Based on an ethnographic account of subsistence use of Amazonian forests by Wapishana people in Guyana, Edges, Frontiers, Fringes examines the social, cultural and behavioral bases for sustainability and resilience in indigenous resource use. Developing an original framework for holistic analysis, it demonstrates that flexible interplay among multiple modes of environmental understanding and decision-making allows the Wapishana to navigate socio-ecological complexity successfully in ways that reconcile short-term material needs with long-term maintenance and enhancement of the resource base.

This landmark monograph in ethnoecology is now available in print format for the first time. Based on long-term fieldwork in Guyana during 1998, 1999 and 2000, it examines relationships between the ecological knowledge of Wapishana hunters and equivalent areas of ecological science. It places this in the ethnographic context of Wapishana settlement, subsistence and symbolism, and the wider context of the political ecology of Guyanas economic liberalisation and the consequent exposure of the indigenous peoples of Guyanas Rupununi region to extractive industries and international conservation interests for the first time. The result is a robust argument, grounded in extensive data and analysis, for alternative trajectories in conservation and international development rooted in the skills, knowledge and interests of indigenous users and custodians of biodiversity.