Misreading the African Landscape

Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic

AvJames Fairhead,Melissa Leach

Häftad, Engelska, 1996

Del 90 i serien African Studies

347 kr

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Beskrivning

Islands of dense forest in the savanna of 'forest' Guinea have long been regarded both by scientists and policy-makers as the last relics of a once more extensive forest cover, degraded and degrading fast due to its inhabitants' land use. In this 1996 text, James Fairhead and Melissa Leach question these entrenched assumptions. They show, on the contrary, how people have created forest islands around their villages, and how they have turned fallow vegetation more woody, so that population growth has implied more forest, not less. They also consider the origins, persistence, and consequences of a century of erroneous policy. Interweaving historical, social anthropological and ecological data, this fascinating study advances a novel theoretical framework for ecological anthropology, encouraging a radical re-examination of some central tenets in each of these disciplines.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:1996-10-17
Mått:154 x 229 x 26 mm
Vikt:630 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:African Studies
Antal sidor:384
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9780521564991

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Recensioner i media

'This is a bold and important book, an analytical tour de force. It mounts a forceful attack against the received wisdom on deforestation and the spread of the desert.' Wendy James and Richard P. Werbner Amaury Talbot Prize 1997

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction; 1. Convictions of forest loss in policy and ecological science; 2. Forest gain: historical evidence of vegetation change; 3. Settling a landscape: forest islands in regional social and political history; 4. Ecology and society in a Kuranko village; 5. Ecology and society in a Kissi village; 6. Enriching a landscape: working with ecology and deflecting successions; 7. Accounting for forest gain: local land use, regional political economy and demography; 8. Reading forest history backwards: a century of environmental policy; 9. Sustaining reversed histories: the continual production of views of forest loss; 10. Towards a new forest-savanna ecology and history.