The nature of development

A few years ago, Roger Stone undertook a formidable challenge: to travel to representative villages in the tropical corners of the developing world to see how and whether economic development plans had improved the quality of the people's lives while also preserving each region's rich plant and animal life. In The Nature of Development, Stone reports on his findings and offers a lively prescription for sustainable economic growth that is environmentally sane and economically sound. By commercial and missionary airplane, bus, off-road vehicle, and dugout canoe--and of course by means of wearying foot journeys--Roger Stone reached his far-flung destinations all over Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Once there, he lived, walked, and talked at length with many diverse peoples: the Awa of Ecuador and Colombia; the Oku, who live near Kilum Mountain in Cameroon; the Hatam of the Arfak Mountains in Indonesia's Irian Jaya province; the resourceful, if underequipped, wardens of Zambia's national park service; the fishermen and farmers of a St. Lucia that Caribbean tourists seldom discover. While in the Amazon basin, he found sad tales of people without a future and of relentless environmental losses. More often, though, he returned with stories of hope and encouragement. For, as The Nature of Development shows, conservation and economic-development agencies can work together, and the governments of poor and rich countries alike can cooperate to improve human lives and stop disastrous ecological losses in the world's richest habitats. As new imperatives replace the global preoccupation with warfare and reckless modes of development, Stone's book carries a resonant and important message about how we have mistreated our habitats in the past and how we can achieve a new environmental world order.