ABSTRACT
The overarching impression given by the chapters in this volume is of a sharp imbalance between the forces of economic growth and those of environmental conservation in South-East Asia. As a result, the region has become equally renowned as one of the most dynamic zones of the global economy and as an area where the natural (and living) environment is being rapidly despoiled. The forests are being felled at an alarming rate, the seas have been extensively over-fished, massive fires sweep across the countryside with increasing frequency and intensity, industry and traffic have become a pollution menace, metropolitan areas have almost ground to a halt with congestion, and tourism is threatening to destroy the very resources upon which the industry has been built. Economic growth and environmental degradation, it appears, go hand in hand.
