This volume contains a wealth of information but it was also a pleasure to read. It is helpfully structured in in five sections: 1) Biological limits to sustainability, 2) Socio-cultural context influencing sustainability, 3) Institutional capacity for management, 4) Economic influences on sustainability, and 5) Synthesis.

The papers present a balanced mix of the necessary elements that must be taken into consideration in the analysis of the hunting activity. Throughout the different chapters, it is the human population, and their need and use of fauna that is analysed and evaluated, under the scope of sustainability. As Robinson and Bennett indicate in the opening paper, hunting can only be considered sustainable harvesting if the needs of the human population are being met. How to satisfy the needs of tropical forest-dwelling human populations without over-harvesting the game animal population capacities, i.e., ensuring an appropriate level of hunting intensity, is, however, difficult to determine. There is no simple formula to be applied.

Biological Limits to Sustainability is a collection of nine articles that analyse the sustainability of hunting by different native peoples in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The introductory chapter is a very good compendium on the study of hunting sustainability in tropical forests and includes analyses of factors such as forest biomass, game production, carrying capacity, and management issues.

Most of the authors use the model proposed by Robinson and Redford to calculate maximum sustainable harvest levels and comment on the applicability of the model under various conditions and assumptions.

Important conclusions that can be gleaned from the papers are that hunting can be sustainable if a sink or source area in which no hunting is undertaken and in which animal populations can increase their numbers, exists. This is the case in the Aché hunting area in the Mbaracayu Reserve in Paraguay. Also, hunting may be sustainable if species with high productivity rates are killed.

The six articles presented in Socio-cultural Context Influencing Sustainability conclude that hunting in the tropics is not sustainable. Despite a wealth of wildlife data, however, the articles do not address a number factors, such as availability of alternative income-generating activities, that are relevant to reducing impacts on hunted populations.

The authors also are aware of the problems of using northern hemispheric wildlife management models, regulatory policies and censusing techniques in tropical forest ecosystems. The synergistic effects of road construction, increased commerce and logging and clear-cutting in the study areas introduce a bias that makes it extremely difficult to calculate sustainability mathematically.

Under very specific circumstances hunting appears to be sustainable in areas of vast, continuous forests comprising very low human populations densities,. Yet even under these conditions, it is not a financially rewarding activity, as is the case in the Central African Republic.

Hunting for an answer, the first paper of four presented in the section Institutional Capacity for Management clearly describes the difficulties that the concept of sustainable hunting poses in India. Many developing countries are facing such a long list of social-issue priorities, that the mere thought of regulating hunting activities in the remaining habitats so that sustainable yields can be reached seems frivolous.

In Economic influences on Sustainability four case studies from Central African countries and Indonesia examine the financial aspects hunting. The opening article, dealing with hunting activities in logging concessions, concludes that industrial activities such as logging and road construction, increase accessibility, human disturbance, and demand for game. Even in highly selective logging operations, which is supposedly the sustainable approach to timber extraction, hunting rapidly reaches unsustainable levels. The proposed solutions to reduce the demand for bushmeat - importing meat and selling it to the workers below the price of bushmeat, subsidised by the logging companies, and establishing small livestock-raising programs - appear unrealistic in the long-term. Neither solution is financially feasible. Moreover introducing rabbits and cane rats that can then be eaten is likely to raise social, political, veterinary, and culinary concern throughout the tropics.

The paper that focuses on Sulawesi shows that regulatory policies collide with a lack of environmental education, concern for the regional natural heritage, and a lack of income alternatives. The attempts to establish regulatory measures to subsistence hunting and wildlife trade in these areas fail due to lack of law enforcement, so widespread throughout the tropics.

Overall, the economic importance of bushmeat for rural communities depends on different factors, such as the existence of other employment opportunities, hunting controls, and other food options. Management strategies aimed at addressing the bushmeat crisis will vary depending on variables such as these.

The papers of the penultimate section, Hunting for Sustainability: The Start of a Synthesis are well-structured and summarise issues relating to hunting in tropical regions. Biological, social, cultural, institutional, and economical conditions are associated with hunting sustainability and these final papers effectively summarise the findings put forward in the preceding sections.

The book's appendix presents the method for calculating maximum sustainable harvest and percentage offtakes, as proposed by Robinson and Redford in 1991.

When one is preoccupied with the notion of what will happen to game resources in a country where little is known about hunting, and less is being done at the necessary governmental levels to establish a policy regarding this activity, it is refreshing to know that useful information can be gathered and applied in relation to the use of fauna. It is also important to learn that many tropical countries share the same types of problems, and therefore it is possible that, in some cases, they may be able to share the same types of solutions.

This book holds information from different parts of the world on the issue of hunting. Although it does not provide a recipe for sustainable hunting in the tropics, it is a very good reference tool that can be used to plan and develop similar studies in other areas, to compare situations between regions, and to extract important general lessons that must be learned if we are to solve the problems that face us.

Finally, it is valuable to remember that the issue of hunting sustainability is complex, and rife with variables. In order to understand each situation, as many factors as possible must be analysed e.g., biological limits of game species, work options for rural communities, environmental education and hunting controls and their enforcement,. If we dare to propose solutions, they cannot be simplistic conclusions derived from studying only one or two of these factors in isolation. This book provides an insight into the many facets of hunting that should be addressed, but it is up to those interested in making conservation proposals adequately to distill the required information.

María José González is Chair of the Meso American SUSG

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