Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic (African Studies, Series Number 90)

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. Frontmatter List of plates (page x) List of figures (page xi) List of tables (page xiii) Note on authorship and research collaboration (page xiv) Acknowledgements (page xvi) Linguistic conventions (page xviii) Introduction (page 1) 1 Convictions of forest loss in policy and ecological science (page 24) 2 Forest gain: historical evidence of vegetation change (page 55) 3 Settling a landscape: forest islands in regional social and political history (page 86) 4 Ecology and society in a Kuranko village (page 115) 5 Ecology and society in a Kissi village (page 149) 6 Enriching a landscape: working with ecology and deflecting successions (page 176) 7 Accounting for forest gain: local land use, regional political economy and demography (page 210) 8 Reading forest history backwards: a century of environmental policy (page 237) 9 Sustaining reversed histories: the continual production of views of forest loss (page 261) 10 Towards a new forest-savanna ecology and history (page 279) Appendix I Glossary of plant names (page 296) Appendix II Cassette recordings of oral accounts and discussions (page 310) Cassette recordings of oral accounts and discussions (page 310) Notes (page 314) List of references (page 327) Index (page 348) Islands of dense forest in the savanna of 'forest' Guinea have long been regarded by both 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. Through meticulous use of historical sources, and an investigation of inhabitants' technical knowledge and practices, 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 unique study advances a novel theoretical framework for ecological anthropology, forcing a radical re-examination of some central tenets in each of these disciplines. James Fairhead And Melissa Leach With The Research Collaboration Of Dominique Millimouno And Marie Kamano. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 327-347) And Index.