Atlas of French Overseas Departments, 4: French Guiana
Atlas des départements français d’Outre-Mer, 4: La Guyane
French Guiana · Unknown · 1979
Related Reviews & Articles
Review: Atlas de la Guyane
Bernard, Rouleau · 1982
This paper reviews the recently published Atlas of French Guiana, the third volume in the series *Atlas des Départements Français d’Outre‑Mer*. Directed by Guy Lasserre, the atlas aims to furnish a geographic instrument attuned to the department’s development plan. The review examines the work’s structure, thematic scope, and cartographic design, assessing both its scientific accomplishments and its weaknesses. The atlas contains 36 colour plates with extensive explanatory texts, produced by more than fifty specialists. Nearly half of the plates are devoted to the natural environment—geology, geomorphology, soils, climate, vegetation—reflecting the difficulties posed by a forest‑dominated, historically inaccessible terrain. Other themes cover human settlement history, population distribution and migration, land use, agriculture, forest and mineral resources, and urban infrastructure. The reviewer highlights the precision with which spatial organization is mapped and considers the atlas the most comprehensive geographical synthesis of French Guiana yet achieved. Comparisons with the earlier insular DOM atlases underscore the territory’s individuality, notably a coastal concentration of population and an almost empty interior. While the overall quality is commended, certain cartographic shortcomings are noted: cluttered rainfall maps, a confusing vegetation colour scheme, and an overloaded housing map that would be more effective as separate thematic sheets. The atlas is recognized as a major scientific undertaking, made possible through cooperation between CEGET and IGN, and its extension to overseas territories is advocated. It stands as an essential reference for both research and development planning.
Review: Atlas of the French Overseas Departments. IV: French Guiana
Jean-Claude, Nardin · 1988
This review examines the fourth volume of a series on French overseas departments, the *Atlas de la Guyane*, which stands out from its predecessors due to its co‑production by CEGET and ORSTOM and its focus on a territory that, despite being twenty times the size of an average metropolitan department, remains an economic and demographic anomaly. French Guiana is portrayed as a perennial failure: sparsely populated, lacking any autonomous economic base, and sustained almost entirely by public transfers. The atlas, described as a true encyclopedia of the region, systematically documents the causes and manifestations of this underdevelopment across geographical, historical, and social dimensions. The review highlights the semi‑official nature of the publication, which may preclude fully probing sensitive questions—such as the role of a missing local entrepreneurial class or the legacy of slavery—but nonetheless acknowledges the atlas’s remarkable scholarly achievement. Contributions from specialists in geography, history, and anthropology, notably the analysis of French Guianese Creole identity, are singled out for praise. Minor criticisms include the ambiguous official name of the entity (“Guyane” vs. “Guyane française”), the omission of the recent border agreement with Surinam that extended the department’s territory, and the absence of the country’s highest point (Mont Bellevue de l’Inini) on the relief map. The review concludes that, despite these details, the atlas is a magnificent testament to French geographical and historical scholarship on a small but enigmatic corner of the world, and it anticipates future editions that will address current development hopes and their outcomes.
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