After an introductory chapter by the editor there are 9 chapters by various authors on traditional resource conservation systems in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, the Soviet Union, Europe, North America, Latin America and Oceania. Each chapter is divided into 5 sections: The resource base; Evolution of a tradition - covering the types of traditional practice which have existed, whether or not they were intentional, and their effectiveness; Existing traditional resource-using systems; Region in transition; and Regional assessment. Forestry practices described include clearing, protection and use, shifting cultivation and its variants, and garden systems. The final chapter is entitled Traditional wisdom and the modern resource manager.ADDITIONAL ABSTRACT:The book is intended primarily for undergraduate students in geography. Except for Chs. (1) and (11), the book is organized to cover resource management traditions in each of the major regions of the world. Several regional chapters focus fairly exclusively on agricultural resources, while others, notably that on Europe, illustrate the topic by concentrating on one typical country. Ch. (1) introduces the need for exploring and evaluating traditional forms of resource management, while the concluding Ch. (11) attempts to draw together some general principles regarding scale, traditional land use planning and decision making, strategies to make systems reliable, perpetual, and productive, as well as implications for the Western development planner.