The Amazon region has received considerable worldwide attention in recent years, from several aspects - the home that it provides to indigenous peoples; its role in mediating regional and global climates; the integrity of its ecological systems following disturbance and transformation; the biological and cultural diversity that it supports; and so on.

Very often, the reports and commentaries come from outside the countries and peoples of the region, while much of the thinking about Amazonia from within is not widely known or accessible.

It is within such a perspective that the present volume has been conceived and has taken form. The volume is concerned with Amazonian ecology, resource use and development, as perceived by researchers, scholars and resource managers from Brazil or who have for a long period lived and worked there.

The volume comprises thirteen chapters which, as an ensemble, provide multiple insights on Amazonia - climate and hydrology, urbanization processes, biological and ecological diversity, forests and agroforestry, rehabilitation of degraded land and water areas, extractive reserves and extractivism, fisheries and aquaculture, mining, agriculture, resource management and development planning.