James Fairhead and Melissa Leach
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226322667
- eISBN:
- 9780226024134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024134.003.0003
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter, first printed in 1995, explores rapid deforestation in Guinea, West Africa, where policy has been guided by a narrative concerning population growth and the breakdown of past authority ...
More
This chapter, first printed in 1995, explores rapid deforestation in Guinea, West Africa, where policy has been guided by a narrative concerning population growth and the breakdown of past authority and community organization that once maintained “original” forest vegetation. The chapter explores two cases in which vegetation history sharply contradicts the deforestation analysis and thus exposes the assumptions in its supporting social narrative, based on assumptions having more to do with Western imagination than African realities. The chapter forwards more appropriate assumptions at the regional level and for each case to better explain demonstrable vegetation change and provide more appropriate policy guidelines. The production of history serves many ends, and social scientists have been complicit in producing a view of current history as one of increasing detachment from a harmonious past. Treating this past as the template for the resolution of today's tensions, they have imagined links between social and environmental conditions in ways that inform policies that now marginalize inhabitants from what little resource control they have.Less
This chapter, first printed in 1995, explores rapid deforestation in Guinea, West Africa, where policy has been guided by a narrative concerning population growth and the breakdown of past authority and community organization that once maintained “original” forest vegetation. The chapter explores two cases in which vegetation history sharply contradicts the deforestation analysis and thus exposes the assumptions in its supporting social narrative, based on assumptions having more to do with Western imagination than African realities. The chapter forwards more appropriate assumptions at the regional level and for each case to better explain demonstrable vegetation change and provide more appropriate policy guidelines. The production of history serves many ends, and social scientists have been complicit in producing a view of current history as one of increasing detachment from a harmonious past. Treating this past as the template for the resolution of today's tensions, they have imagined links between social and environmental conditions in ways that inform policies that now marginalize inhabitants from what little resource control they have.
Susanna B. Hecht, Kathleen D. Morrison, and Christine Padoch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226322667
- eISBN:
- 9780226024134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226024134.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter introduces the organizing principle of both the volume and the conference that gave rise to it—an argument that counters the “apocalyptic vision” that monopolizes both the popular and ...
More
This chapter introduces the organizing principle of both the volume and the conference that gave rise to it—an argument that counters the “apocalyptic vision” that monopolizes both the popular and scientific literature on tropical ecosystems. It lays out the case for a complex relationship between the two billion people and the forest landscapes in which they reside and challenge the overly simplistic, unidirectional “human versus nature” narrative that dominates development studies and conservation biology, arguing that both in the present day and historically, relationships between humans and forest landscapes are and have been complex, even in regions that have been held up as “poster children” for this Malthusian view. It emphasizes the themes of complexity of forest recovery processes, created invisibility of recovering forests, and the importance of understanding forest histories to guide development and conservation efforts.Less
This chapter introduces the organizing principle of both the volume and the conference that gave rise to it—an argument that counters the “apocalyptic vision” that monopolizes both the popular and scientific literature on tropical ecosystems. It lays out the case for a complex relationship between the two billion people and the forest landscapes in which they reside and challenge the overly simplistic, unidirectional “human versus nature” narrative that dominates development studies and conservation biology, arguing that both in the present day and historically, relationships between humans and forest landscapes are and have been complex, even in regions that have been held up as “poster children” for this Malthusian view. It emphasizes the themes of complexity of forest recovery processes, created invisibility of recovering forests, and the importance of understanding forest histories to guide development and conservation efforts.
