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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Things fall apart? Management, environment and Taungya farming in Edo State, southern Nigeria
Author:Hellermann, Pauline vonISNI
Year:2007
Periodical:Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:77
Issue:3
Pages:371-392
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:agroforestry
forest management
environmental management
External links:https://doi.org/10.3366/afr.2007.0052
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_the_journal_of_the_international_african_institute/v077/77.3hellermann.pdf
Abstract:Environmental degradation in Africa is often linked to management failure and political decline. One example of this is the dominant understanding of the unfolding of Taungya farming in southern Nigeria in recent decades. An agroforestry method of afforestation introduced by the colonial Forest Department in the 1920s and widespread by the 1960s, it is now perceived as a means of destroying the forest. Indeed, whilst reserve land continues to be allocated for Taungya farming, today, due to the Forest Department's political and economic difficulties, no more trees are planted. But this does not necessarily constitute a political and environmental crisis. Through an ethnographic and historical study of Taungya farming in the Okomu Reserve in Edo State, this article shows not only that there were always problems with Taungya as a method of afforestation, but also that its recent transformation may be seen as quite successful, both socially and environmentally. In this way, the article challenges both the 'crisis' perception of Taungya farming today and conventional ideas about what constitutes proper management and mismanagement. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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