Development or Destruction

Theodore E. Downing, is a Research Professor of Social Development at the University of Arizona. He specializes in the institutional dimensions of agricultural development and has worked on the development of Mexican coffee producers, irrigation's impact on society, and the human rights of cultural groups in Latin America. Susanna B. Hecht, is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Planning at UCLA. She is a specialist in tropical forest development and has worked extensively on the environmental and social dynamics of livestock in Latin America. Henry A. Pearson, worked for the USDA Forest Service, Flagstaff, Arizona from 1956-68, specializing in ecology of semiarid savannahs. From 1968 to 1989, he served as Professor of Range Management at Colorado State University, where he developed several large scale computer modeling and operations research projects. Beginning in 1989, he moved to the USDA Forest Service Computer Science staff in Washington, D.C., where he works on university liaison and technology forecasts. Carmen Garcia-Downing works with Native American populations for the Rural Health Office at the University of Arizona Medical School and is an agricultural specialist in animal science and range management. A native Zapotec Indian, she also coordinates a non-profit organization, the Nine Points Alliance, which focuses on development of Native American populations and resources in southern Mexico.

• 1. Introduction Part One: Overviews 2. Logics of Livestock and Deforestation: the Case of Amazonia 3. New Directions for Livestock Policy: an Environmental Perspective 4. Bio-economic Costs 5. Livestock Economy and Forest Destruction Part Two: Forest Uses 6. Tropical Forest Uses 7. Forest Economies: Transition and Ambiguity 8. Social Dimension of Forest Utilization in Mexico: Implications for Intervention Part Three: Environmental Impacts 9. Possible Climatological Impacts 10. Terrestrial Impacts in Mexico and Central America Part Four: Social Impacts 11. Eating from the Tropics or Destroying it? 12. From Reaction to Planning: An Indigenous Response to Deforestation and Cattle Ranching 13. Rural Development Effects 14. Reconciling people and Land: The Prospects for Sustainable Extraction in the Amazon Part Five: Production Alternatives 15. Sustaining Pasture-based Production Systems for the Humid Tropics 16. A Silvopastoral Strategy 17. Integrated Production Systems Part Six: Developers' and Donors' Perspectives 18. Debt-for-Nature Swaps: a Response to Debt and Deforestation in Developing Countries? 19. The Timber Industry Perspective Part Seven: Community Perspectives 20. Union of Forest Ejidos and Communities of Oaxaca 21. Integrated Resource Management: A Zapotec Community's Approach 22. Two Peasants Discuss Deforestation 23. A Rubber Tapper Speaks Out Part Eight: Comments and Recommendations 24. The Oaxaca Recommendations 25. What Can I Do?