Synopses & Reviews
Top scholars examine issues which lead readers to better understand environmental change in the African continent and its effects on rural African livelihoods. Each of the studies in this book concerns four main issues: conservation, biodiversity, and environment; land use and livelihoods; environmental change; and policies for conservation and development. The volume looks closely at the details of rural resource use, access and control, the social institutions which shape this, and the effects on African environments. It is not possible to understand livelihoods in Africa - a central issue for all social and economic questions - without grasping the interplay between environmental change and the sustainability of rural livelihoods. The volume is groundbreaking in its detailed examination of this interplay, and its importance in grasping the roots of poverty and potential for its alleviation, and for its unique combination of natural and social science methods.
Review
"The [volume as a whole] is more than the sum of its parts, showing real coherence and demonstrating the great value of [the contributors'] work over the last decade or so in comprehending the dynamics of African livelihoods and environmental change."--Melissa Leach, Professor of Anthropology, University of Sussex
About the Author
Katherine Homewood is Professor of Anthropology, University of London.
Table of Contents
Introduction * "Rural resource use and local livelihoods in sub saharan africa".--
Katherine Homewood * Part 1: Degradation or Change? * "Out of the woodland, into the fire: Fuelwood and livelihoods within and beyond Lake Malawi National Park"--Jo Abbott * "Protected areas and decentralisation in the democratic republic of congo: a case for devolving responsibility to local institutions"--Emanuel de Merode * Part II: Shfiting Livelihoods: Conservation and devlopment in Changing Environments * "Detail and dogma, data and discourse: Food-gathering by Damara herders and conservation in arid north-west Namibia"--Sian Sullivan * "The contingency of community conservation"--Dan Brockington * Part III: Livelihood Strategies: Demogrpahic and Economic Ways of Dealing with Unpredictable Change * "People are a resource: Demography and livelihoods in Sahelian FulBe of Burkina Faso"--Kate Hampshire and Sara Randall * "Gender equality - no: What do FulBe women really want?"--Solveig Buhl * Part IV: Social Institutions: Social Institutions of Resource Managment - Conservation and Development * "Understanding institutional contexts to define research questions: Settlement history, forestry institutions, identities and visions of the future in south-west Cameroon"--Barrie Sharpe * "Legal pluralism in the rain forests of south-eastern Cameroon" -- Monica Graziani and Philip Burnham * "Conclusion"--Katherine Homewood