Misreading the African landscape : society and ecology in a forest-savanna mosaic / James Fairhead and Melissa Leach with the research collaboration of Dominique Millimouno and Marie Kamano.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fairhead, James, 1962- author.

Leach, Melissa, author.

Contributor:

American Council of Learned Societies.

Series:

African studies series ; 90.

African studies series ; 90

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human ecology--Guinea--Kissidougou (Region).

Human ecology.

Landscape assessment--Guinea--Kissidougou (Region).

Landscape assessment.

Forest ecology--Guinea--Kissidougou (Region).

Forest ecology.

Savanna ecology--Guinea--Kissidougou (Region).

Savanna ecology.

Environmental policy--Guinea--Kissidougou (Region).

Environmental policy.

Kissidougou (Guinea : Region)--Environmental conditions.

Kissidougou (Guinea : Region).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 354 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Cover

Frontmatter

Contents

List of plates

List of figures

List of tables

Note on authorship and research collaboration

Acknowledgements

Linguistic conventions

Introduction

Convictions of forest loss in policy and ecological science

Forest gain: historical evidence of vegetation change

Settling a landscape: forest islands in regional social and political history

Ecology and society in a Kuranko village

Ecology and society in a Kissi village

Enriching a landscape: working with ecology and deflecting successions

Accounting for forest gain: local land use, regional political economy and demography

Reading forest history backwards: a century of environmental policy

Sustaining reversed histories: the continual production of views of forest loss

Towards a new forest-savanna ecology and history

Glossary of plant names

Cassette recordings of oral accounts and discussions

Notes

List of references

Index

Titles in the series

Plate section.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-347) and index.

ISBN:

9780511089718

0511089716

9781139164023

1139164023

OCLC:

935277772

Publisher Number:

2027/heb02590 hdl