Tropical Pioneers : Human Agency and Ecological Change in the Highlands of Sri Lanka, 1800-1900

Tropical Pioneers documents the conversion of a tropical rainforest biome and the collision between what previously had been more discrete ecological zones within South Asia. The author demonstrates that profound ecological transformations occurred in the highlands of Sri Lanka during the nineteenth century. In 1800, the highlands of Sri Lanka had some of the most biologically diverse tropical rain forests in the world. By 1990, only a few craggy corners and mountain caps had been spared the firestick. Highland villagers, through the extension of slash-and-burn agriculture, and British managers, through the creation of plantations—first of coffee, then cinchona, and finally tea—had removed virtually the entire primary forest cover. A part of the Studies in Social Ecology and Environmental History series, the book presents the integration of tropical ecological zones as an important theme for researchers to investigate elsewhere. Anthropologists, environmentalists, historians and researchers in the area of sustainable development will find the book an immensely enriching and thought-provoking read.