Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines [Paperback]

Robin Broad (Author), John Cavanagh (Author), Barbara Ehrenreich (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 1994

This gripping portrait of environmental politics chronicles the devastating destruction of the Philippine countryside and reveals how ordinary men and women are fighting back. Traveling through a land of lush rainforests, the authors have recorded the experiences of the people whose livelihoods are disappearing along with their country's natural resources. The result is an inspiring, informative account of how peasants, fishers, and other laborers have united to halt the plunder and to improve their lives.
These people do not debate global warming--they know that their very lives depend on the land and oceans, so they block logging trucks, protest open-pit mining, and replant trees. In a country where nearly two-thirds of the children are impoverished, the reclaiming of natural resources is offering young people hope for a future. Plundering Paradise is essential reading for anyone interested in development, the global environment, and political life in the Third World.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Broad (international development, American Univ.) and Cavanagh, a policy analyst, have produced a book that combines the close observations and engaging style of a good travel narrative with an analysis grounded in a deep knowledge of the Philippines. Their work gives voice to that country's poor people as they seek to reclaim the natural resources that have been exploited by a small national elite and multinational businesses and to partake in the decision about the future use of those resources. Few books chronicle the struggles of common citizens to protect the environment that supports their livelihood. This one does so extremely well and is recommended to both public and academic libraries.
- Bill Rau, Takoma Park, Md.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A chronicle of short-term gain for the few, and long-term decline for the many. But it is also at times a story of hope, of how the people most immediately threatened by the loss of their trees, fish, and farmland are fighting back." -- Megan Ryan, World Watch Magazine, Worldwatch Institute

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Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (August 29, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520089219
• ISBN-13: 978-0520089211
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Passionate but not informative, June 5, 2007

By 

Malcolm Brown (Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines (Paperback)

The authors writing style reveals the passion with which they had when they traveled throughout the country and met with the locals. However, their lack of quantitative data was a shortcoming. I bought this book to use as reference material for a research paper on resource management in the Philippines, but it wasn't the right tool for that job. Fortunately, there are other books which do grind through the maze and inconsistencies of quantitative data necessary analysis of development activities in that country.

One strongpoint was the writing style, which really makes you feel like you are there, grinding along twisting roads in overcrowded busses and jeepneys, boating to remote locations, meeting with locals. The limitations of the transportation infrastructure are readily apparent throughout their writings. A weakness is that the models the authors proposed for peasant upheavals in the political and economic arenas are based on building power bases laterally, very little emphasis is given to the vertical integration, via the system of patronage, which is prevalent throughout the Philippines. It would be interesting to see what level of change has occured in their study areas since the research was done, over 15 years ago.