One gets used to nature and science books often being a bit of a slog. Not so with this fast paced, interesting, and entertaining account by Bruce Barcott of Sharon Matola's efforts to save the scarlet macaws in Belize. Known throughout Belize, as the "Zoo lady", Matola is an enigmatic figure who takes on a corrupt government officials, international corporations, and dubious environmental reports to wage a fight for the nesting grounds of the last 200 scarlet macaws in Belize. Barcott does a great job weaving a story of politics, history, and science together into a compelling narrative that you simply don't want to put down. I highly recommend this book if you want to know more about what Belize is all about. ( )

Bruce Barcott's The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw reads more adventure novel than non-fiction book--a book which is, as it turns out, mostly about dams.

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A fascinating look at Belize and conservation, this features the "zoo lady" of Belize and her efforts at fighting a dam project in Belize that endangers the future of Belize's scarlet macaw population. The history and development of vacation hot spot Belize is fascinating, and the echos of colonionalism caused by white conservationists politicking in primarily black Belize and other countries are also explored. ( )

In 1982 Sharon Matola, a feisty, curly-haired native from the rusty working-class town of Baltimore, left home for adventure - after some false starts hopping trains and training lions, she eventually landed in the green jungles of Central America where, in the tiny country of Belize (pop: 250,000), she created the first and only "zoo" (more like an animal rescue). Because of her passion for animals and the environment she earned a reputation as the 'Jane Goodall of Belize'. So it was inevitable when a corrupt Belize government wanted to build a fiscally questionable dam that would obliterate some of Belize's richest biological resources - including the unique roosting area of the beautiful but endangered Scarlet Macaw - she became the driving force behind a movement to stop powerful and shadowy forces. Bruce Barcott, an environmental journalist with Outside magazine based in Seattle Washington, heard about Matola's struggle and for a number of years followed her story as it went from a single womans crusade into an international turmoil involving Fortune 500 companies, the Canadian Government, movie stars and Englands secretive and rarely used highest court the "Privy Council".

The Last Flight is structured as a "non-fiction narrative", meaning there is a main character (Matola) following an evolving story (struggle to stop the dam) in which the reader is kept in suspense to find out what happens. Along the way the author imparts factual background knowledge such as: a history of Belize; Belize culture and geography; Belize wildlife; a history of dams and the environment; wildlife extinction; backgrounds on institutions like the NRDC and Englands Privy Council; how companies and environmental groups operate during disputes. In both the suspense story and factual tangents Barcott has succeeded marvelously in creating a highly readable page turner. Just as Matola is the stories personification of conservation, the iconic Scarlet Macaw becomes the symbol of all the animals that would be impacted by the dam, and ultimately of endangered animals everywhere.

Rather than a black and white "man vs nature", Barcott reveals how ambiguous and complicated conservation is, often not a question of ethics but politics. This is a book about a tiny valley, an unknown woman in a country where fewer people live than most American counties. But it is a larger more important work, it is a window into the world of conservation struggles, an awareness of the Belize people, culture and geography, and most importantly a profile of Sharon whose passion and determination is an inspiration for anyone, in particular young women and men to follow their dreams and make a difference in the world.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )