Traditional and Modern Natural Resource Management in Latin America identifies a major problem facing developing nations and the countries and sources that fund them: the lack of attention and/or effective strategies available to prevent farmers in underdeveloped and poorly endowed regions from sinking still deeper into poverty while avoiding further degradation of marginal environments. The contributors propose an alliance of scientific knowledge with native skill as the best way to proceed, arguing that folk systems can often provide effective management solutions that are not only locally effective, but which may have the potential for spatial diffusion. While this has been said before, the volume makes one of the best articulated statements of how to implement such an approach. In this book, which stems from a workshop held in 1995 at the World Bank, the editors make an eloquent case for the relevance of risk prone areas as a subject of study and the special role that indigenous knowledge plays in such poorly endowed regions. The volume is balanced—it does not advocate one approach over another, and it is multidisciplinary, including work by anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and natural scientists. The nine chapters create a natural progression from conceptual issues to theory, applications, and synthesis, and contain a wealth of data, analyses, recommendations, and carefully considered opinions by experts who have been intimately involved over the long term in theoretical and practical work related to systems of natural resource management in Latin America. The volume addresses the topic of sustainability in a logical manner, considering practical concerns and lessons as well as theoretical perspectives. A number of conceptual and case studies highlight approaches that might succeed if World Bank and other multilateral and national funding sources are forthcoming. Traditional and Modern Natural Resource Management in Latin America addresses a topic that has gained worldwide interest, especially in relation to indigenous knowledge systems.

A concise yet thorough overview of the environmental issues, problems, and controversies facing Latin America and the Caribbean—from the tip of South America to the Windward Islands. Home to Earth's longest mountain range, largest river, and greatest rainforest, no region boasts greater geographic extremes, faces greater environmental dangers, and enjoys more economic potential from its biodiversity than Latin America and the Caribbean. What are the political and economic factors affecting the Amazon's rapidly disappearing rainforest? What is being done to harvest life-saving drugs from the plants of the Orinoco? And what lies behind the mysterious disappearance of Central America's frogs? The work includes essays, tables and figures, and an appendix titled International Environmental and Developmental Agencies, Organizations, and Programs on the World Wide Web. Latin America & the Caribbean examines a region waking up to its environmental problems and possibilities.

The first single-authored comprehensive introduction to major contemporary research trends, issues, and debates on the anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean. The text provides wide and historically informed coverage of key facets of Latin American and Caribbean societies and their cultural and historical development as well as the roles of power and inequality. Cymeme Howe, Visiting Assistant Professor of Cornell University writes, “The text moves well and builds over time, paying close attention to balancing both the Caribbean and Latin America as geographic regions, Spanish and non-Spanish speaking countries, and historical and contemporary issues in the field. I found the geographic breadth to be especially impressive.” Jeffrey W. Mantz of California State University, Stanislaus, notes that the contents “reflect the insights of an anthropologist who knows Latin America intimately and extensively.”

This is a broad introduction to Latin America, ranging from religion and history to literature and education, with a focus on cultures and cultural change. With lively prose and a variety of informative inserts, Williamson draws the reader in to the diverse realities of a continent in flux, holding it together by a strong theoretical framework.

This book provides an in-depth analysis on community conservation in Mexico. The volume explores vivid examples and case studies that illustrate some of the critical issues at stake, including the participation of local communities in national and global conservation, indigenous and local perceptions of conservation initiatives in Southern Mexico, and challenges in ICCA governance and ecotourism. The book also reviews methodological approaches for understanding and strengthening community conservation, touching upon such topics as community-based biodiversity monitoring and tools for understanding children's perceptions of community conservation. Written by international experts in the field, Community Action for Conservation: Mexican Experiences is a lively and deep-running resource that offers invaluable stories and analyses of the Mexican experience with conservation.

The 4th annual US/ICOMOS International Symposium orgnanised by US/ICOMOS, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Getty Conservation Institute, help in Philadelphia, April 2001.

"The asset-based approach considers links between households' productive, social, and locational assets; the policy, institutional, and risk context; household behavior as expressed in livelihood strategies; and well-being outcomes. For sustainable poverty reducing growth, it is critical to examine household asset portfolios and understand how assets interact with the context to influence the selection of livelihood strategies, which in turn determine well-being. Policy reforms can change the context and income-generating potential of assets. Investments can add new assets or increase the efficiency of existing household assets, and also improve households' risk management capacity to protect assets. After all is said and done, a household's asset portfolio will determine whether growth and poverty reduction can be achieved and sustained over time. The asset-based framework is amendable to different analytical techniques. Siegel suggests combining quantitative and qualitative spatial and household level analyses (and linked spatial and household level analyses) to deepen understanding of the complex relationships between assets, context, livelihood strategies, and well-being outcomes. This paper--a joint product of the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Vice Presidency and the Rural Development Family, Latin America and the Caribbean Region--is part of a larger effort in the Bank to strengthen analyses and strategies for rural development, and address policy issues and investment priorities"--World Bank web site.