COMMUNITY BASED CONSERVATION

COMMUNITY IN CONSERVATION

AFRICA

AGRICULTURE FOREST IRRIGATION WATERSHED

AGRICULTURE

Baidu Forson, J and A Bationo (1997). “Saving soil and water in Africa's arid zone.” Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 12: 120-124.

In the Sudano Sahelian zone south of the Sahara desert, fertilizer is expensive, rain is scarce, and population pressures have forced farmers to work the land beyond its capacity. "Under such dire circumstances, farmers have neither the time nor the inclination to adopt costly and overly sophisticated soil and water conservation techniques promoted by the central governments," say Jojo Baidu Forson, a senior research fellow at the United Nations University's Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, and Andre Bationo, a soil chemist for the International Fertilizer Development Center in Niger. Instead, successful conservation efforts, such as constructing filtering dams to capture sediment and reinforcing basins with stones and vegetation, have their roots in traditional farming practices. Unfortunately, local governments lack the funds to bankroll such efforts, and foreign aid is in decline. "Local populations have turned to research, development, and nongovernmental organizations for financial backing," the authors note. (Author)

Beinart, W (1984). “Soil erosion, conservationism, and ideas about development: a Southern African exploration 1900-1960.” Journal of Southern African Studies 11(1): 52-83.

Castro, AP (1991). “Indigenous Kikuyu agroforestry: A case-study of Kirinyaga, Kenya.” Human Ecology 19(1): 1-18.

This article analyzes agroforestry practices among the Ndia and Gichugu Kikuyu of Kirinyaga, Kenya, at the turn of the century, before the onset of colonial rule. It describes ways in which people adapted to competing pressures for retaining and removing tree cover. It shows how religious beliefs, tenure relations based on a communal property-rights regime, and farm forestry practices contributed to the conservation of trees. Such strategies were not aimed at reversing deforestation, but mitigating its impact by incorporating valued trees into local sociocultural and household production systems. The article points out that indigenous agroforestry practices need to be viewed in the context of local socioeconomic and ecological differences. It also considers the impact of the caravan trade on land use during the late 1800s. Tree scarcity in the late precolonial era is briefly contrasted with the area's "woodfuel crisis" of the 1980s. (SSCI)

Creevey, LE, Ed. (1986). Women farmers in Africa: Rural development in Mali and the Sahel. Contemporary issues in the Middle East. Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press.

Grier, B (1992). “Pawns, porters and petty traders: Women in the transition to cash crop agriculture in colonial Ghana.” Signs: the Journal of Women in Culture and Society 17(2): 304-328.

Heasley, L and J Delehanty (1996). “The politics of manure: resource tenure and the agropastoral economy in Southwestern Niger.” Society and Natural Resources 9(1): 31-46.

Disputes over manure in Southwestern Niger reveal broad strategies for natural resource control employed by farmers and herders in a transitional agropastoral economy, where resources are scarce, some traditional ethnic specializations are breaking down, and the dominant national political motif is devolution. Four themes emerge: (1) In agropastoral systems, manure offers entry to the general regional political ecology because it links the livestock and agricultural sides of the economy as well as the economy and the resource base. (2) Where groups vie for a limited resource, all take strategic advantage of legitimizing claims, whether grounded in history, customary roles, debts owed, contracts drawn, officials known, old law, new law, or law deemed likely in the future. (3) Conflicts between claimants are heightened where the state seeks to empower customary authorities but cannot define them. (4) Devolving control over natural resources might best begin not by assigning power but by defining lines of conflict and the legitimizing logic behind conflicting claims. (Journal)

Neef, A and F Heidhues (1994). “The role of land tenure in agroforestry: lessons from Benin.” Agroforestry Systems 27: 145-161.

Richards, P (1985). Indigenous African Revolution: Ecology and Food Production in Africa. London, Hutchinson Press.

Schroeder, RA (1994). “Shady practice: gender and the political ecology of resource stabilization in Gambian garden orchards.” Economic Geography: 349-365.

Schroeder, RA (1995). “Contradictions along the commodity road to environmental stabilization: foresting Gambian gardens.” Antipode 27(4): 325-342.

In the past decade a shift in ecological politics has set off a scramble to ''protect'' and ''defend'' putatively pristine ecosystems in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. This aggressive program bespeaks a new sense of manifest ecological destiny among environmental organizations and donors and has given rise to a ''politics of stabilization'' characterized by new forms of property and labor relationships. This paper traces the impact of ecological policies on commodity production in Gambia where communal market gardens run by women's groups are being converted into privatized orchards managed by male landholders in a state-directed, donor-funded initiative designed to meet stabilization goals. The zealous pursuit of commercial objectives has come at the expense of critical food entitlement and livelihood strategies which currently form the basis of the rural Gambian political economy. The paper uses this evidence to urge reconsidering the politics of environmental intervention. (SSCI)

Schroeder, RA and K Suryanata (1996). Gender and class power in agroforestry systems: case studies from Indonesia and West Africa. in Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. R Peet and M Watts, Ed. London, Routledge.

Slayter-Thomas, B, C Kabutha, et al. (1991). Traditional village institutions in environmental management: erosion control in Katheka, Kenya. From the Ground Up Case Study No 1. Nairobi, Africa Center for International Development and Environment and World Resources Institute.

Stromgaard, P (1989). “Adaptive strategies in the breakdown of shifting cultivation - the case of mambwe, lamba, and lala of northern Zambia.” Human Ecology 17(4): 427-444.

FOREST:

Ahlback, A (1995). “Mobilizing rural people in Tanzania to tree planting: why and how.” Ambio 24(5): 304-310.

Most developing countries suffer from growing population pressure on soil and trees. Unless action is taken soon, there will not be enough arable land to feed future populations, nor will there be enough fuelwood. As these countries have poor economies but many people, action needs to be based on people's creativity and energy through mass movement. The major prerequisites are technology, resources, institutions, and motivation. in Tanzania, simple tree-planting technology (within farming systems), human resources (creativity and energy), and suitable supporting institutions (village authorities) are in place. The urgent task is motivation and mobilization. In the choice of a mobilization approach, essential aspects to consider are the magnitude and urgency of the required efforts. The approach suggested is a combination of encouragement, coercion and trust. Coercion with trust will provide the short-cut to action required to win the race against time. While tree planting is compulsory, people are trusted to decide where, what and how to plant, thus easing the chronic shortage of extension staff. The present conventional community-forestry efforts, backed by the Tanzania Forestry Action Plan, will lend support to the mass movement required. (Journal)

Amadi, R (1993). Conflict between NTFP use and conservation in Korup National Park. Rural Forestry Network Paper 15c, Overseas Development Institute, London.

Anonymous (1991). “Approaches to wildlife development: lessons from Zambia and Zimbabwe.” Forests, Trees and People Newsletter 13: 23-29.

Arnold, J and P Dewees (1998). Rethinking approaches to tree management by farmers. ODI Natural Resource Perspectives. London, ODI. Number 26.

This paper examines farm households' tree management strategies and proposes a framework for policy interventions. Farmers plant or retain some trees on their land nearly everywhere. Historically this component of on-farm resources has attracted little interest but practical policy measures can be identified and differ substantially from those relevant to forestry. (Source)

Asieby, E and J Owusu (1982). “The case for high-forest national-parks in Ghana.” Environmental Conservation 9(4): 293- 304.

Bailey, RC (1996). Promoting biodiversity and empowering local people in central African forests. in Tropical Deforestation: The Human Dimension. LE Sponsel, TN Headland and RC Bailey, Ed. New York, Columbia University Press: 316-341.

Bailey, RC, S Bahuchet, et al. (1992). Development in the Central African rainforest: concern for forest peoples. in Conservation of West and Central Africa Rainforests. K Cleaver, M Munasinghe, M Dysonet al, Ed. Washington DC, The World Bank.

Barrow, ECG (1990). “Usufruct rights to trees: the role of 'ekwar' in dryland central Turkana, Kenya.” Human Ecology 18(2): 163-176.

Usufruct rights to trees (Ekwar) in the Turkana silvo-pastoral system are an important aspect of natural resource management, particularly in the drier central parts of Kenya. Originating from a participatory forestry extension program, a survey was carried out that showed the extent and duration, often in excess of one generation, of occupancy of a person's Ekwar. Such rights center around the dry season fodder resources, especially of Acacia tortilis. However they are not definite and are linked to risk-spreading by flexibility in livestock management and the need that they be maintained through efficient usage and social linkages. Hitherto, such natural resource management systems have all but been ignored in the development process in favor of the "tragedy of the commons" paradigm. Likewise, pastoral development has tended to emphasize range and water, while trees are not given the attention they deserve. This endangers the resilience of the system, and it is therefore important that development works with, not against, such environmentally-sound practices to try to make them more sustainable in the long term. (Journal)

Boahene, K (1997). “The challenge of deforestation in tropical Africa - reflections on its principal causes, consequences and solutions.” Land Degradation & Development 9(3): 247-258.

Economic development is dependant on factors including capital, labour force and natural resources. Forests are natural resources which, if properly managed, can provide habitats for animal and plant species, pasture for livestock, wood for shelter, timber and fuelwood, land for agriculture and can have a favourable effect on weather and climatic patterns. Nevertheless, deforestation has been a widespread phenomenon in tropical Africa, with an annual forest clearance of between 1.3-3.7 million ha. This paper reviews the pattern of deforestation in tropical Africa by examining its causes and consequences, as well as assessing the prospects for the attempts being made to control it. It identifies forest clearance for subsistence farming as the principal determinant of deforestation, but does not consider the ignorance of small-scale farmers as the underlying cause. Given the deteriorating agricultural production, the paper argues that the principal issue is not how to stop forest depletion, but how to manage forest resources to enable the community meets its objectives on an effective, fair and efficient basis. An approach which releases part of the rural population from the land or provides an alternative form of a secure livelihood is an example of the sustainable strategies for managing forests. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Bradley, PN and P Dewees (1993). Indigenous woodlands, agricultural production and household economy in the communal areas. in Living with trees: Policies for forestry management in Zimbabwe. World Bank Technical Paper #210. PN Bradley and K McNamara, Ed. Washington, World Bank.

Bradley, PN and K McNamara, Eds. (1993). Living with trees: Policies for forestry management in Zimbabwe. World Bank Technical Paper #210. Washington, World Bank.

Bruce, J, L Fortmann, et al. (1993). “Tenures in transition, tenures in conflict: Examples from the Zimbabwe social forest.” Rural Sociology 58(4): 626-642.

The landscapes of rural communities are commonly divided into areas in which distinctive resource uses are practiced and for which there exist particular types of property rights. Such tenure niches for different resources may overlap where those resources themselves occupy the same space (e.g., land and trees). Further, competing legal and utilization systems (e.g., national and local) may place the same resource in different incompatible tenure niches. Conflict may involve overlapping tenure niches. Co-management by conflicting right-holders may offer a solution. (SSCI)

Campbell, BM (1987). “The use of wild fruits in Zimbabwe.” Economic Botany 41(3): 375-385.

Castro, AP (1991). “Indigenous Kikuyu agroforestry: a case-study of Kirinyaga, Kenya.” Human Ecology 19(1): 1-18.

Cleaver, K, M Munasinghe, et al. (1992). Conservation of West and Central Africa Rainforests. Washington DC, The World Bank.

Cline-Cole, R (1998). “Knowledge claims and landscape: alternative views of the fuelwood-degradation nexus in northern Nigeria.” Environment and Planning D 16(3): 311-346.

The existence of competing or contradictory orthodoxies in Nigerian forestry is a long recognised, if little explored research problem. Far from being the product of a monolithic culture, regional forestry, or, more inclusively agrosilvipastoral landscapes and fuelscapes, are social products which have been described as often construed in a plurality of ways and invested with diverse if not antithetical meanings by different individuals and social groups. They represent sites of contestation and cooperation for human agents and state agencies engaged in constructing, maintaining and modifying woodfuel and other forestry-related discourses. The author juxtaposes several such contests, their meanings, and the discourses of which they are a part. He does so with particular reference to perceived linkages between fuelwood use and production, on the one hand, and vegetation and degradation and other environmental change, on the other. The geographical focus is dryland Nigeria, in particular its regional forestry spaces and landscapes. In the conceptual framework empirical theorisation is combined with discourse and landscape analyses. The author concludes that the juxtaposition of forestry discourses, which he attempts, creates spaces for different landscape visions to be seen as virtual realities, which are shaped and sustained by social forces and (technologies of) representation. (SSCI)

Cunningham, AB (1994). “Integrating local plant resources and habitat management.” Biodiversity Conservation 3(2): 104.

Cunningham, AB and FT Mbenkum (1993). Sustainability of harvesting Prunus africana bark in Cameroon. Paris, UNESCO.

Dei, GJS (1988). “Crisis and adaptation in a Ghanaian forest community.” Anthropological Quarterly 61: 63-72.

Dei, GJS (1992). “ A forest beyond the trees: tree cutting in rural Ghana.” Human Ecology 20(1): 57-88.

In this paper I examine the complexity of human forces involved in tree cutting in a Ghanaian forest region. I provide evidence to link the indiscriminate tree-cutting activities of some local communities to the gradual loss of communal control over land and the replacement of kin group control with state property regimes. I point to the interrelated factors of the state's promotion of an export-led development strategy, the intensification of agricultural commercialization, and household and group variations in access to land as all having deleterious impacts on local traditions of sustainable forestry. (Journal)

Dewees, P (1985). Tree Growing by Rural People. Rome, FAO/SIDA.

Dorm-Adzobu, D, O Ampadu-Agyei, et al. (1991). Religious beliefs and environmental protection: the Malshegu Sacred Grove in Northern Ghana. Washington, World Resources Institute.

Fairhead, J and M Leach (1994). “Contested forests - Modern conservation and historical land uses in Guinea's Ziama reserve.” African Affairs 93(373): 481-512.

Fairhead, J and M Leach (1995). “False forest history, complicit social analysis: rethinking some West African environmental narratives.” World Development 23(6): 1023-1035.

Social science analysis has helped to explain the rapid and recent deforestation supposed to have occurred in Guinea, West Africa. A narrative concerning population growth and the breakdown of past authority and community organization which once maintained "original" forest vegetation guides policy. In two cases, vegetation history sharply contradicts the deforestation analysis and thus exposes the assumptions in its supporting social narrative; assumptions stabilized within regional narratives based more in Western imagination than African realities. For each case and then at the regional level, more appropriate assumptions are forwarded which better explain demonstrable vegetation change and provide more appropriate policy guidelines. (Source)

Fairhead, J and M Leach (1995). Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest Savannah Mosaic. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Fairhead, J and M Leach (1995). “Reading forest history backwards: the interaction of policy and local land use in Guinea's forest-savanna mosiac.” Environment and History 1(1): 55-92.

Fairhead, J and M Leach (1996). “Deforestation in question: dialogue and dissonance in ecological, social and historical knowledge of West Africa.” Paideuma.

Fischer, FU (1993). Beekeeping in the subsistence economy of the miombo savanna woodland areas of South-Central Africa. Rural Development Forestry Network Paper 15c, Overseas Development Administration, London.

Fortmann, L (1985). “The tree tenure factor in agroforestry with particular reference to Africa.” Agroforestry Systems 2: 229-251.

Fortmann, L (1988). “Great planting disasters: pitfalls in technical assistance in forestry.” Agriculture and Human Values Winter/Spring: 49-59.

Fortmann, L (1988). “Predicting natural resource micro-protest.” Rural Sociology 53(3): 357.

Fortmann, L (1990). “Locality and custom: non-aboriginal claims to customary usufructory rights as a source of rural protest.” Journal of Rural Studies 6(2): 195-208.

Fortmann, L (1995). “Talking claims: discursive strategies in contesting property.” World Development 23(6): 1053-1063.

This article examines discursive strategies in the struggle over property rights in rural Zimbabwe. Stories told by villagers and the owners or former owners of nearby large commercial farms are analyzed in terms of their framing of the issue, the voice of the teller, time frame and audience. Villagers' stories are shown to legitimize present claims in terms of past recognition of their access rights. Farmers' stories are shown to attempt to shift part of the legitimacy of their property claims onto grounds of ecological stewardship. (SSCI)

Fortmann, L, C Antinori, et al. (1997). “Fruits of their labors: gender, property rights and tree planting in a Zimbabwe village.” Rural Sociology 62(3): 295.

An analysis of tree planting by women and men in two Zimbabwe villages demonstrates that women are significantly less likely than men to plant trees on homestead land where the security of their duration of tenure is uncertain due to the likelihood of change in marital status. However, men and women are equally likely to plant trees in community woodlots where the duration of their tenure is secure if they remain village residents. These findings demonstrate the importance of attention to gendered security of tenure at the sub-household level. (SSCI)

Fortmann, L and J Bruce (1993). Tenure and gender issues in forest policy. in Living with trees: Policies for forestry management in Zimbabwe, World Bank Technical Paper #210. PN Bradley and K McNamara, Ed. Washington, World Bank.

Fortmann, L and C Nhira (1992). Local management of trees and woodland resources in Zimbabwe: A=a tenurial niche. OFI Occasional Papers #43, Oxford, Oxford Forestry Institute.

Freudenberger, KS (1995). Tree and land tenure: Using rapid appraisal to study natural resource management. A case study from Anivorano, Madagascar. Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Hanson, JH (1992). “Extractive economies in a historical perspective: gum arabic in West Africa.” Advances in Economic Botany 9: 107-114.

Hart, T and J Hart (1986). “The ecological basis of hunter-gatherer subsistence in African rain forests: the Mbuti of eastern Zaire.” Human Ecology 14(1): 29-56.

Hart, T and J Hart (1997). “Conservation and civil strife: two perspectives from Central Africa.” Conservation Biology 11(2): 308.

Hosier, RH (1987). The Economics of Afforestation in Eastern Africa. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.

Hoskins, M (1987). Report on community forestry in the Cameroon. Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization.

Howard, P, T Davenport, et al. (1997). “Planning conservation areas in Uganda's natural forests.” Oryx 31(4): 253-264.

Ite, U (1997). “Small farmers and forest loss in Cross River National Park, Nigeria.” The Geographic Journal 163(1): 47-56.

The loss of tropical moist forest (TMF) is recognized as a major environmental problem globally and particularly in the West Africa subregion. The causes of TMF loss vary across the globe and regionally-specific processes of loss exist. The role of some causes of forest loss (e.g. cattle ranching or logging) have been widely studied, and are relatively clearly understood. However, the specific contribution of other causes, particularly the role of smallholder forest farmers, is less well known and has been a subject of controversy and confusion. This paper explores the contextual causes (at the household level) of TMF loss around the Cross River National Park in south-east Nigeria. Local agricultural practices and household decision-making are linked to the wider political economy to explain the observed patterns of forest loss in the study area. By focusing on the household and the dynamics of forest farming at a household level, this paper reinforces the need for an alternative perspective on the role of small farmers in TMF loss in West Africa to that revealed by existing extensive studies of the region. (Author)

Ite, U (1998). “ New wine in an old skin: the reality of tropical moist forest conservation in Nigeria.” Land Use Policy 15(2): 135- 147.

This paper examines the most recent initiative in TMF conservation in the form of the Cross River National Park (CRNP) project. Against the background of general problems of environmental and resource conservation in Nigeria, and in specific terms, the poor record of previous TMF management and conservation, it is argued that the CRNP is a new wine in an old skin, and may not be making any meaningful difference in checking the extent and rates of TMF loss in Nigeria. Two fundamental challenges critical to the sustainability of the CRNP are discussed, namely, sustaining local community support and engendering institutional co-operation. The paper concludes that to succeed, new TMF conservation initiatives in Sub- Saharan Africa need to be built on a proper understanding and analysis of the wider context of environmental and resource conservation policy and the track record of their implementation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Jackson, JK (1983). Management of the Natural Forest in the Sahel Region. Washington, US Department of Agriculture Forest Support Program.

Jarosz, L (1996). Defining deforestation in Madagascar. in Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. R Peet and M Watts, Ed. London, Routledge.

Johansson, L and W Mlenge (1993). “Empowering customary community institutions to manage natural resources in Tanzania.” Forests, Trees and People Newsletter 22: 36-42.

Kramer, RA and V Ballabh (1992). Management of common-pool forest resources. in Sustainable Agricultural Development: The Role of International Cooperation. Proceedings of the 21st International Conference of Agricultural Economists. GH Peters, Ed. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 435-446.

Larson, BA and DW Bromley (1991). “Natural resource prices, export policies, and deforestation: The case of Sudan.” World Development 19(10): 1289-1297.

Matose, F (1997). “Conflicts around forest reserves in Zimbabwe - what prospects for community management?” IDS Bulletin-Institute Of Development Studies 28(4): 69.

Due to the failure of the post-independent state to address the land inequities of the colonial era, conflicts over land resources are prevalent in Zimbabwe. This is particularly the case in and around state forest reserves. Recognising these conflicts, the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission has been exploring possibilities of co-management arrangements for forest reserves. This article examines one such pilot programme, exploring its historical origins in both national an local debates about forest policy. The way historical experiences of forest management impinge on current thinking are highlighted, including how these feed into the contrasting perceptions of the ecological, economic and social values of forest resources of officials and local people. Major: social differences among communities surrounding forest areas mean that local perceptions are highly varied. Given this context, the prospects for co-management arrangements where forest resources are shared are discussed. (Author)

Medley, KE (1993). “Extractive forest resources of the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya.” Economic Botany 47(2): 171-183.

Plant uses by the Pokomo and their influence on riverine forest structure and composition are examined in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya. Of a total 98 plant species identified with one or more uses, 15 are used as food, 34 for construction material, 43 for technology, 23 for remedy, 2 for commerce, and 20 for other uses. The mean basal area of cut wood is 3.21 M2/ha, mostly from palms (1.96 M2/ha) and understory trees (1.20 M2/ha). Measured impacts on forest structure include the loss of large trees for canoes or beehives, lowered palm heights, and tree coppicing. Accessibility explains much of the spatial pattern of use. Extraction activities do not reduce forest area, and causal effects on productivity are complicated by the heterogeneous environment and past disturbances. In view of regional pressures on forests and cultural traditions, limited resource extraction offers incentives for local stewardship of a unique ecosystem. (Author)

Minnick, G (1991). The Guesselbodi experiment revisited: Iimplications for forestry in the Sahel. in Social Forestry: Communal and Private Management Strategies Compared. Proceedings of a Workshop, Program on Social Change and Development. D Challinor and MH Fronhoff, Ed. Washington, The Paul Nitze SAIS, The Johns Hopkins University.

Ndoye, O, MR Perez, et al. (1998). The markets of non-timber forest products in the humid forest zone of Cameroon. Rural Forestry Development Paper 22c. London, ODI.

Neiland, AE and I Verinumbe (1991). “Fisheries development and resource-usage conflict: a case-study of deforestation associated with the Lake Chad fishery in Nigeria.” Environmental Conservation 18(2): 111-117.

Newman, K (1992). Forest people and people in the forest: investing in local community development. in Conservation of West and Central African rainforests/Conservation de la foret dense en Afrique centrale et de l'Ouest. K Cleaver, Ed. Washington DC, World Bank Environmental Paper, no. 1. World Bank in cooperation with IUCN--The World Conservation Union: 229-232.

Nhira, C and L Fortmann (1993). Local woodland management: realities at the grass roots. in Living with Trees: Policies for Forestry Management in Zimbabwe. PN Bradley and K McNamara, Ed. Washington, World Bank.

Noss, A (1997). “Challenges to nature conservation with community development in central African forests.” Oryx 31(3): 180-188.

Based on field research in the CAR, this article discusses several social and economic challenges to conservation programmes that include community development components. These interrelated challenges include immigration as people elsewhere are attracted to economic opportunities, the lack of tenure of land and natural resources, diversification of economic and subsistence strategies, ethnic diversity and the lack of a conservation ethnic. Addressing these challenges requires fundamental socio-economic change. (Author)

Oyono, P (1998). “Cameroon rainforest: economic crisis, rural poverty, biodiversity.” Ambio 27(7): 557-559.

Ribot, J (1996). “Participation without representation: chiefs, councils and forestry law in the west African Sahel.” Cultural Studies Quarterly 20(3): 40-44.

Ribot, J (1998). “Theorizing access: forest profits along Senegal's charcoal commodity chain.” Development and Change 29(2): 307-341.

The questions at the centre of this article are: who profits from commercial forestry, and how? Through access mapping with commodity chain analysis, this study examines the distribution of benefits from Senegal's charcoal trade and the multiple market mechanisms underpinning that distribution. Benefits from charcoal are derived from direct control over forest access, as well as through access to markets, labour opportunities, capital, and state agents and officials. Access to these arenas is based on a number of inter-related mechanisms including legal property, social identity, social relations, coercion and information control. A commodity chain is the series of relations through which an item passes, from extraction through conversion, exchange, transport, distribution and final use. Access mapping involves evaluating the distribution of benefits along the chain, and tracing out the mechanisms by which access to benefits is maintained. It sheds light on the limited role of property, the embedded nature of markets, and the role of extra-legal structures and mechanisms in shaping equity and efficiency in resource use. It does so in a socially situated, multi-local manner, spanning the geographic spread of production and exchange. It also illuminates the practical issues surrounding establishment of community participation in benefits from and control over natural resources. (Source)

Schroeder, RA (1994). “Shady practice: gender and the political ecology of resource stabilization in Gambian garden orchards.” Economic Geography: 349-365.

Schroeder, RA (1995). “Contradictions along the commodity road to environmental stabilization: foresting Gambian gardens.” Antipode 27(4): 325-342.

Scoones, L and F Matose (1993). Local woodland management: constraints and opportunities for sustainable resource use. in Living with trees: Policies for forestry management in Zimbabwe, World Bank Technical Paper #210. PNBaK McNamara, Ed. Washington, World Bank.

Sharpe, B (1998). “'First the forest': Conservation, 'community' and 'participation' in southwest Cameroon.” Africa 68(1): 25-45.

Shepherd, G (1992). Managing Africa's dry forests: A review of indigenous methods. ODI Agricultural Occasional Paper 14. London, Overseas Development Institute.

Shyamsundar, P and RA Kramer (1996). “Tropical forest protection: an empirical analysis of the costs borne by local people.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 31: 129-144.

A study was conducted to develop and examine a methodology for understanding the economic linkages between the use of tropical forests by local residents and institutional measures taken to preserve these forests. A willingness to accept format was employed to evaluate welfare losses from land use restrictions associated with a newly established national park in Madagascar. It is revealed that contingent valuation can be successfully applied to rural households within the context of developing countries. Furthermore, the findings indicate a systematic relationship between various socioeconomic variables of interest and the expressed willingness to accept compensation for foregone land use. (Econlit)

Sørensen, C (1993). “Controls and sanctions over the use of forest products in the Kafue Basin of Zambia.” Rural Development Forestry Network Paper 15a, Overseas Development Institute, London.

Thomas, DW and MF Tobias (1987). Medicinal and food plants from Cameroon's forests: Development and conservation. UNDP/FAO Forestry Sector Review of Cameroon, Interagency joint session to Cameroon. Rome, FAO.

Tufuor, K (1992). Sustainable strategies for saving tropical forests: the Ghanaian case. in The Rainforest Harvest. S Counsell and T Rice, Ed. London, Friends of the Earth.

Wilkie, DS, JG Sidle, et al. (1992). “Mechanized logging, market hunting, and a bank loan in Congo.” Conservation Biology 6: 570-580.

Wormald, TJ (1984). The management of the natural forests in the arid and semi-arid zones of east and southern Africa. London, Report for Overseas Development Administration.

IRRIGATION/WATERSHED:

Baidu Forson, J and A Bationo (1997). “Saving soil and water in Africa's arid zone.” Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 12: 120-124.

Carney, JA (1996). Converting the wetlands, engendering the environment. in Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. R Peet and M Watts, Ed. London, Routledge.

In this paper, I examine how agricultural diversification and food security are transforming wetland environments in The Gambia. With irrigation schemes being implemented in lowland swamps to encourage year-round cultivation, agrarian relations are rife with conflict between men and women over the distribution of work and benefits of increased household earnings. Economic change gives rise to new claims over the communal tenure systems prevalent in lowland environments and allows male household heads to enclose wetlands and thereby control female family labor for consolidating their strategies of accumulation. The forms of female resistance are detailed in this paper. (SSCI)

Woodhouse, P, P Chenevix-Trench, et al. (1997). “After the flood: local initiative in using a new wetland resource in the Sourou Valley, Mali.” The Geographical Journal 163(2): 170-169.