Rouleau Bernard · 1982
Bernard Rouleau reviews La Guyane in the Atlas des Départements Français d’Outre-Mer series, directed by Guy Lasserre following the Réunion and Martinique atlases. Its 36 plates and accompanying texts draw on contributions from more than fifty researchers and specialists; topic selection reflects available research and documentary and statistical sources. Rouleau considers it the most important comprehensive work on French Guiana then available. Fifteen plates cover the natural environment, including geological, geomorphological and soil maps at 1:1,000,000 and more local coastal studies at 1:350,000. Explanatory texts supplement the color maps with additional maps, figures, statistics and discussion. The review highlights disease inventories, the sparsely populated interior and recent coastal population growth, migration mapping, forest and mineral resources, and urban facilities and plans. Rouleau attributes the limited agricultural content to the scarcity of data outside coastal areas. He criticizes the crowded monthly rainfall layouts, initially confusing vegetation colors and overloaded municipal housing map. The project originated at C.E.G.E.T., received approval from the central commission of the Sixth Plan for the overseas departments, and obtained ministerial and administrative support. C.E.G.E.T. retained scientific responsibility, while I.G.N. handled technical production and printing, whose quality Rouleau judges equal to the earlier atlases.
Nardin Jean-Claude · 1988
Jean-Claude Nardin reviews the 1979 fourth volume of the Atlas des départements français d’outre-mer, La Guyane, comprising 88 pages and 36 color map sheets. He expects the series to end with this volume. Produced jointly by CEGET and ORSTOM under Marc Boyé and Gérard Brasseur, it benefited from ORSTOM's strong local presence and Brasseur's scientific co-direction. Nardin calls it an encyclopedia of French Guiana, documenting the territory's persistent failures of settlement and development despite its large area. He questions whether it explains these failures as clearly as Jean Hurault's Français et Indiens de Guyane (1972), suggesting that its semi-official character may limit questions about the absence or disappearance of a Béké class. Historical agricultural examples and colonial correspondence underpin his discussion of economic resources and possible lack of local initiative; he also quotes the atlas's description of an economy sustained almost entirely by public transfers. His overall assessment is strongly favorable: he praises the atlas's geographical and historical scholarship, including Marie-José Jolivet's analysis of Guianese Creole society. He closes by questioning the official territorial name, regretting the absence of discussion of a border agreement with Surinam, and noting the apparent omission of Mont Bellevue de l'Inini (851 m) from the relief map, although it appears in the text. He hopes a future edition will add the name and reassess the development prospects left open in this volume.
