Tropical Pioneers. Human Agency and Ecological Change in the Highlands of Sri Lanka, 1800-1900. 2002. illus. XVIII, 243 p. gr8vo. Hardcover.

The book documents the conversion of a tropical rainforest biome andthe collision between what previously had been more discrete ecologicalzones within South Asia. The author demonstrates that profound ecological transformations occurred in the highlands of Sri Lanka duringthe ninetheenth century. In 1800, the highlands of Sri Lanka had someof the most biologically diverse tropical rain forests in the world. By1990, only a few craggy corners and mountain caps had been spared thefirestick. Highland villagers, through the extension of slash-and-burnagriculture, and British managers, through the creation of plantations,first of coffee, the cinchona, and finally tea, had removed virtuallythe entire primary forest cover. Anthropologists, environmentalists, historians and researchers in the area of sustainable development willfind the book an enriching and thought-provoking read.