'Ever Green' by Reid and Lovejoy
A century ago, Aldo Leopold realized that road building was the surest way to unravel an ecosystem. With that insight in mind, economist John W. Reid and biologist Thomas E. Lovejoy discuss the importance of intact forest landscapes and the five vast forests that remain despite the shrinkage caused by agriculture and population growth: New Guinea, Amazonia, Equatorial Congo, Siberia and the far north of North America. The authors stress the importance of biodiversity, not only for its own sake but for the medicinal value of the forest plants. They emphasize a point seldom heard: the unique role that indigenous people will have to play in preserving the wild forests if we want the Earth (as we know it) to survive.
