Eric Pawson and Tom Brooking eds: Environmental Histories of New Zealand

By PHILIPPA JAMIESON

Imagine a New Zealand covered in bush, where the moa still roam and where no possums ravage the forest. It seems like a distant dream, but in historical terms it wasn't really that long ago. Our environment has undergone a rapid transformation since the relatively recent arrival of human beings.

Environmental Histories of New Zealand is an important new volume that chronicles the vast changes Maori and Pakeha have wreaked on the landscape in the past 200 years. The editors have collected essays by 21 contributors in agricultural science, anthropology, archaeology, ecology, geography, history and law. They aim to counteract the "amnesia" we have about the environmental changes we have effected, and to contribute to international literature in the growing field of environmental history.

We have viewed history through social, political and cultural lenses and our interactions with the environment have been either filtered through these lenses or ignored. This book offers stimulating perspectives, with the environment as the active ingredient. It follows a roughly chronological path, beginning with the impacts on the land by Maori and European settlers, the legacies of colonisation, through the intensification of land use in the 20th century and genetic engineering.

Topics include the burning and logging of forests, mining, Maori land claims, pests and weeds, swamp drainage, the development of pastureland, gardens and urban areas.

The editors acknowledge there are several topics that deserve more detailed attention, such as tourism, transport and resource management institutions, so there is clearly ample scope for more research.

Environmental Histories is a valuable reference, whether read as a whole or for selected chapters. It is also a timely reminder for us to take note of history in our ongoing relationship with the land.

While the book is academic in style, it will be welcomed by general readers including farmers, environmentalists, and government personnel at local, regional and national levels.

Oxford University Press

$49.95

* Philippa Jamieson is a Dunedin freelance writer.