UNE Environmental Studies Professor Rick Peterson releases second edition of book on Central African rainforest ecology

As part of his 2016-17 sabbatical, Richard Peterson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, has released a revised and updated second edition of his book Conversations in the Rainforest: Culture, Values, and the Environment in Central Africa. The book examines the environmental perceptions, values and practices of inhabitants of Central Africa’s rainforests in order to help build a more firm foundation for ecological and social sustainability at the local level while also making contributions to global environmental ethics from underrepresented African cultural traditions.

The book focuses on two case studies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): one, an integrated health and sustainable development project in the Ubangi region, and the other, a large wildlife reserve in the Ituri Forest. Through in-depth interviews, focus groups and participant observation conducted with local farmers and foragers, project staff and local academics, Peterson records cultural and practical resources for the promotion of ecological sustainability both locally and globally. This revised and updated edition includes a new Preface and Afterword highlighting some of the key transformations that have taken place in the DRC and relating those changes to the enduring themes discussed in the original work. In addition to several new color figures, new color photographs provide alluring images of the places and people with whom Peterson worked.

While the original was published by Westview Press, this second edition has been made available in an open access format via DUNE: DigitalUNE, UNE’s digital repository, so that it may reach its widest possible audience. Through DUNE, UNE community members, students and teachers throughout the world, and environmental practitioners and scholars in Africa who might not otherwise have access will be able to utilize the book.

DUNE’s administrator, UNE librarian Bethany Kenyon, notes that Peterson’s book is the first full-length book placed in DUNE by a UNE faculty member. According to Peterson, DUNE was the right tool for this project because it allows him to maintain his copyright, archive the book, disseminate it on a highly discoverable platform which gathers use statistics, and preserve the option to produce paperback hard copy editions using print-on-demand technologies.

Read the book on DUNE: DigitalUNE

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