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SUMMARY:Amazonia 1492: Pristine forest or cultural parkland?  - Toby Gardn
 er
DTSTART:20130214T131000Z
DTEND:20130214T140000Z
UID:TALK42744@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sven Friedemann
DESCRIPTION:Fascinating archaeological research on pre-Colombian civilisat
 ions in the lowland Amazon has demonstrated that these peoples had remarka
 bly complex and sophisticated societies. However\, this same research has 
 been used to provide support for two further conclusions that I seek to qu
 estion here. First\, the notion that much of the Amazon was at some point 
 "domesticated" by humans\, and that the legacy of human impacts is manifes
 t in the structure and functioning of the entire ecosystem. And second\, t
 hat strategies for sustainable development of the Amazon region today can 
 be guided\, in significant ways\, by what we have learnt from the ways in 
 which early Amazon societies exploited natural resources. I will attempt t
 o argue that scientific debates\, especially about a subject as important 
 as the fate of the Amazon\, are frequently hijacked and distracted by exag
 gerated claims and scenarios\, polarised arguments and unhelpful rhetoric 
 - which to some extent has been the case here. It is unquestionable that h
 ighly sophisticated societies once inhabited parts of the Amazon. But this
  observation does not undermine the fact that the forest that exists today
  has been subject to highly variable levels of human impact. And that many
  of these impacts are of a magnitude and type incomparable to the activiti
 es of pre-Colombian peoples - and as such require proportionate and often 
 novel responses if we are to achieve a more sustainable future for the Ama
 zon region. 
LOCATION:1 Newnham Terrace\, Darwin College
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