Wakild publishes new book about national parks in South America

Emily Wakild, Cecil D. Andrus Endowed Chair for the Environment and Public Lands in the School of the Environment, has published a new book, "A Moderating Force: Conserving Nature in National Parks in Patagonia and Amazonia," with Oxford University Press.

The book traces the development of national parks in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Brazil from the 19th to the 21st century, explaining the historical processes that led to nature conservation at the national level. Over the past century, landscapes across South American fundamentally changed. As forests were felled, cities and highways built, and agricultural land was managed, national governments set aside protected landscapes in certain charismatic places to mitigate change.

The book relates a transnational comparative history of two paradigmatic regions - the temperate southern third of South America known as Patagonia and the tropical expanse known as Amazonia. This wide-ranging study sheds new light on exploration, state-making, scientific practice, economic development and nature conservation in the past to inform what this history means for our shared future.

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