BOOKS - Things Fall Apart?: The Political Ecology of Forest Governance in Southern Ni...
US $6.84
691289
691289
Things Fall Apart?: The Political Ecology of Forest Governance in Southern Nigeria. Pauline Von Hellermann (Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology) by Pauline Von Hellermann (2013-09-23)
Author: Pauline Von Hellermann
Year: September 1, 2013
Format: PDF
File size: PDF 14 MB
Language: English
Year: September 1, 2013
Format: PDF
File size: PDF 14 MB
Language: English
Governance failure and corruption are increasingly identified as key causes of tropical deforestation. In Nigeria's Edo State, once the showcase of scientific forestry in West Africa, large-scale forest conversion and the virtual depletion of timber stocks are invariably attributed to recent failures in forest management, and are seen as yet another instance of how "things fall apart" in Nigeria. Through an in-depth historical and ethnographic study of forestry in Edo State, this book challenges this routine linking of political and ecological crisis narratives. It shows that the roots of many of today's problems lie in scientific forest management itself, rather than its recent abandonment, and moreover that many "illegal" local practices improve rather than reduce biodiversity and forest cover. The book therefore challenges preconceptions about contemporary Nigeria and highlights the need to reevaluate current understandings of what constitutes "good governance" in tropical forestry.