Billed as the Book of the Month for September Jungle Jive: Sustaining the forests of Southeast Asia takes a constructive look at jungle conservation, arguing that implementing economic measures that value jungle trees is the way to sustain them and their biological values. The central thesis of the book is the need to inject a dose of economic realism into a subject that has been long on superlatives and emotion, but short on commercial reality.
The book sets out an argument for that in part lies in the increasing prospects of sustainable, legally verified wood production and climate change abatement carbon credit trading. It advocates that making trees too valuable to destroy is a critical piece of the jungle survival puzzle.
The book advances an argument for developing economic incentives to retain healthy, functioning, viable jungle ecosystems across Southeast Asia. Such a prescription will help to create a set of circumstances where tropical jungles are seen as economic assets, not liabilities, and where governments, corporations and local communities have a vested interest in keeping trees standing.
Part of the motivation behind writing the book was flying across Borneo and seeing palm oil plantations stretching out as far as the eye could see – all on land that was once magnificent tropical jungle. Copies of the book are now available in bookshops or can be purchased directly from publisher Connor Court at: www.connorcourt.com
