dc.description |
Sub-Saharan African populations seem especially vulnerable to drought, famine and
disease. Many parts of Africa have high mortality rates, high fertility, widespread
poverty and precarious food security (Downing, 1996; Rosenzweig and Parry,
1994). To many outside observers, African environments seem a central factor in
people's vulnerability, a major stumbling block to development. At the same time,
African rangelands and forests arc a magnet for biologists and ecologists. Some of
these ecosystems are spectacular for their biodiversity; others arc commonly seen as
overexploited and as spiralling into terminal collapse. Sub-Saharan African rangelands and forests have been a playground for western interventions, and something
of a bottomless pit for donor funding on both environment and development. Many
if not most of those initiatives have had poor outcomes. That suggests there is
something seriously wrong with western understanding of African environments, of
the part they play in people's vulnerability, of the ways that people deal with them
and of the impacts those strategies entail. This book seeks to analyse and clarify interactions of environment, land use, livelihoods, and natural resource management in
African forests and savannas. It aims to develop a better understanding, an approach
and a methodology, which in turn will give insights into people's natural resource
use strategies, will inform policy and management, and ultimately contribute to
more secure livelihoods and welfare for local rural African populations. Too many
interventions have subsequently been found to have brought about more harm than
good, through lack of awareness of dimensions beyond the experience of those
involved. The central aim of this book is to bring home to researchers, policymakers
and practitioners the breadth and complexity of issues in rural resources and livelihoods. It sets out to use in-depth case studies, detailed examples linked by analytical
overviews, to trigger awareness of the potential of cross-disciplinary approaches to
real life environment and development issues in rural sub-Saharan Africa. |
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