Things Fall Apart?

Pauline von Hellermann is Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has conducted research on landscapes and politics in Nigeria and Tanzania and is editor of Multisited Ethnography: Problems and Possibilities in the Translocation of Research Methods (with Simon Coleman, Routledge, 2011).

“Von Hellermann’s book is a clear and useful reading not just in anthropology and political ecology, but also for development and environmental practitioners, stressing the importance of historical analysis in understanding and deconstructing common narratives on crisis.” · Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale“This is an excellent contribution to the literature on political ecology in Africa.” · Bayo Ijagbemi, University of Arizona“This is an important book that has much to say about forest politics that is relevant not only within the regional context of West Africa but throughout the tropics. The detailed history and analysis of interactions between local economic and political systems and the standard European forestry regimes that were imposed in colonial times provides insights that resonate with accounts from tropical forest areas across the world.” · Helen Newing, University of Kent

• List of MapsList of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1. Ecology and Politics in the Benin KingdomChapter 2. Separating Farm and Forest: Reservation and DereservationChapter 3. Managing the Forests: Logging and RegenerationChapter 4. Reinventing Farm and Forest: The Changing Forms of Taungya FarmingChapter 5. Okomu National Park: A Postscript on ConservationAppendix: Administrative History of Edo StateBibliography