Rural people as conservationists: querying neo-Malthusian assumptions about biodiversity in Sierra Leone

Kandeh, H.B.S; Richards, Paul

doi:10.2307/1161513

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The presumption of a natural, pre-human forest ecosystem as well as the automatic assumption of denigration from human use is also being increasingly undermined by recent empirical findings (e.g. Hecht and Cockburn 1992;Fairhead and Leach 1996;Kandeh and Richards 1996).…”

Section: Theoretical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Commercialisation of non-timber forest products: review and analysis of research

Neumann¹,

Hirsch²

2000

105

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Section: Theoretical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the basis of their research in an area of southern Sierra Leone, Kandeh and Richards (1996) suggest that a high level of bird species diversity in the region 'may be a direct result of the complex human history of the forest and the resulting patchwork of mature secondary forest and undisturbed high forest islands' (p. 92).…”

Section: Theoretical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commercialisation of non-timber forest products: review and analysis of research

Neumann¹,

Hirsch²

2000

105

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“….. tandis qu'ont été conservés les kolatiers et certains émergents destinés à servir de semenciers• (Akposso, Togo) systèmes à jachère forestière sont un important facteur de biodiversité végétale (Rossi, 1993 ;Kandeh et Richards, 1996 ;Wachter, 1997 ;Long Chung-Jin et al, 1995 ;Sillitoe, 1998;Schmidt-Vogt, 1998) On peut ajouter que, plus généralement, cette biodiversité anthropogénique joue un rôle important en cas de disette ou en période de soudure. C'est alors dans les jachères forestières que l'on va ramasser les feuilles, les tubercules, les bourgeons, les fruits qui vont permettre de compenser le manque de riz, de maïs, d'igname ou de taro.…”

Section: éVidence Construite Ou Réalité Scientifique ?unclassified

“…D'une part, il peut s'interrompre, comme le montre Dufumier (1996) à propos du Laos, même dans un contexte de faibles densités, à condition que les solutions alternatives offrent une meilleure rentabilité du travail que l'abattis-brûlis ou, pourrait-on ajouter, une meilleure opportunité de rente. D'autre part, il peut exister d'autres scénarios d'évolution, car more people equal more care (Kandeh et Richards, 1996).…”

Section: Quelles Sont Les éVolutions De Ces Systèmes De Défriche-brûlunclassified

Forêts tropicales entre mythes et réalités

Rossi

1999

Nature Sciences Sociétés

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Les représentations généralement données des forêts tropicales ont trop long Abstract-Tropical forests, myths and realitiesTropical forest and savannah Iandscapes are a particularly important theme in the environment 1 development paradigm, and countless projects are being conducted in the field. However, over the past few years, studies have been multiplying. that lead us to ask oneself whether our current approach of the dynamics of theses spaces and of their management by the local communities, does correspond to the actual devetopment of these systems and of the practices involved. Could it not be thal a subjective reality, our own reality, born of a specifie sociocultural, economical and historical context. has been constructed then perpetuated ? Does this view of the various environments, modes of exploitation and organisation of space and production on which our interventions are based match the actual tacts? Is it operative with regard to the development and durability of these environments? These few questions are addressed in this paper in the light of previous and sometimes fairly old studies more or Jess oblirated by various form of pensée unique, or recent works that radically question the postulates on witch the western views on the subject are based. The numerous interventions on these ecosystems are indeed based on a number of widely acknowledged and therefore not questioned ideas, whose origin often dates back to the beginnings of cotonization, sometimes even in the very first explorations. This set of postulates, a construction belonging to a given political, economie and social context, has prevented and still prevents one from making out the actual interactions at work between these environments and these societies. Il is really important to try and blow away this smoke screen because, after ali, if we are now trying to protect the biodiversity and much praised rich ness of these spaces, il is also because sorne societies have taken care to maintain or construct them despite the trials and tribulations of history. Local populations, even the most "primitives· ones, have sophisticated management systems that are able to slowty but effectively modify the natural environment ; these systems, including and especially slash and burn cultivation are numerous, originals, evolutives and capable of intensification. Fallow land is not simply left to pedologie potential recover, it is a productive land and, if necessary, may develop into various forrns of forest gardens or agroforests. Similary, the existence of dominant types of production systems should not hide the fact that the farmers manage multipurpose activities within the framework of multifonctionnal productions and plots. They do so empirically and with such flexibiliy 1 adaptability as demanded by their frailty in the face of an unforeseeable future. For having always viewed these environments and these societies throught stereotypes, maybe our views have remained frozen after ali? vie, jugés incapables de modifier les écosystèmes, paraissai...

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“…This means investigating the full range of cultural values, from, for example, more utilitarian (Ickowitz et al 2014) to more symbolic (Dold andCocks 2012, Cocks andWiersum 2014). In trying to understand this diversity of cultural valuation, we attempt to overcome problems raised by Kirchhoff (2012) and Turnhout et al (2013) associated with conflating economic and cultural valuation by combining methods from each of the "three cultures" of natural science, quantitative social science, and qualitative social science/ Despite deforestation now being a major threat, much of northwestern (hereafter, NW) Liberia's tropical forest biodiversity appears to have been shaped by long-term anthropogenic influences-indigenous peoples have historically been "builders of forests" (Fairhead and Leach 1996, 1998, Kandeh and Richards 1996-through biocultural relations with different species entailing forms of cultural valuation. In many localities of NW Liberia, it is not unusual for the only exemplars of mature or primary rainforest species to be found in anthropogenic forest islands around towns, along paths, or at the sites of old towns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa

Fraser¹,

Diabaté²,

Narmah³

et al. 2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. The cultural valuation of biodiversity has taken on renewed importance over the last two decades as the ecosystem services framework has become widely adopted. Conservation initiatives increasingly use ecosystem service frameworks to render tropical forest landscapes and their peoples legible to market-oriented initiatives such as REDD+ and biodiversity offsetting schemes. Ecosystem service approaches have been widely criticized by scholars in the social sciences and humanities for their narrow focus on a small number of easily quantifiable and marketable services and a reductionist and sometimes simplistic approach to culture. We address the need to combine methods from each of the "three cultures" of natural science, quantitative social science, and qualitative social science/humanities in conceptualizing the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation. We combine qualitative data with forest inventories and a quantitative index of cultural value to evaluate the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in Upper Guinea forest in Liberia, West Africa. Our study focuses on "sacred agroforests," spaces that are associated with Mande macro-language speaking groups such as the Loma. We demonstrate that sacred agroforests are associated with different cultural values compared with secondary forests. Although biodiversity and biomass are similar, sacred agroforests exhibit a different species composition, especially of culturally salient species, increasing overall landscape agro-biodiversity. Sacred agroforests are also shaped and conserved by local cultural institutions revolving around ancestor worship, ritual, and the metaphysical conceptual category "salɛ." We conclude that to understand the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation, interpretivist approaches such as phenomenology should be employed alongside positivist ecosystem service frameworks.

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Rural people as conservationists: querying neo-Malthusian assumptions about biodiversity in Sierra Leone

Cited by 21 publications

References 5 publications

Commercialisation of non-timber forest products: review and analysis of research

Commercialisation of non-timber forest products: review and analysis of research

Forêts tropicales entre mythes et réalités

Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa

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