HARDCOVER OCTAVO
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Costa Rica's attempts over the last two decades to conserve its rich mix of natural resources have won praise from international organizations and support from the majority of Costa Rican people. A vital linchpin of that determined effort has been the establishment of numerous national parks. This book is neither a travelog nor an exposition of the flora and fauna of the region but concentrates on a major tension faced by all countries: How do you use finite natural resources to provide material well-being to an increasing population without destroying those same resources in the process? Costa Rica's ongoing struggle with this "sustainable development" issue has significance far beyond its borders. Unfortunately, the book is flawed by its lack of an organizing principle--for numerous pages the focus is one or another of the important players; then the text suddenly shifts to a discussion of problems of a specific park; then another shift, to governmental policy planning; and so on. With this caveat, recommended for purchase by academic libraries and institutions with environmental policy programs.
- Ruth M. Mara, Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Ruth M. Mara, Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Comprehensive history of the Costa Rican National Park system, generally considered a global model of ecological preservation. During the past 40 years, Wallace (the novel The Vermilion Parrot; Bulow Hammock, etc.) tells us, Costa Rica has lost almost half of its forest cover--much of it not even cut for timber, but burned for pasturage for low-grade export beef. At the same time, measures to protect the forest were begun by an unusual combination of activists--Olof Wessberg, an immigrant Swedish fruit-farmer; Daniel Oduber, Costa Rican president from 1974-78, who had a special interest in natural history; and Mario Boza, who at age 27 became chief of the new National Park service. Wallace narrates a lively history showing how these men guided their Third World country into being more prowilderness and biocentric than the US or Europe, principally as Oduber began to acquire every type of landscape and ecosystem possible in order to create a national repository of bio-diversity. Wallace vibrantly illuminates these varied habitats, such as this lowland rain forest: ``The air has a burning clarity at the same time it is loaded with jungle smells and humidity. Thunderheads that loom out to sea every afternoon seem carved of translucent stone, and the deepest shadows under the trees have a kind of luminosity.'' Elsewhere, his detailed discussions of the evolution and workings of the Costa Rican park service are clear and interesting. Some of the nation's conservation issues, he points out, are duplicated in the US--e.g., the question of how to deflect pressure from miners, loggers, ranchers, and government agencies- -while others particularly afflict Third World countries with limited land and growing populations. Costa Rica, Wallace explains, is working through the dilemma seen in Africa, where impoverished people press from all sides upon the parks for hunting and farming sustenance. An eloquent case study with worldwide lessons. (Map.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, a little heavy on political aspects,
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This review is from: The Quetzel and the Macaw: The Story of Costa Rica's National Parks (Hardcover)
This is a well-written account of the creation of the Costa Rica National Parks. The best reading is when the author goes to the parks and interviews people working there and who struggled to create the parks under sometimes strong opposition from business and other interests. They did so at risk of their lives in some cases. As the book goes on and the park system grows, the focus shifts more to the ins and outs of the national politics that both aided and hindered the establishment of the parks.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting view of Costa Rica,
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This review is from: The Quetzel and the Macaw: The Story of Costa Rica's National Parks (Hardcover)
We picked this up prior to visiting Costa Rica. Why Costa Rica? We wanted something somewhat rugged since the last trip we took out of the continent had been to London. I had been pushing for the Galapagos Islands since reading Gould's _Ever Since Darwin_, but that turned out to be too expensive. The brochures we picked up glowed with Costa Rica's glories, and it seemed to be in our price range--and it was. Jill pressed me to find a book about Costa Rica (a travelogue or similar, but not a guide book) since she had done the planning and agent interface. I couldn't find an armchair travel book, but I did discover this excellent book on the formation of Costa Rica's national park system.This is more of a history than a travel narrative, although the author did visit Costa Rica and its parks several times and gives his impressions of the area. It follows the combined attempts to set aside land for species habitat and ecological preservation, from the working of a couple of expatriated Norwegians through the two young university students who became the leaders of the National Park Service. Many of Costa Rica's park works have been ahead of their time, especially for the area of the world in which the work is being done. I am excited to see what I have read about, not only the good things like the parks themselves, but the parts that haven't gone quite right because of the need to balance on the fine line between preservation and tourism.
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