Amazon Sweet Sea by Nigel Smith, University of Texas Press, $39.95, ISBN 0292777701 Reviewed by Adrian Barnett
ASK most tropical biologists to name the most denuded part of Amazonia, and the chances are they’ll say “Pará, the mouth of the Amazon” or “Anywhere near Belém”. It makes sense – one of the first areas colonised by Europeans, it has long traded in timber, sugar products and cattle. Yet, as Nigel Smith shows in Amazon Sweet Sea, this area still retains a rich and vibrant ecology – humans, werepigs, plants and all.
The product of more than 30 years of research, keen…
