The Environment and Development : Which Way Now?

In recent times, there has been considerable interest in issues at the interface of the environment and development. In this paper, I review four prominent recent books about the environment and development. In particular, I analyze the contributions of these four books with regard to (i) the existence of complex links between the environment and development, (ii) the relationship between poverty and the state of the environment, and (iii) the importance of understanding and taking proper account of the role of local people in the design and implementation of development projects