Synopses & Reviews
Images of children starving because of environmental destruction have become an integral part of the way that Africa is perceived in the West, a typical signpost to "the lie of the land." The driving force behind much environmental policy in Africa is a set of similar images and powerful assumptions about environmental crises. We read about overgrazing and the spread of deserts, the overuse of woodfuels and decline of forests, soil erosion, and the over-mining of natural resources. Yet the newer research reported in this book shows that many of the "crisis" images are deeply misleading.
If the assumptions behind these apparent crises are incorrect, then many of the policies created to "solve" them are misguided. This book questions the reasoning behind such images and brings us critical current information about environmental change.
Synopsis
Paper Edition. This book questions the reasoning behind such images, as children starving and environmental destruction, and brings us critical current information about environmental change.
About the Author
Robin Mearns is a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex.Melissa Leach is a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex.
Table of Contents
Contents :
Environmental Change and Policy: Challenging the Received Wisdom, the editors; Range Management Science & Policy in Southern Africa, Ian Scoones; Soil Erosion, Animals, & Pasture over the Longer Term, William Beinart; Desertification: Narratives, Winners, & Losers, Jeremy Swift; Wildlife, Pastoralists, & Science in Tanzania, Daniel Brockington & Katherine Homewood; Rethinking the Forest-Savanna Mosaic in West Africa, James Fairhead & Melissa Leach; Dryland Forestry in Nigeria, Reginald Cline-Cole; Soil Erosion, Michael Stocking; Irrigation, Erosion & Famine in Kenya, W.M. Adams; Land, Capital, & the "Resource-poor" Farmer, Mary Tiffen; The Cultural Construction of Environment Policy in Ethiopia, Allan Hoben.