Following the 1917 Mexican Revolution inhabitants of the states of Chihuahua and Michoacan received vast tracts of prime timberland as part of Mexico's land redistribution program. Although locals gained possession of the forests, the federal government retained management rights, which created conflict over subsequent decades among rural, often indigenous villages; government; and private timber companies about how best to manage the forests. Christopher R. Boyer examines this history in Political Landscapes, where he argues that the forests in Chihuahua and Michoacan became what he calls "political landscapes"-that is, geographies that become politicized by the interactions between opposing actors-through the effects of backroom deals, nepotism, and political negotiations. Understanding the historical dynamic of community forestry in Mexico is particularly critical for those interested in promoting community involvement in the use and conservation of forestlands around the world. Considering how rural and indigenous people have confronted, accepted, and modified the rationalizing projects of forest management foisted on them by a developmentalist state is crucial before community management is implemented elsewhere.

Following the 1917 Mexican Revolution inhabitants of the states of Chihuahua and Michoacan received vast tracts of prime timberland as part of Mexico's land redistribution program. Although locals gained possession of the forests, the federal government retained management rights, which created conflict over subsequent decades among rural, often indigenous villages; government; and private timber companies about how best to manage the forests. Christopher R. Boyer examines this history in Political Landscapes, where he argues that the forests in Chihuahua and Michoacan became what he calls "political landscapes"-that is, geographies that become politicized by the interactions between opposing actors-through the effects of backroom deals, nepotism, and political negotiations. Understanding the historical dynamic of community forestry in Mexico is particularly critical for those interested in promoting community involvement in the use and conservation of forestlands around the world. Considering how rural and indigenous people have confronted, accepted, and modified the rationalizing projects of forest management foisted on them by a developmentalist state is crucial before community management is implemented elsewhere.

Fossil records indicate the Neotropical Dry Forests had a more continuous distribution in the recent geological past, especially in the late Pleistocene, more precisely at the end of the last glacial period. Seasonal Deciduous Forests are remnants of a broader continuous distribution that was present in the past, ranging from North-Eastern Brazil to Argentina in the Pleistocene dry period. This currently fragmented structure is the result of the dry, cold climate that caused the retraction of Wet Forests to riversides and the spread of seasonal forests. This book discusses the ecology, species diversity and sustainable management of dry forests. The topics include a biogeographical overview of the "lianescent clade" of violaceae in the Neotropical region; diversity and distribution of hymenoptera aculeate in mid-western Brazilian dry forests; the Brazilian "caatinga"; changes in the labile and recalcitrant organic matter fractions due to transformation of semi-deciduous dry tropical forest to pasture in the western llanos, Venezuela; ecology and management of the dry forests and savannas of the western Chaco region, Argentina; predicting pasture security in rangeland districts of Kenya using 1 km resolution spot vegetation sensor ndvi data.

Scientists tell us that climate change is upon us and the physical world is changing quickly with serious implications for biodiversity and human wellbeing. Forests cover vast regions of the globe and serve as a first line of defence against the worst effects of climate change, but only if we keep them healthy and resilient. Forests in Our Changing World tells us how to do that. Authors Joe Landsberg and Richard Waring present an overview of forests around the globe, describing basic precepts of forest ecology and physiology and how forests will change as earth's climate warms. Drawing on years of research and teaching, they discuss the values and uses of both natural and plantation-based forests. In easy-to-understand terms, they describe the ecosystem services forests provide, such as clean water and wildlife habitat, present economic concepts important to the management and policy decisions that affect forests, and introduce the use of growth-and-yield models and remote-sensing technology that provide the data behind those decisions. This book is a useful guide for undergraduates as well as managers, administrators, and policy makers in environmental organisations and government bodies looking for a clear overview of basic forest processes and pragmatic suggestions for protecting the health of forests.

During the Middle Sican period (C.E. 950-1050) on the North Coast of Peru, artisans developed a sophisticated tradition of ceramic and metalworking production amidst dry coastal forests of the region. Organic fuel resources, specifically wood, clearly played a vital role in the manufacture of these objects; however, this component of production has been largely overlooked. Thus, a major gap in our understanding of the relationship between Sican period production and the local landscape has developed. The Sican Archaeological Project (SAP) suggests that the production of metal and ceramics during this period likely placed the local fuel resources under considerable stress. Yet, an evaluation of the archaeological data is essential to assess the degree of overexploitation, identifying the fuels used, their contexts for use, and their role in local ecology. This study interprets how Middle Sican artisans met their fuel-wood requirements for production in light of easily endangered forest resources. An examination of the archaeological charcoal from Middle Sican period kilns, hearths, and metal furnaces permits the reconstruction of fuel use and the ecological setting of production. This unique site demonstrates the concurrent production of metal and ceramics, as well as the presence of domestic activity. Using wood anatomy of fuels recovered from archaeological features, the author identified the fuel materials of different use contexts.

An overview of tropical rainforests for kids. Rainforests describes tropical rainforests, why they are important, and what is happening to them. Rainforests is based on the award-winning mongabay.com web site. "Rainforests" includes discussion of topics including conservation and protected areas, biodiversity and ecology, environmental activism, sustainable development, consumption, and economics.

The Red Hills region of south Georgia and north Florida contains one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in North America, with longleaf pine trees that are up to four hundred years old and an understory of unparalleled plant life. At first glance, the longleaf woodlands at plantations like Greenwood, outside Thomasville, Georgia, seem undisturbed by market economics and human activity, but Albert G. Way contends that this environment was socially produced and that its story adds nuance to the broader narrative of American conservation.

The Red Hills woodlands were thought of primarily as a healthful refuge for northern industrialists in the early twentieth century. When notable wildlife biologist Herbert Stoddard arrived in 1924, he began to recognize the area's ecological value. Stoddard was with the federal government, but he drew on local knowledge to craft his land management practices, to the point where a distinctly southern, agrarian form of ecological conservation emerged. This set of practices was in many respects progressive, particularly in its approach to fire management and species diversity, and much of it remains in effect today.

Using Stoddard as a window into this unique conservation landscape, "Conserving Southern Longleaf" positions the Red Hills as a valuable center for research into and understanding of wildlife biology, fire ecology, and the environmental appreciation of a region once dubbed simply the "pine barrens."

A study of how encounters between forestry bureaucrats and indigenous forest managers in Mexico produced official knowledge about forests and the state. Greater knowledge and transparency are often promoted as the keys to solving a wide array of governance problems. In Instituting Nature, Andrew Mathews describes Mexico's efforts over the past hundred years to manage its forests through forestry science and biodiversity conservation. He shows that transparent knowledge was produced not by official declarations or scientists' expertise but by encounters between the relatively weak forestry bureaucracy and the indigenous people who manage and own the pine forests of Mexico. Mathews charts the performances, collusions, complicities, and evasions that characterize the forestry bureaucracy. He shows that the authority of forestry officials is undermined by the tension between local realities and national policy; officials must juggle sweeping knowledge claims and mundane concealments, ambitious regulations and routine rule breaking. Moving from government offices in Mexico City to forests in the state of Oaxaca, Mathews describes how the science of forestry and bureaucratic practices came to Oaxaca in the 1930s and how local environmental and political contexts set the stage for local resistance. He tells how the indigenous Zapotec people learned the theory and practice of industrial forestry as employees and then put these skills to use when they become the owners and managers of the area's pine forests-eventually incorporating forestry into their successful claims for autonomy from the state. Despite the apparently small scale and local contexts of this balancing act between the power of forestry regulations and the resistance of indigenous communities, Mathews shows that it has large implications-for how we understand the modern state, scientific knowledge, and power and for the global carbon markets for which Mexican forests might become valuable.

An overview of tropical rainforests for kids. Rainforests describes tropical rainforests, why they are important, and what is happening to them. Based on the award-winning mongabay.com web site. Includes photos, charts, and maps. Note: this version is black and white; there is also a color version.

An unabridged, illustrated edition with a foreword by Ralph Waldo Emerson, to include: Biographical Sketch - Natural History of Massachusetts - A Walk to Wachusett - The Landlord - A Winter Walk - The Succession of Forest Trees - Walking - Autumnal Tints - Wild Apples - Night and Moonlight

A longstanding debate on health system organization relates to the benefits of integrating programs that emphasize specific interventions into mainstream health systems to increase access and improve health outcomes. This debate has long been characterized by polarization of views and ideologies, with protagonists for and against integration arguing relative merits of each approach. Recently, the debate has been rekindled due to substantial rises in externally-funded programs for priority health, nutrition, and population (HNP) interventions and an increase in international efforts aimed at health system strengthening. However, all too frequently these arguments have not been based on hard evidence. In this book we present findings of a systematic review that explores a broad range of evidence on: (i) the extent and nature of integration of targeted health programs that emphasize specific interventions into critical health systems functions; (ii) how the integration or non-integration of health programs into critical health systems functions in different contexts have influenced program success; and (iii) how contextual factors have affected the extent to which these programs were integrated into critical health systems functions. The findings provide a new synthesis of evidence to inform the debate on health systems and targeted interventions. In practice a rich mix of solutions exists. While the discussion on the relative merits of integrating health interventions will no doubt continue, discussions should move away from the highly-reductionist approach that has polarized this debate.

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"Cottonwood and the River of Time" looks at some of the approaches scientists have used to unravel the puzzles of the natural world. With a lifetime of work in forestry and genetics to guide him, Reinhard Stettler celebrates both what has been learned and what still remains a mystery as he examines not only cottonwoods but also trees more generally, their evolution, and their relationship to society.

Cottonwoods flourish on the verge, near streams and rivers. Their life cycle is closely attuned to the river's natural dynamics. An ever-changing floodplain keeps generating new opportunities for these pioneers to settle and prepare the ground for new species. Perpetual change is the story of cottonwoods -- but in a broader sense, the story of all trees and all kinds of life. Through the long parade of generation after generation, as rivers meander and glaciers advance and retreat, trees have adapted and persisted, some for thousands of years. How do they do this? And more urgently, what lessons can we learn from the study of trees to preserve and manage our forests for an uncertain future?

In his search for answers, Stettler moves from the floodplain of a West Cascade river, where seedlings compete for a foothold, to mountain slopes, where aspens reveal their genetic differences in colorful displays; from the workshops of Renaissance artists who painted their masterpieces on poplar to labs where geneticists have recently succeeded in sequencing a cottonwood's genome; from the intensively cultivated tree plantations along the Columbia to old-growth forests challenged by global warming.

Natural selection and adaptation, the comparable advantages and disadvantages of sexual versus asexual reproduction, the history of plant domestication, and the purposes, risks, and potential benefits of genetic engineering are a few of the many chapters in this story. By offering lessons in how nature works, as well as how science can help us understand it, Cottonwood and the River of Time illuminates connections between the physical, biological, and social worlds.

Reinhard F. Stettler is professor emeritus of forestry at the University of Washington.

Tropical rain forests contain most of the world's known biological diversity. Understanding how this diversity persists in the face of anthropogenic disturbance is an increasingly critical issue. To manage and preserve intact ecosystems, and to restore degraded ones, a better knowledge of the basic ecological processes that affect them is necessary. We must be able to answer such questions as: How are plant communities structured? How is diversity maintained in species-rich ecosystems? What ecological factors determine which plants grow where? Many processes are known to shape plant communities, but what is their relative importance? Approaching answers to these questions is the primary focus of this book. The book presents a case study, built upon experiments performed in a Peruvian rain forest. The author conducted a series of manipulative experiments on tree seedlings to dissect the various forces that shape their coexistence. This book is directed to an audience of ecologists, forest researchers, and conservationists.