AMAZON
ENVIRONMENT
In
addition to the Iriri River Expedition and visits to
indigenous peoples (noted above), John Hemming was on
the Pico de la Neblina Expedition (Venezuela, 1984)
multidisciplinary research on unexplored parts of Neblina
table mountain; Report on ecotourism in the Manú
National Park, Peru, for a Lima university, 1997.
He
led the Maracá Rainforest Project, Roraima, Brazil,
1987-88 and monitoring during the subsequent decade
for the Royal Geographical Society, Instituto Nacional
de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) and the Environment
Secretariat SEMA. This grew to be the largest research
project in the Amazon ever organized by a European country,
with some 150 scientists and 50 scientific técnicos
involved. It made important findings in the ecology
of partly-unexplored Maracá Island (including
over 200 species new to science), the hydrological cycle
in rain forests, natural regeneration, the forest-savannah
boundary, medical entomology of insect disease vectors,
and frontier settlement. The Project produced fifteen
books and over a hundred scientific papers and articles,
as well as botanical, entomological and zoological collections.
BOOKS
Change
in the Amazon Basin (editor, 2 volumes,
Manchester University Press, 1985);
Maracá
(with James Ratter and Angelo dos Santos, Empresa das
Artes, São Paulo, 1988);
Roraima:
Brazil’s Northernmost Frontier (University
of London, 1990);
Maracá,
Rainforest Island (with James Ratter,
Macmillan, London, 1993);
The
Rainforest Edge. Plant and Soil Ecology of Maracá
Island, Brazil (editor, Manchester University
Press, 1994).
The
Amazon Story (in press, Thames & Hudson),
a history of Amazonia, including its environment, archaeology
and threats from deforestation.
Also,
many chapters, papers and articles, lectures and broadcasts
in Brazil, UK, US, Peru and Spain.
