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Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation: The Freshwater Fish of Tropical Africa
Christian Lévêque
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521570336 |
Book Description
In order for biodiversity to be conserved, it is important to know how and where diverse populations of plants and animals exist, to understand the effects of human impacts on them, and to find the means by which these impacts can be lessened and even reversed. While tropical systems are known to be among the most diverse and most threatened globally, tropical freshwater systems have been neglected, and the tremendous variety of fish, amphibians, invertebrates and plants that live in them are poorly known yet seriously threatened. This comprehensive book brings together a wealth of information on the fish of tropical African systems, and discusses how these systems evolved, what holds them together, and what is tearing them apart.
Book Description
A gripping adventure story and an insightful look at why foreign aid so often fails.
Customer Reviews:
Author Nailed It.......2006-06-14
I worked in Liberia for a year and could tell some of the same stories. Utter corruption at every level coupled with the average government fuctionary's well developed sense of his/her own importance makes dealing with them something that would lead Mother Teresa to drink. As the book makes clear, the state exists to serve the "elite", i.e. the gangsters. The author puts in all down in facinating detail. Haven't seen another book that captures what's wrong in Africa with such insight. Since the book was published Equatorial Guinea, the country that's the focus of the book, has come into a lot of oil wealth. The money has all disappeared into various off shore accounts owned by the gangsters in charge without benefiting the people one iota. Nothing ever changes.
excellent book.......2005-08-02
engaging and informative. a must for those interested in economic rehabilitation of west african countries.
very insightful.......2005-03-26
(Memoir) Account of author's work as leader of
a World Bank project in Equatorial Guinea in
1987. Klitgaard provides a nice mix of stories
about day-to-day life anecdotes and how the
World Bank interacts with ministers of
government. He's also a very "groovy" guy,
jamming on the guitar with local pop stars and
continually searching for good waves.
Potentially offensive material: nothing serious
The author as Foreign Aid Surfer Dude.......2005-02-25
What initially attracted me to Tropical Gangsters was surfing. As a surfer working at the time for AusAID, Australia's government foreign aid agency, I was fascinated by Robert Klitgaard as Foreign Aid Surfer Dude. He surfed and worked in Equatorial Guinea, paralleling a particular dream of mine, which I eventually played out in the Pacific. But his book goes much further than simply surfing the Third World: it gives a quirky and realistic picture of the difficulties (and joys) of working in a developing country. Unlike most books on development, it is a personal testament from someone who's been there and done that, and which makes an engaging read. Highly recommended.
A highly informative and unique book.......2003-04-18
It is not very common to find a World Bank economist who writes with a touch of humor, humility and eloquence, but that is exactly what you will discover in this unique book. The author was a World Bank advisor assigned to the tiny African nation of Equatorial Guinea in the late 1980's, a time when many African nations were beginning to flirt with market reforms and economic liberalization. This book is kind of like a personal diary of the time he spent there. It is written in an easygoing, informal style. He alternates between discussing his job- trying to develop an economic strategy that will enable E. Guinea to qualify for a World Bank loan- and discussing his recreational activities, which range from surfboarding to hanging out with African rock stars. He introduces us to many people- government officials, "experts" from the UN and other international organizations, and ordinary Equatoguineans. He seems to be particularly critical of the so-called "experts," many of whom are in this remote backwater merely because "they couldn't find jobs in their own countries." Many economists and other academics seeking a rigorous, theoretical analysis of African political economy might be frustrated by this informal style, but I think it adds an extra dimension to the story of economic reform in the third world. It helps remind us that these structural adjustment policies thought up in Washington D.C. are implement by real people facing real constraints in recipient countries. Klitgaard does an excellent job of relating the pressures faced by well-intentioned (and some not so well-intentioned) government ministers, as they must deal with corruption, apathetic bureaucrats, nasty military officers, and the poor infrastructure found in every developing country. All in all, this is a great read for anybody interested in the troubles facing third-world countries, for anyone curious about why these countries can't seem to get out of their economic malaise. Although it was written in 1991, it seems just as relevant today as it did when it was written.
Customer Reviews:
What a suprising little book!.......1999-09-14
I went into this book with the intention of ripping it to pieces. I came away disagreeing with the message and impressed at how well Mr. Boyles writes.
Any professional writer should read this book, if for no other reason than to explore some of the better subtleties of the trade. This book is well written, clear, it moves admirably well considering the subject matter which I previously would have thought to be prose-proof. It shows how enjoyable even subjects that one would previously have had no interest in can come alive for a reader with the right author.
Buy this book.
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- Detailed and well illustrated treatment
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Gladiolus in Tropical Africa: Systematics, Biology and Evolution
Peter Goldblatt
Manufacturer: Timber Press, Incorporated
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Gladiolus in Southern Africa
ASIN: 0881923338 |
Book Description
A comprehensive account of the 82 species that occur in tropical Africa, 26 of which have been named and introduced to science by the author.
Customer Reviews:
Detailed and well illustrated treatment.......2004-02-17
This much-needed book finally makes sense of a fascinating group of cormous plants. Gladioulus of Tropical Africa is an absolute must for all who study, grow, hybridize or enjoy this fabulous group of flowering plants.
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The Tropical Rainforest: A World Survey of Our Most Valuable Endangered Habitat : With a Blueprint for Its Survival
Arnold Newman
Manufacturer: Facts on File
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ASIN: 0816019444 |
Book Description
Fully revised, this landmark volume takes readers deep inside the "living cathedral" of the forest interior and examines the forces that threaten the biome's survival.
Tropical Rainforest presents an action plan for the concerned individual and the whole of humanity to implement before the potentially bleak consequences of tropical deforestation become unavoidable. Combining comprehensive fact-filled text and an extensively revised bibliography and tables with 300 stunning full-color photographs, this book is destined to remain the leading reference on this vital issue.
Among the topics covered are:
* What is a Tropical Rainforest?: Examines the vast array of species and life forms that comprise the rainforest
* This Web of Life: Explains the dynamics of the rainforest, including pollination and seed dispersal and the food chain
* Threats to the Forest: Details the contributing factors to rainforest destruction, including timber extraction, mining and pollution, and cattle raising
* What Do We Lose?: Focuses of the effects of deforestation, including dwindling land, natural, and human resources
* A Blueprint for Survival: Offers concrete plans for conservation, such as habitat preservation, and funding for rainforest projects
* Reason for Hope: Assesses the future of the tropical rainforest.
Reviews:
Praise for the previous edition:
"...big, beautifully designed and illustrated with extraordinary photographs." -Friends of the Earth
Customer Reviews:
Great Rainforest Book.......2006-10-20
Mr. Newman has written one of the great and comprehensive rainforest books on the market. The book is loaded with great pictures from Mr. Newmans travels around the world. His book is research based but he explains it in a manner that everyone can understand. It is well organized. Each chapter has a differernt topic that breaks down the complexities into a much simplier discussion. He also outlines his beliefs in how society can save the rainforests. It is an outstanding book, one of the few everyone should own on the topic.
Book Description
Most Africans live in rural areas and derive their incomes from farming; but because African governments follow policies that are adverse to most farmers' interests, these countries fail to produce enough food to feed their populations. Markets and States in Tropical Africa analyzes these and other paradoxical features of development in modern Africa and explores how governments have intervened and diverted resources from farmers to other sectors of society. A classic of the field since its publication in 1981, this edition includes a new preface by the author.
Customer Reviews:
Straightforward, seminal - - if perhaps too simple.......2007-08-07
This book examines a simple and important puzzle: why do African governments choose such terrible economic policies? These policies are especially bad for agriculture, even though most Africans are farmers.
The answer is simple: African governments systematically favor urban interests. That means that they provide cheap food for urban workers, which means cheap labor for urban businesses (capital). These groups are outnumbered, but they live in the cities. This means that labor and capital can mobilize politically against the government in the capital city, while farmers - - who are scattered all over a large countryside with poor transportation links - - find it very difficult to pressure the government.
Bates' basic claim has much to recommend it. It is simple, yet it served as a productive research agenda for other studies - - such as Michael Lofchie's comparison of Kenya and Tanzania, among others. It is no wonder that this book made Bates' reputation, and was a seminal contribution to political economy in its day.
Its simplicity also makes the argument incomplete. Though he does discuss colonial legacies, Bates doesn't consider the wider international context. African countries would find it difficult to pursue pro-farmer policies because the rich world, especially in Europe and Japan, closes its markets to many African food products. Certainly this fact deserves to play an important role when we consider the poor choices that African governments make.
A Testimony to Dependent Development.......2007-04-26
The decolonization of Africa was espoused by two ideals of the African people: political independence and economic development. The African nationalists attributed their economic backwardness to their colonial heritage and believed that `independence' would pave the way to prosperity. Yet facing the dilemmas of economic development and the limitations of the international system, they eventually ended up with inefficient industrial firms, impoverished peasantry, and increased economic inequality.
Robert Bates' Markets and States in Tropical Africa analyzes the reasons for and the mechanism of state intervention in market in African states. Like every other country who has attempted to develop so far, independent African countries too faced the dilemmas of economic development, namely capital accumulation and market creation. The economies of Africa have been overwhelmingly rural in nature and the governing elites in Africa aimed to change this situation by through industrialization. The scarcity of capital led national elites to extract resources from agriculture and channel them into manufacture and industry. What is important here, as Bates emphasize, is that all nations seeking to industrialize have done this: "The African policies are thus notable not as exceptions but as examples of a larger class," (p. 119). The forms of economic manipulation were compatible with the prevailing economic doctrines: industry is the engine of growth, savings come from the profits of industry, rural sector should be squeezed for development, etc. (p. 97).
The African governments had both economic and political incentives to channel resources from the rural agricultural sector to the urban industrial enterprises. On the one side they regarded this as necessary for the industrialization and economic development of their countries; on the other side, "the politicization of the electorate" in the nationalist era pushed the governing elite to follow clientalist policies to maintain their political status. As Bates put is, the resources allocated through governmental programs have been channeled to those "whose support is politically useful or economically rewarding to the state - that is, to members of the elite," (p. 56).
As for the instruments of state intervention in the market, African governments mostly exploited taxes, tariffs, and subsidies to transfer resources from rural areas to urban ones. Government in Africa subsidized fertilizers, seeds, mechanical equipments, land, and credit for commercial farming (p. 50). The taxes collected from the rural areas constituted the bulk of these subsidies given to the urban and rural elites. Also, to promote industrial development, African governments constructed protective barriers between the world and domestic markets which sheltered local industries from foreign competition (p. 66). Apparently, the peasantry has been the victim of both policies.
The history of African economic development in the post-independence era in general and Robert Bates' book in particular demonstrate the inevitability of the sacrifices and burden that at least one class should undertake. Historically speaking, these classes have usually been peasantry and workers. A capitalist economic development necessitates the accumulation of capital in the hands of a capitalist entrepreneur class, which forces the state to intervene in the market and to channel resources from the lower strata to the upper ones. Neither the developed Western countries nor the East Asian NICs escaped this necessity of economic development. Yet what made these countries `overcome' the aforementioned dilemma and eventually become a `success story' were the availability of `external resources and market' at their disposal. While in the Western case the cheap labor, food, and market of what is now called the Third World made possible the redemption of the agonies of the peasantry and the eventual establishment of `welfare states', in the `Asian miracle' case, their privileged access to the Western markets provided the `fuel' to keep their economic growth and to gradually relieve the burden of the peasantry and working class in these countries. It was not the intervention of the state in the market that differed the African case from the `success' stories, rather it was the unavailability of external means that determined the eventual fates of African countries.
Rational Choice Approcah to African Agricultural Crisis.......2006-07-28
In this work, Bates moves away from dependency theory in explaining the financial discrepancies between the Center and Periphery. Rather than concentrating on external catalysts to stalled development, Bates rational-actor model concentrates on the internal problems facing African development, particularly the pursuit of interests on the part of political and urban elites.
Much of Africa is facing an agricultural crisis. Although generally populated by small farmers, many nations in Africa face food shortages. Bates argues that these crises are the result of inefficient policies (which intervene in, and distort markets) implemented by political and economic elites. The question becomes, why are these policies being pursued? Bates explains the implementation of these inefficient agricultural policies through a rational choice model. Bates suggests that these policies are developed and implemented by rational political and economic elites seeking to maximize their own utility - particularly in regards to garnering political support - rather than pursing the collective good. This often occurs at the expense of many small farmers. He writes, "Policies are designed to secure the advantages of particular interests, to appease powerful political forces, and to enhance the capacity of political regimes to remain in power" (5-6).
The political and urban elites work in tandem to harvest economic resources garnered from the agricultural sector to promote industrialization. This is often done through the manipulation of market forces, particularly in keeping food prices low for urban interests. Doing so keeps the urban masses content, and allows industrialists to maintain low wages. In turn, the policy making elites garner political support. Bates spells out the beneficiaries of such policies clearly. "Owners and workers in industrial firms, economic and political elites, privileged farmers and the mangers of public bureaucracies - these constitute the development coalition in contemporary Africa" and hence benefit from the inefficient policies.
In regards to production, such policies skew the incentive structure of smaller agricultural producers. When receiving below world market prices, farmers will lower production, in turn limiting food supply. Or farmers may pursue a policy of "out-migration" and moved to the urban areas in pursuit of jobs. In this regard, the peasants are too acting rationally according to Bates model. Bates also discusses the problems of mass organization in order to oppose these policies. The small farmers are so dispersed and politically weak that the collective action problems ensue. The government expands on these collective action problems by offering preferential disbursements of subsidies, etc. to those who tow the party line. This divide and conquer technique has limited the power of the rural masses to organize a coherent oppostion.
Extracting Rents Away from the Agricultural Sector.......2005-12-05
In this landmark study, Robert Bates offered an interpretation of African economic policies toward the agriculture sector that set the terms of the debate for the years to come. Why do African governments pursue policies that create market distortions, skewed incentives and misallocation of resources, despite their obvious costs for social welfare and long-term development? The core of Robert Bates' argument is that bad economics often makes good politics: governments choose to pursue policies that are clearly irrational from an economic viewpoint because their economic and social costs are more than offset by the political benefits that accrue to them and to the social forces that maintain them in power.
Things did not have to turn that way. Political elites who took power at the time of the independences sincerely believed that they could put their countries on a path to economic modernization and social well-being. What trapped Africa into a low equilibrium of narrow clientelism and entrenched self-interests was a mix of bad institutions, bad advice and bad luck.
African governments inherited from their colonizers institutions that were set to extract rents from the agriculture sector rather than to maximize the welfare of farmers. They chose a mix of development policies that emphasized the role of the state and the importance of a nascent manufacturing sector. And they benefited from a period of high commodity prices that led them to consider cash crops and natural resources as an inexhaustible source of foreign exchange revenue.
The institution that came to symbolize the rent-extracting nature of African agriculture policies is the marketing board, which purchased cash crops from farmers at administratively determined prices and then sold them for a higher price on the world market, thereby accumulating funds that could be used for state-sponsored industrial projects or for social subsidies, if not for outright plundering. Another instrument of redistribution away from the agriculture sector was the local industrial firm that processed raw agricultural products acquired at artificially low prices, or the importation of foreign crops at prices below domestic ones in order to feed urban workers and lower the cost of living.
This complex web of policies and institutions should not be seen solely as a way to transfer resources away from agriculture into the modern urban economy, thereby achieving the "primitive accumulation" that Marxist economists saw as a condition to industrial development. Some policies, such as large irrigation projects, the subsidization of inputs, the channeling of credit or the extension of public services to rural areas, benefit large landowners at the expense of small-scale farmers. Likewise, industrial development projects under protective trade policies give rise to large, capital intensive public enterprises which often operate below capacity and at high costs.
Robert Bates makes heavy use of interest group theory to explain how policies are designed to secure advantage for particular interests, to appease powerful political forces, and to enhance the capacity of political regimes to remain in power. More ground-breaking is his analysis of the market as the setting for the struggle between the peasant and the state, the political arena in which social forces collide or avoid each other. Through intervention in the market, the state seeks to levy resources from the countryside, to appease social unrest in urban areas and to serve the private interests of those in power. For their part, rural producers use the market as a means of defense against the state, thereby evading some of the adverse consequences of government policies. They do so in part by reducing output, shifting crops, migrating out of the countryside, returning to subsistence lifestyles or joining the informal sector. Consequently, policy aberrations on the part of the government are more likely to result in exit patterns than in attempts at reforms.
This book has been vilified in some quarters because it was said to have provided the intellectual blueprint to the policies of structural adjustment that swept African countries soon after its publication. The denunciation of the urban bias and the abolition of the marketing boards certainly provided a rallying cry that was easily picked up by market reformers working from development agencies, with little consideration to the social forces that would be put in motion by such prescriptions. And it is true that Bates is almost entirely silent on the organizational characteristics of his interest group coalitions that underpin policy choices and institutional settings. But this classic work still provides many insights on Africa's internal and external structural problems.
Explains how states affect market operations in Africa.......2000-10-31
This book nicely presents the way that African governments influence markets, why they do so, and the effect of their involvement on citizens, especially the poor. I found it helpful in explaining why some states make the decisions they do, despite the fact that they might not always be the most economically efficient.
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Forest Entomology in West Tropical Africa: Forest Insects of Ghana (Series Entomologica)
Michael R. Wagner , and
J.R. Cobbinah
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 0792310268 |
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Afrikakorps: Rommel's Tropical Army In Original Color
Bernd Peitz , and
Gary Wilkins
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
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Introduction to Parasitology in Tropical Africa
F.M.A. Ukoli
Manufacturer: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
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ASIN: 0471103713 |
Book Description
Throughout the world people are concerned about the demise of tropical forests and their wildlife. Hunting by forest-dwelling people has a dramatic effect on wildlife in many tropical forests, frequently driving species to local extinction, with devastating implications for other species and the health of the forests themselves. But wildlife is an important source of protein and cash for rural peoples. Can hunting be managed to conserve biological communities while meeting human needs? Are hunting rates as practiced by tropical forest peoples sustainable? If not, what are the biological, social, and cultural implications of this failure? Answering these questions is ever more important as national and international agencies seek to integrate the development of local peoples with the conservation of tropical forest systems and species.
This book presents a wide array of studies that examine the sustainability of hunting as practiced by rural peoples. Comprising work by both biological and social scientists, Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests provides a balanced viewpoint on the ecological and human aspects of this hunting. The first section examines the effects of hunting on wildlife in tropical forests throughout the world. The next section looks at the importance of hunting to local communities. The third section looks at institutional challenges of resource management, while the fourth draws on economic perspectives to understand both hunting and sustainability. A final section provides synthesis and summary of the factors that influence sustainability and the implications for management.
Drawing on examples from Ecuador to Congo-Zaire to Sulawesi, Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests will be a valuable resource to policymakers, conservation organizations, and students and scholars of biology, ecology, and anthropology.
Customer Reviews:
Good introduction and conclusion, but otherwise less than the sum of its parts.......2007-07-02
This book examines the potential for sustainable hunting in tropical rainforests. It's an important question, since these forests face the threat of being cut down, their wildlife hunting out of existence, and their people turned into urban slum-dwellers. Though the editors give it the old college try, however, this book doesn't really succeed in telling us how to improve the prospects for sustainable hunting in such cases, to say nothing of dealing with the external threats such as deforestation, global warming, and urbanization and industrialization.
The introduction is really very good, and usefully explores the key question of sustainable hunting. The authors are very careful to think about analytical categories and definitions, and they make a strong case that we need to consider the social context of hunting: traditional hunting versus hunting with modern technology, sport hunting versus hunting out of necessity, and subsistence hunting versus commercial hunting.
The conclusion, also written by the editors, also makes a very helpful contribution. The core of the conclusion summarizes in about 50 points the main conclusions of the contributors. These are organized by categories such as the social-cultural, institutional, and economic influences on sustainable hunting in tropical forests.
Unfortunately, what makes the conclusion helpful is what weakens the book as a whole. It lacks a strong analytical framework or theory, which forces the authors to cobble everything together at the end. It consists overwhelmingly of single cases, with no apparent attention to case selection issues. The authors of each chapter give no evidence of having read the other chapters, even those on the same topic. The editors work valiantly to summarize the findings, but these are pure summaries of facts not attempts to bring them together and make sense of the patterns.
The book also does not make many concessions to other scholars who don't do the same kind of work, whether biological or economic modeling for example. The book is very ethnographic and anthropological in its sensibility, even in those chapters written by biologists. In addition, most of the chapters are not very policy oriented, despite the apparent focus of the book. (In fairness, some studies of the Congo explicitly consider possible policy responses, as do a few other chapters.)
In sum, I was impressed by the editors' written contributions but it's evident that they were unable to whip their contributors into shape. There are a *lot* of contributors - - 1000 pages spread among 25 chapters - - so that makes much of the book a long slog in details about this or that forest scattered around the world.
Beyond Arm Chair Conservation.......2000-04-07
For anyone interested in wildlife conservation and habitat destruction - this book is a must read! The crisis in bushmeat in Africa is mounting - and among other things this book gives the reader a view from the inside, on the ground in Africa.
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