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. 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 reexamination of some central tenets in each of these disciplines.
• Corrects a century of erroneous science and policy concerning Africa’s forest margins • Provides a new theoretical framework for ecological anthropology • Interweaves historical, social anthropological and ecological approaches to force a reexamination of central tenets in these fields
Contents
Introduction; 1. Convictions of forest loss in policy and ecological science; 2. Forest gain: historical evidence of vegetation change; 3. Settling a landscape: forest islands in regional social and political history; 4. Ecology and society in a Kuranko village; 5. Ecology and society in a Kissi village; 6. Enriching a landscape: working with ecology and deflecting successions; 7. Accounting for forest gain: local land use, regional political economy and demography; 8. Reading forest history backwards: a century of environmental policy; 9. Sustaining reversed histories: the continual production of views of forest loss; 10. Towards a new forest-savanna ecology and history.
Reviews
‘This is a bold and important book, an analytical tour de force. It mounts a forceful attack against the received wisdom on deforestation and the spread of the desert.’ Wendy James and Richard P. Werbner, Amaury Talbot Prize 1997
‘Misreading the African Landscape is a powerful and amibtious book which offers a compelling new paradigm of research method and management philosophy.’ Journal of African History
‘Misreading the African Landscape … splendid geography … but written by social anthropologists … The story that the book tells is fascinating … and one that is based on substantive, original field investigation.’
‘Misreading the African Landscape is a powerful and ambitious book which offers a compelling new paradigm of research method and management philosophy … No doubt Fairhead and Leach seek to inspire an audience of social scientists and policy specialists - they doubtlessly will do so. Yet, more than anyone, I hope historians will be the ones responding to this superb example of environmental research.’ James C. McCann, Journal of African History
‘James Fairhead and Melissa Leach provide a splendid example of the new genre in a thoroughly researched and well-presented case study of the ‘islands’ of Kissidougou.’ Land Degradation & Development
Printer friendly version
Email a colleague