Uit de omslagflap:
AMAZONIA URGENT: FIVE CENTURIES OF HISTORY AND ECOLOGY is both a museum ex-hibition and a book. The latter ¬an Exhibition Guide — reproduces the text and images of the former. AMAZONIA URGENT impres-ses upon the reader clear notions of the ecological equilibrium which unsuitable technological progress is threatening to destroy. It shows that Amazonian ecosystems are living organisms: what happens to their nuclei and to the forest cover¬ing influences the climate, the hydric system ana the soil. The book uses an inter-disciplinary ap¬proach and brings together Geoscience, Biology and the Social Sciences, in particular Anthropol¬ogy and History. A multi-disciplinary approach is crucial in enabling us to put forth alternatives for self-sustained management of Amazonia. It is the only way to identify the physical components, the historical factors, the political ingredients and the economic stimulus underlying the old and new exploration models, as well as the social and environmen¬tal cost they entail. The result of this analysis, which is not based on misinformation and falsification, but on scientific founda¬tions, is open to discussion. Its aim is to raise the consciousness not only of entrepreneurs and Government officials, but of wider sectors of the public, so that the traditional neglect with which the Amazonian ecosystems and its indigenous and caboclo inhabitants have been ¬and continue to be — treated will not be repeated. To this end, it is paramount to intensify the study of all factors which influence decision-making on the most appropriate model of development for the Amazon rain forest. Among others, those Ethnobiclogical studies.