Book Review Essay: Perspectives on Deforestation

Abstract

Deforestation, especially in the world’s tropical regions, is a catastrophic environmental issue of the early 21st century. In the last 100 years, tropical forests which once covered more than 10 percent of the planet’s surface, have been reduced by more than a third. Not only have original growth forests been lost to loggers and economic development, but also earth has lost storehouses of biological species found nowhere else,1 huge sinks for sequestration of carbon dioxide, and stable anchors for watersheds, river systems and micro-climates. The two volumes under review present different perspectives on deforestation. Dauvergne focuses on deforestation and degradation in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia and Melanesia; Stone and D’Andrea adopt a global view of tropical deforestation. Dauvergne paints a darkly pessimistic picture of forest degradation, with little hope for reform and recovery, while Stone and D’Andrea and hope in the growth of community forestry movements. Both volumes contribute signiacantly to our understanding of the causes and consequences of deforestation. Peter Dauvergne’s study is based on a decade of research and aeld work in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and the Solomon Islands. A former faculty member in the School of Economics and Political Science at the University of Sydney (now at the University of British Columbia),