Tropical pioneers : human agency and ecological change in the highlands of Sri Lanka, 1800-1900 / James L.A. Webb, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Webb, James L. A., Jr., 1952-

Series:

Ohio University Press series in ecology and history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rain forest ecology--Sri Lanka--History--19th century.

Rain forest ecology.

Agricultural ecology--Sri Lanka--History--19th century.

Agricultural ecology.

Human ecology--Sri Lanka--History--19th century.

Human ecology.

Nature--Effect of human beings on--Sri Lanka--History--19th century.

Nature.

Nature--Effect of human beings on.

History.

Sri Lanka.

Physical Description:

xviii, 243 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, [2002]

Summary:

In 1800, the highlands of Sri Lanka had some of the most biologically diverse primary tropical rainforest ecosystems in the world. By 1900, only a few craggy corners and mountain caps had been spared the fire stick. 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. 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 ecological impacts were transformational. Author James L. A. Webb, Jr., demonstrates that profound ecological disruption occurred in the central highlands of Sri Lanka during the nineteenth century and suggests that the theme of ecological crisis brought about by the integration of tropical ecological zones during precolonial and colonial periods alike is an important one for historians to investigate elsewhere. Tropical Pioneers is based on extensive research in the National Archives of Sri Lanka, the National Agricultural Library at Gannaruwa, the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society-Ceylon Branch, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Public Record Office of the United Kingdom, and the British Library.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Natural Ecology of the Island and Processes of Early Ecological Change 4

Chapter 2 The Highland Ecologies in the Early Nineteenth Century 25

Chapter 3 Early-nineteenth-century Processes of Change 53

Chapter 4 The Transformation of the Middle Highlands 76

Chapter 5 Into the Upper Highlands 108

Appendix 1 Sir Joseph Banks, Director of Kew Gardens, on the Principles on Which a Colonial Botanic Garden in Ceylon Should Be Founded [c.1810] 153

Appendix 2 Sir Joseph Banks's Instructions to William Kerr, First Gardener of the Royal Botanic Garden, Ceylon [1812] 155

Appendix 3 Burning the Forest 157

Appendix 4 Cinchona Harveting 159

Appendix 5 Superintendents, Assistant Directors, and Directors of the Royal Botanic Garden, Peradeniya, in the Nineteenth Century 161.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-233) and index.

ISBN:

0821414275

0821414283

OCLC:

48550996