The Green Cathedral: Sustainable Development of Amazonia

Efforts to save the rain forest depend on saving its inhabitants, according to de Onis ( The Alliance That Lost its Way ). To develop his balanced analysis of the region's social, economic, ecological and political conditions--which is somewhat more detailed than Mac Margolis's The Last New World (Nonfiction Forecasts, Apr. 27)--de Onis interviewed people from nearly every segment of the population of Amazonia (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil) in a two-year study he began in 1988. Examining such specific activities as ranching, farming, mining, dam building, forestry and oil and gas production, he believes the region is not yet ecologically ruined and even discerns improvement during the last decade. De Onis assesses the work of non-government organizations (NGOs) in the area and reports on research projects involving reforestation, alleycropping and improvement of pasture land. His recommendations include agro-ecological zoning, legislation to restrict private use of forested land and the coordination of NGO efforts with those of local groups. Illustrations not seen by PW. (June)