and the environment is depleted, hence causing their own demise.

Perhaps my only, but minor, critique is that, while Hunter states at various times that the major ecological problem is population growth, he fails to address the issue at a deeper level.The miserable working conditions of the Para rubber tree tappers are exposed, but further explorations of the social aspects of ecological calamities are lacking.Implications of technological innovations, such as waste and pollution, overlord-subservient relationships between individuals, a full and happy life only for a few, and a conversely dreary existence for the majority, are mentioned and taken as a perennial fact without further explanation.And finally, population control is hinted as a solution to the ecological dilemma in an earth with finite resources, but few ideas are offered on the implementation of such a strategy.

Hunter does convey the message across with his simple, clear, and uncluttered style.After starting his book I was compelled to continue reading until the end, and I sense that the ecological message will find a wider appeal when others replicate my experience. ... Read more

Book Description

"In the rain forests of the western Amazon," writes author Andrew Revkin, "the threat of violent death hangs in the air like mist after a tropical rain. It is simply a part of the ecosystem, just like the scorpions and snakes cached in the leafy canopy that floats over the forest floor like a seamless green circus tent."

Violent death came to Chico Mendes in the Amazon rain forest on December 22, 1988. A labor and environmental activist, Mendes was gunned down by powerful ranchers for organizing resistance to the wholesale burning of the forest. He was a target because he had convinced the government to take back land ranchers had stolen at gunpoint or through graft and then to transform it into "extractive reserves," set aside for the sustainable production of rubber, nuts, and other goods harvested from the living forest.

This was not just a local land battle on a remote frontier. Mendes had invented a kind of reverse globalization, creating alliances between his grassroots campaign and the global environmental movement. Some 500 similar killings had gone unprosecuted, but this case would be different. Under international pressure, for the first time Brazilian officials were forced to seek, capture, and try not only an Amazon gunman but the person who ordered the killing.

In this reissue of the environmental classic The Burning Season, with a new introduction by the author, Andrew Revkin artfully interweaves the moving story of Mendes's struggle with the broader natural and human history of the world's largest tropical rain forest. "It became clear," writes Revkin, acclaimed science reporter for The New York Times, "that the murder was a microcosm of the larger crime: the unbridled destruction of the last great reservoir of biological diversity on Earth." In his life and untimely death, Mendes forever altered the course of development in the Amazon, and he has since become a model for environmental campaigners everywhere.

Book Description

The stability of rainforest margins has been identified as a critical factor in the preservation of tropical forests, e.g., in Southeast Asia, one of the world?s most extensive rainforest regions. This book contains a selection of contributions presented at an international symposium on 'Land Use, Nature Conservation and the Stability of Rainforest Margins in Southeast Asia,' in Bogor, Indonesia, October 2002. It highlights the critical issue of rainforest preservation from an interdisciplinary perspective, comprising input from scientists in socio-economic, biological, geographical, agrarian and forestry disciplines. The contributions are based on recent empirical research, with a special focus on Indonesia - a country with one of the highest and, at the same time, most endangered stocks of rainforest resources on earth. ... Read more

Book Description

Deforestation is occurring at an alarming rate in many parts of theworld, causing destruction of natural habitat and fragmentation of what remains.Nowhere is this problem more pressing than in the Amazon rainforest, which is rapidlyvanishing in the face of enormous pressure from humans to exploit it. This book presentsthe results of the longest-running and most comprehensive study of forest fragmentationever undertaken, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) incentral Amazonia, the only experimental study of tropical forest fragmentation in whichbaseline data are available before isolation from continuous forest took place.

A joint project of Brazil's National Institute for Research in Amazonia and the U.S.Smithsonian Institution, the BDFFP has investigated the many effects that habitatfragmentation has on plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The book provides anoverview of the BDFFP, reports on its case studies, looks at forest ecology and treegenetics, and considers what issues are involved in establishing ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Conservation biology applied to Tropics worldwide
This is not a "natural history" book cataloging the variety of animals, but rather takes a "conservation biology" approach to trying to understand the exuberance of the tropics, worldwide. The conflicting theories are presented as a compelling mystery. At one point midpoint through the book we are left with the circular argument that there are more animal species because there are more plant species, and there are more plant species because there are more animal species. Fortunately, a following chapter on evolution presents some of the advances out of the quandary.

The book is beautifully illustrated, and some real striking figures are of the mammal diversity (arboreal/terrestrial, and diurnal versus nocturnal) of mammals in Borneo, or the example of convergence in new world and old world tropics. Perhaps the chapter on management of the tropics did not delve deep into looking at the social issues at play (I found Hecht and Cockburn's "The Fate of the Forest" a good look at those dynamics in the Amazon). The application of conservation biology studies on fragmentation and genetic diversity are important conservation issues though. There are sparse mentions of the indigenous people, for example in the Amazon while there were 6-12 million there are now less that 200,000.

Great oveview for beginners (that's me)
Definitely a good crossing between an academic text and a story. Clearly presented in nice, rounded chapters and full of great pictures & diagrams. If you're looking to read about all the different life forms in the tropical forests, this is not the book for you. However, if you want to learn the basics of tropical ecology and biodiversity in general, this is an excellent place to start! Well worth the money.

Diversity and the Tropical Rain Forest
A beautifull book. Anyone with an interest in the wonder and connectivness of the rainforest should read this book. Dr.Terborgh illistrates beautifully the importance of each living part of the forest. From the towering canopy to the microscopic fungi on the forest floor. Another book worth reading is "Tropical Nature". I learned so much and this book is simple and fun to read. Not to "scientific". More like stories around a campfire. Things are fact not because of scientific proof, but fact because it was witnessed. ... Read more