Choice Review of Highland Sanctuary

by W. Arens, SUNY at Stony Brook

Lying just beyond the Tanzania coast, a small arc of mountains known as the Usambaras has offered sanctuary, opportunity, and challenge to all who have inhabited and sought to control it. In this truly groundbreaking study, Conte (Utah State Univ.) provides a temporal vision of the area that, in the author's words, 'joins natural and human history in a way that illuminates the paradoxes inherent in landscapes.' He demonstrates that in the precolonial millennia, indigenous agriculturalists and pastoralists adapted to the rich environment, while a brief colonial and immediate postcolonial era ravaged the forest through massive logging operations (often involving some rare species), resulting in deforestation. This destructive period was followed by the inevitable onset of conservation efforts to preserve what now remains. As Conte wisely observes, the local communities will now have to bear the burden of these latest efforts to affect the environment. This fascinating study deserves the attention of a wide variety of scholars and development experts.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Choice
February 2005