Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic. - book reviews

Ecology, Sept, 1997 by Hubertus Jacobus van Hensbergen

This book, written by two social anthropologists, represents the results of a detailed cooperative multidisciplinary study of the forest savanna transition zone of The Republic of Guinea. It should be required reading for ecologists involved in giving resource management advice to indigenous agricultural communities anywhere.

The book sets out to refute the arguments that indigenous agricultural practices and growing populations necessarily lead to resource degradation. In contrast, the book presents evidence that indigenous management techniques are well adapted to their environment and that they can lead instead to resource enhancement. The book challenges the received wisdom (in the first world) that the present African landscape represents a degraded remnant of some previously more "natural" system unaffected by the ravages of humans. Instead, the book argues that mankind should be treated as part of the African environment and that its influence and interaction can be treated as part of ecosystem functioning. Since the earliest colonial times (1890's) the vision of ecologists and administrators of the savanna-forest transition zone has been one of loss of forest and the inexorable spread of poor quality savanna woodland. Fairhead and Leach present strong evidence based on both oral traditions and satellite and aerial photography that the opposite is, in fact, true and that during this period the forest area has significantly increased. The argument of ecologists has been that the forest patches existing in the transition zone represent relics of a once far more extensive forest cover. The evidence for this view has been based on a treatment of the landscape as naturally formed in the absence of humans and then degraded by human activities. Thus, the presence of tall trees and high species diversity are taken as indicators of the relict nature of forest islands, whilst in fact, these properties have arisen as a result of planting of desirable species and silvicultural practices of the indigenous farmers. The activities of individual farmers in cutting trees and setting fires have been seen as negative influences because the replacement policies and fire regimes used by farmers were not understood. Ecologists' interpretation of tree population dynamics was based on a consideration of the deficit side of the equation only, no account was taken of births. The basis for the interpretation lies in the (politically useful) romantic vision of Africa as a continent thinly populated by backward peoples with little understanding of their interactions with the environment. The book shows that, although for the most part couched in mystical terms, the indigenous ecological understanding leads to management practices which enable the farmers to manipulate the system to their benefit. Farmers create environments which are manageable using their own technology and which reliably produce sufficient crops to sustain the populations. Indeed, historical evidence suggests that population densities were much higher than those at present and that the reduction of population as a result of precolonial war and more recent emigration for political reasons has led to a situation where it is only now that population densities are approaching those of a hundred years ago. The socio-political forces sustaining the image of a degraded landscape are also examined. The introduction of "conservation policies" led to a policing of the area by outsiders. These outsiders became dependent on the resource they were protecting for their own living as their organizations were supported by means of a system of fines and permit fees. The maintenance of an image of degradation is important to them as their livelihoods depend on it. At a larger scale, aid agencies also depend on the image as they seek to justify their development expenditure to an environmentally conscious domestic public. The net result of the misreading has been to remove the control and ownership of the resource from those directly dependant on it and vest that control and ownership in government structures and functionaries. Most importantly the book asks the reader to recognize that it is extremely difficult to separate out the ecological science from the cultural background of the scientist.

Although the book is clearly important, I did not find it easy to read. Many of the arguments were labored. I found the use of Kissi and Kuranko words and names in the book to he an unnecessary distraction that did not add significantly to the arguments presented. Having grown up with a number of languages, I am well aware that there are limitations in the ability to convey the complete meanings of words between languages but the presentation of the words in their original language only serves a useful purpose to native speakers. The book is well referenced and well presented although the key to the graph on page 214 is in error.

HUBERTUS JACOBUS VAN HENSBERGEN

University of Stellenbosch Department of Nature Conservation Private Bag XI Matieland 7602 South Africa