Review
'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

Product Description
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.

First Sentence:
Guinee's present national forestry plan suggests that Kissidougou's landscape in degrading fast: The opinion, quasi-general, is that ... the areas ... north of Macenta, Gueckedou, Kissidougou will soon be no more than a vast poor savanna, the [forest] islands and gallery forests still present at risk of being rapidly destroyed. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
forest island area, village forest island, fire exclusion experiments, forest fallow vegetation, climatic rehumidification, dysentery leaf, river protection projects, thicket fallows, swamp farming, secondary forest thicket, upland rice farming, tenurial claims, tenurial control, stomach leaf, vegetational effects, degradation discourse, savanna uplands, toothache bark, transition woodland, forest agents, forest islands, forest advance, extensive forest cover, thicket vegetation, derived savanna Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
West Africa, Sierra Leone, First Republic, Fouta Djallon, Environment Days, World Bank, West Atlantic, Woussa Bilo Tolno, Lake Bosumtwi, Manden Bori, Nyamantong Tolno, Misreading the African, Organisation Small New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Search Inside This Book: