Development Or Destruction: The Conversion Of Tropical Forest To Pasture In Latin America

This book is the outcome of a workshop on the conversion of tropical forest to pasture in Latin America convened in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1988. It examines the dynamics underlying this complex and destructive process and enlisted multiple perspectives in order to identify alternatives.

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.