A co-publication of The New York Botanical Garden Press and Yale University Press.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Ramón tree and the Maya -- Mexican bark paper : commercialization of a Pre-Hispanic technology -- Camu-camu : fruits, floods, and vitamin C -- Fruits from the Amazon floodplain -- Forest fruits of Borneo -- Homemade Dayak forests -- Sawmills and sustainability in Papua New Guinea -- Collaborative conservation in the Bwindi Impenetrable forest reserve -- A renewable supply of carving wood -- Caboclo forestry in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive reserve -- Measuring tree growth with Maya foresters -- Managing agave, distilling mescal -- Landscape dynamics in southwestern China -- The world of rattan -- Community forestry in Myanmar.

Drawn from ecologist Charles M. Peterss thirtyfive years of fieldwork around the globe, these absorbing stories argue that the best solutions for sustainably managing tropical forests come from the people who live in them. As Peters says, "Local people know a lot about managing tropical forests, and they are much better at it than we are." With the aim of showing policy makers, conservation advocates, and others the potential benefits of giving communities a more prominent conservation role, Peters offers readers fascinating backstories of positive forest interactions. He provides examples such as the Kenyah Dayak people of Indonesia, who manage subsistence orchards and are perhaps the worlds most gifted foresters, and communities in Mexico that sustainably harvest agave for mescal and demonstrate a nearheroic commitment to good practices. No forest is pristine, and Peters's work shows that communities have been doing skillful, subtle forest management throughout the tropics for several hundred years.--