Forest, Field, and Fallow (eBook)

This volume aims to present the essential work of geographer and historical ecologist William M. Denevan to explain the impact and influence his thinking had on the conceptual advancement not only in his own discipline, but in a range of related disciplines such as anthropology, archaeology, and environmental history. The book is organized around eight themes, demonstrating Denevan's early and profound insights on topics that remain of current relevance today, and the scholarly impact his writing had on subsequent scholarship. The book is unique because it offers commentary from active scholars who address the impacts of Prof. Denevan's thinking and work on contemporary environmental and ecological issues, with a focus on several groundbreaking themes (e.g. historical demography, agricultural landforms, cultural plant geography, human environmental impacts, indigenous agro-ecology, tropical agriculture, livestock and landscape, and synthetic contributions). This book will be of interest to a range of scholars in geography, anthropology, archaeology, history, and ecology, as well as to environmental managers and practitioners, especially those working for non-profit organizations and government organizations tasked with finding ways to adapt to global environmental change. 

Dr. Antoinette M.G.A. WinklerPrins is a permanent Program Director of the Geography and Spatial Sciences program at the National Science Foundation. She holds a PhD in geography, with a minor in soil science, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master's in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. Dr. WinklerPrins' academic research has focused on environmental knowledge systems, smallholder agriculture, agro-biodiversity, and sustainable livelihoods in urban and rural areas of developing countries. Much of her research has been conducted in the Brazilian Amazon, but she has also been involved in research projects in Kenya, Mexico, and the U.S.A. She has investigated networks of agro-biodiversity maintenance and has looked at how Amazonian Dark Earths (fertile anthropogenic soils) were created in the past, how they may be recreated in the future, and their implication for conservation and development for the Amazon region.