Product Description: Among Mesoamericanists, the agricultural basis of the ancient Maya civilization of the Yucatan Peninsula has been an important topic of research—and controversy. Interest in the agricultural system of the Maya greatly increased as new discoveries showed that the lowland Maya were not limited to slash-and-burn technology, as had been previously believed, but used a variety of more sophisticated agricultural techniques and practices, including terracing, raised fields, and, perhaps, irrigation...read more

Product Description: This highly topical study of tropical deforestation reports on the first phase of a large, integrated, multi- institutional, and team-based study. Based in Mexico, it is designed to understand and project land changes in a development frontier that pits the rapidly growing needs of smallholder farmers to cut down forests for cultivation against federally sponsored initiatives committed to various international programs of forest preservation and complementary economic programs...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Among Mesoamericanists, the agricultural basis of the ancient Maya civilization of the Yucatan Peninsula has been an important topic of research—and controversy. Interest in the agricultural system of the Maya greatly increased as new discoveries showed that the lowland Maya were not limited to slash-and-burn technology, as had been previously believed, but used a variety of more sophisticated agricultural techniques and practices, including terracing, raised fields, and, perhaps, irrigation...read more

Product Description: Human-induced environmental change is to be found throughout the world, but there are areas which scientists consider to be "critical regions" - regions that are particularly vulnerable to or suffering from environmental degradation...read more

Product Description: This book deals with the relationship between land use and land cover: between human activities and the transformation of the Earth's surface. It describes the recent changes in the world's farmland, forests, grasslands and settlements, and the impacts of these changes on soil, water resources and the atmosphere...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: "By far the most extensive empirical and theoretical analysis of the debate [on the effects of population growth on development] in the African context.  It promises . . . to become a central document for those interested in African and other Third World regions' agrarian transformation...read more

Product Description: Through a series of 12 original case studies, prepared by 19 international, multidisciplinary experts, this volume offers a comprehensive comparative examination of world agriculture. The 12 farming systems explored here encompass the broad array of environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic conditions in which agriculture exists--from Amazonian swidden to Hungarian cooperative farms...read more