Green Phoenix Restoring the Tropical Forests of Guanacaste, Costa Rica

About this book

The story of how a group of Costa Rican and US scientists and volunteers set out to save the tropical forests in the northwestern section of the country, an area badly damaged by the fires of ranchers and small farmers. Challenging the widely held belief that tropical forests, once lost, are lost forever, the team led by the dynamic Daniel Janzen from the University of Pennsylvania advanced systematically, tackling a series of political, ecological and social issues. They began with 39 square miles and by 2000 had stitched together and revived some 463 square miles of land and another 290 of marine area. It is now known as the Guanacaste Conservation Area, a landscape of dry forest, cloud forest and rainforest that supports an estimated 235,000 plant and animal species.

Contents

Acknowledgments; Prologue: The Contrafuego; PART I: IN THE PLACE OF THE TREE WITH EARS; 1. The Nucleus; 2. Canon del Tigre; 3. The Ant and the Acacia; 4. The Tree with Ears; 5. The Fires of Guanacaste; 6. The Living Dead; 7. The Battle Plan; PART II: ADVANCING THROUGH THE WORLD OF WOUNDS; 8. A Tropical Christmas Catalogue; 9. Earthquakes; 10. Little Dances; 11. The Clifftop and the Volcano; 12. Home Runs; 13. The Green Magician; 14. Touch of the Money Spider; PART III: THE RISING PHOENIX; 15. Area de Conservacion Guanacaste; 16. A Time of War; 17. The Vigilant; 18. Life Jackets; Epilogue: Lessons from a Tropical Kitty Hawk; Bibliography; Index

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