Green fantasies: photographic representations of biodiversity and ecotourism in the Western Pacific

[Extract] In his groundbreaking book European Vision and the South Pacific (1959:viii), Bernard Smith proposed that “…in the century preceding the publication of The Origin of Species (1859) the Pacific provided a challenging new experience for Europeans, one which placed unprecedented pressure upon biblical creation theory and provided a wealth of new evidence out of which was fashioned eventually the first scientifically credible theory of evolution”. The scientific observations, and especially the drawings and paintings undertaken by botanists, natural historians and artists who went on exploratory expeditions, generated debate, speculation and scientific theories that are now the basis for contemporary interest in the South Pacific environment – notably the observation, classification and conservation of its biodiversity.

Journal of Political Ecology

Journal of Political Ecology

12

1073-0451

N/A

N/A

22