Architects of Nature

The Nature-Culture Trap: A Critique of Late 20th Century Global Paradigms of Environmental Change in Africa and Beyond

“…Th us, overall, north-central Namibia in less than a century saw dramatic environmental changes: many areas were heavily deforested and reforested, revealing multi-trajectory and contradictory environmental changes. 73 Contradictions and/or ambiguities in the record of environmental change have been noted elsewhere. 74 Such acknowledgement, however, has not led to explicit questioning about the homogeneity of the process of environmental change itself, beyond the recognition that the outcome of the process may be evaluated diff erently by diff erent stakeholders.…”

“…71 Yet, the marula and birdplum trees were overwhelmingly found in the villages and on-farm. 72 Deforestation and reforestation, however, consisted of many indi-vidual and dissynchronous acts of, respectively, tree cutting and tree propagation. For example, a single village consisted of both older and more recently-arrived households.…”

De-Globalisation and Deforestation in Colonial Africa: Closed Markets, the Cattle Complex, and Environmental Change in North-Central Namibia, 1890–1990**

“…81 Subsequent late 1960s and 1970s trials with indigenous cattle and forages revealed that the bush and the tree leaves in the Ovamboland district remained nutritious much longer than grasses and herbs and that they contained much higher concentrations of such essential minerals as, for example, phosphate (P) and copper (Cu). 82 A 1979 report on indigenous cattle in southern Africa emphasised that:…”