Green Phoenix 
Subtitle: Restoring the Tropical Forests of Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: March 1, 2001
Language: eng
Number of pages: 332
ISBN-13: 9780195108934
First sentence: Behind the Casona, a large house that served long ago as the residence and base of operations for Hacienda Santa Rosa, in northwestern Costa Rica, a rough stone stairway is dug into the side of a hill.
Description: "Can we prevent the destruction of the world's tropical forests? In the fire-scarred hills of Costa Rica, award-winning science writer William Allen found a remarkable answer: we can not only prevent their destruction - we can bring them back to their former glory." "In Green Phoenix, Allen tells the story of a large group of Costa Rican and American scientists and volunteers who set out to save the tropical forests in the northwestern section of the country. It was an area that had largely been cleared of its forest cover by ranchers and small farmers. Despite the widely held belief that tropical forests, once lost, are lost forever, the team, led by the dynamic Daniel Janzen from the University of Pennsylvania, moved relentlessly ahead, taking a broad array of political, ecological, and social steps necessary for restoration. They began with 39 square miles and, by 2000, they had stitched together and revived some 463 square miles of land and another 290 of marine area. Today this region is known as the Guanacaste Conservation Area, a fabulously rich landscape of dry forest, cloud forest, and rain forest that gives life to some 235,000 species of plants and animals. It may be the greatest environmental success of our time, a prime example of how extensive devastation can be halted and reversed."--Jacket.