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Conference Report

Environmental Transformations in Developing Countries

Royal Geographical Society -Institute of British Geographers, London, October 16 1996

By the organisers: Simon Batterbury (Dept. Geography and Earth Sciences, Brunel University, now University of Melbourne),

and Tim Forsyth (Dept. Geography, and Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics)

This conference examined the current state of “environment and development research”, and had three agendas: 1) challenging and refining “environmental orthodoxies” prevalent in the policy community (such as Himalayan theories of environmental degradation, and the widespread desertification of arid lands) 2) to provide examples of environmental

histories, assembled from both scientific monitoring and local knowledge and perceptions; and 3) updating the research and

policy community on an extremely diverse and dynamic range of papers dealing with contemporary environment and

development issues. The conference focused on change in four ‘critical zones’ of developing countries: drylands, forests,

mountains, and urban/industrial areas. The speakers were geographers, planners, anthropologists and economists, drawn

from Britain and North America.

With Michael Stocking (East Anglia) as chair, Billie Lee Turner (Clark, USA) provided assessments of the challenges facing an earth increasingly transformed at rates and in ways unknown to previous generations. Accepting that sustainable

development is now a goal of governments and agencies (whether social scientists like it or not), he urged researchers to

discover the real impacts on the environment of growth and development. This requires a bridge between polarised

communities; those who perceive the “driving forces” of global and regional environmental change as a combination of

population, affluence, and technological change (a neoclassical agenda) and alternative models drawing on political economy

to explain change through marginalisation, exploitation, and conflict. The Land-Use/Cover Change (LUCC) programme of

the IGBP, an international initiative, is looking at changes in land use in several zones where combinations of these driving

forces have created envrironmental problems.

Michael Thompson (Musgrave Institute) challenged Turner’s eclecticism, and indeed the notion of sustainability. Arguing

in favour of a cultural-theory perspective, he called for the recognition of plural rationalities resulting from human reactions

to complex environmental events. Robin Mearns (Sussex) then illustrated how accepted orthodoxies like “the woodfuel

crisis” and “desertification” entered policy through social consensus by western scientists, and have continuing impact on

the development community and national governments. Mearns concluded by referring to an interesting “environmental

entitlements” approach which is extending Sen’s work on famine causation to study access to environmental resources.

The one-day conference divided into four sessions in the afternoon. Under the theme of drylands, Bill Adams (Cambridge)

showed how farmers in northern Nigeria have successfully integrated crop and livestock production under conditions of

high population density. This research illustrated how careful maintenance of farming systems had achieved year-round

cultivation in a zone historically associated with food shortages. Philip Woodhouse (Manchester) pursued this theme in

the Sourou wetlands of Mali. Ian Scoones (Sussex) presented his fascinating research reflecting recent trends in ecology and

soil fertility in Zimbabwe, showing how new ecological models propose these environments are not in equilibrium.

Deborah Sporton (Sheffield) discussed socio-economic factors in pastoralism and land-cover change in the Kalahari. As

discussants David Simon (Royal Holloway) and Andrew Warren (UCL) proposed, this workshop illustrated the need to

continue filling gaps in our knowledge about both social and physical trends in environmental change.

For the forests session, Melissa Leach (Sussex) (with James Fairhead, Oxford) argued against the persistent narrative that

local communities generally assist deforestation in west Africa in the transitional zone between dense forest and savanna.

Using hybrid research techniques including field surveys, archival work, and questioning local communities, she proposed

that “anthropogenically assisted forest regeneration” best describes the situation, and should be recognised by giving a

greater role for local people in management plans. Oliver Coomes (McGill) challenged similar myths in Amazonia, arguing

against the belief in “pristine forest”, and disputing the uniform value of ecological knowledge from all social or ethnic

groups. Janet Townsend (Durham) specifically addressed gender by discussing the alternative labels of “destroyers” or

“saviours” for women settlers in Mexican rainforests. Discussant Steve Nugent (Goldsmiths) argued that the three papers

illustrated how research on forest destruction has underestimated social factors.

In the highlands session, Tony Bebbington (Colorado) developed an institutional approach to communicating

environmental knowledge and technological improvements in Bolivia and Ecuador. Indigenous social capital can help form

“islands of sustainability” in a landscape otherwise characterised by declining agricultural productivity. Paul Sillitoe

(Durham) presented evidence from Papua New Guinea collacted over many years, showing how Wola cultivation

practices actually preserve soil fertility and are unlikely to be responsible for lowland sedimentation as commonly thought.

Similarly, David Preston (Leeds) showed how accepted wisdom about land degradation in Bolivia has assumed erosion is

recent, whereas geomorphological research indicates it predates agriculture. As discussant Colin Sage (Wye) summarised,

environmental orthodoxies about mountain zones have reflected lowland agendas and fears, rather than detailed research of

highland processes and people.

For urban and industrial areas, Rick Auty (Lancaster) discussed global investment under the “industrial transition”, and

proposed that countries undergoing industrialisation at present were, contrary to popular belief, less environmentally

polluting that early industrialisers, yet constantly blamed for noxious emissions and environmental damage. David

Satterthwaite (IIED) challenged this by arguing that industrialisation was usually accompanied urban transformations, and

often basic provision of sanitation and housing for poorer groups was avoided by the authorities and exported by the rich,

thus increasing health problems. He urged people to realise that the social transformations during development were

equally as important as the changes in land cover identified by Turner. Tim Forsyth (LSE) drew on both these viewpoints

by discussing “ecological modernisation” and public-private synergy in Thailand and Vietnam. He argued that global

solutions to problems of industrialisation effectively repeated northern agendas, but strong local governance structures

could utilise social capital for public, rather than elitist, ends. Discussant David Drakakis-Smith (Liverpool) summarised

by stating that fighting urban/ industrial problems were difficult to tackle with local skills alone, unlike the treatable

deterioration natural resources experienced in rural settings.

The conference ended on a cautionary note. Koy Thomson (IIED) summarised the day but questioned how far “new

orthodoxies” bettered the old ones they were trying to overturn, and the extent to which previous research was

gratutitously de-bunked to to forge academic careers. Policy may falter if researchers are presenting conflicing viewpoints

without clear messages. One unwitting result of the conference may have been to suggest that rethinking orthodoxies may

mean pushing aside or even denying some environmental problems. In a article about the conference, the UK’s Sunday

Telegraph used the overstated headline, “Exposed: the myth of African tragedy”. On the day itself, the papers sparked

discussion between Tony Allan (SOAS), Andrew Dillworth (Friends of the Earth), David Satterthwaite (IIED), and John

Soussan (Leeds), each variously pessimistic or optimistic about the possibility for change, and how relevant policy

linkages as well as new forms of working could overcome the impasse facing some development research on

environment/natural resources issues. A representative of the Overseas Development Administration (Sam Bickersteth),

was forced to defend the ODA’s record in taking on board new reseach findings.

The 250 delegates were impressed by the depth and quality of the papers (which were published in the Geographical

Journal in July 1997), but some were left rather confused about the the new ‘discourse’ on

offer. The major lessons were that environmental problems in developing countries are increasingly going to require

investigation using hybrid research into both physical and social factors behind long-term change, and a greater

contextualisation of knowledge to explain, challenge and inform policy agendas. This agenda is largely absent from much

postmodernist and theoretical work in development studies, which appears of little value when dealing with issues of

poverty and environmental change. It is time for geographers and related disciplines to seek greater common ground, in

order to apply advances in theoretical debates and practical management to the real world problems raised at this and other

meetings.

(fuller version)

ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Conference reports are available in the Geographical Journal (March 1997), the 'DARG Newsletter' of the IBG (1, 1997), and the 'Australian Development Studies Association Newsletter' (1997). The event attracted media coverage in the Sunday Telegraph, Times Higher, and the ESRC Global Environmental Change Newsletter.

The meeting assessed recent progress in understanding environmental transformations in developing countries. The speakers addressed key aspects of cultural and political ecology, environmental history, and the human dimensions of global and regional change, with workshops on new research in the humid forests, dryland margins, mountain environments, and urban and industrial areas. Of great interest was the effort of some speakers to redefine commonly held environmental 'orthodoxies' such as accusations that highland farmers are responsible for high rates of soil erosion, that forest dwellers have caused widespread forest loss in the humid tropics, and to take on unhelpful and damaging 'development discourses' now inscribed in policy. But the meeting also yielded insights on how researchers can work together with policymakers and local people, and use 'hybrid' research techniques that recognise the complexity and heterogeneity of the forces driving environmental transformations.

We would like to thank the generous sponsors of the event: the Overseas Development Administration, the ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme, British Airways, and the RGS/IBG, and the assistance of Alison Glazebrook and the volunteers.

Shorter papers appear in the 'Geographical Journal' in 1997, as indicated below.

ABSTRACTS AND SPEAKERS

'LAND USE/COVER CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AN EARTH TRANSFORMED'. Keynote address

Billie Lee Turner II, Milton P. & Alice C. Higgins Professor of Environment & Society and Director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, USA.

Sustainable development is an elusive concept that is rapidly emerging as a guiding principle for the new millennium. Referring not only to biogeochemical flows and system dynamics, it may be expanded to include a rethinking of the pace, scale and impact of global changes, many of which are causing concern. Although global climatic change is a major focus of current anxiety, other cumulative forms of change, notably change in land use and land cover, tropospheric pollution, and groundwater pollution are of equal importance for the great environmental transformations experienced over the last 300 years. What is 'sustainable', or even desirable, is redefined by successive generations and in different locales, rendering global sustainable development a hard concept to inscribe in policy. Since the most vulnerable to global change are the unempowered in the 'have not' world, and these societies are also the most dependent on biotic resources, it is here that the negative impacts of change are most keenly felt and the challenge of sustainability is greatest. While developed or 'have' nations account for the majority of global climatic changes, large contributions actually come from the 'have-nots' in developing nations (eg. through biomass burning). As part of understanding the nature of these transformations, research is needed into not only climate change, but also changes in land use and land cover brought about by development, agrarian change, urbanisation, and rapid industrialisation. Getting the 'facts' right on these issues requires not only the better understanding of the transformations now underway in the 'have not' world and their impacts on people, but also of the forces driving change. Research on these issues is needlessly polarised between those looking for constraints on sustainability (eg radical approaches and political economy) and those focussing on success, and opportunities for achieving it (eg Boserupian thinkers, Cornucopians, neoclassical economics). These 2 communities have radically different conclusions to make about the relationship between population, technology, and resource availability. Sustainable development should involve the solutions of both schools - political and economic reform, and changing resource/population/technological relationships. This is the lesson from work on 'regions at risk' studies (see book below), and from current studies of the Land Use Cover Change programme of the IGBP-IHDP global research programme. More cooperative research progammes of this sort are a vital element in forging sustainable development. (Summary by S.Batterbury)

Billie Lee Turner, a leading figure in American geography, works in the twin areas of cultural ecology and global environmental change. He has made comparative geographical studies of Third-World agriculture and particularly ancient Mayan landscapes, and written widely on global environmental transformations. He serves on numerous international committees and hold several awards and fellowships for outstanding achievement. Recently he initiated the LUCC Programme, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His books include the milestone 'The Earth Transformed by Human Action' (edited with others: Cambridge, 1990); 'Regions at Risk: Comparisons of Threatened Environments' (edited with J. & R.Kasperson: UN Press, 1995); 'Changes in Land Use & Land Cover' (ed. with W.Meyer, 1994); 'Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa' (edited with G.Hyden & R.Kates: Florida, 1993); 'Comparative Farming Systems' (edited with S.Brush: Guilford, 1987) and 'Once Beneath the Forest' (Westview, 1983).

Revised paper appeared in the Geographical Journal, late 1997

ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTIONS AND RESPONSES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A RESPONSE FROM CULTURAL THEORY

Dr Michael Thompson, The Musgrave Institute & Norwegian Research Centre in Organisation & Management, Bergen.

Orthodox approaches to human and natural systems assume a one-way transition from an initial to a final state: traditional to modern, for instance, in socio-cultural systems, and pioneer to climax communities in ecosystems. Recent critiques, however, suggest more than two possible states, each a stage in a never-ending sequence of transitions. In the orthodox view, ecosystems and socio-cultural systems are simple (deterministic, equilibrium-seeking and linear); in the critical view, they are complex (indeterministic, far-from-equilibrium and non-linear).

Using examples from the Himalaya and elsewhere, this paper argues that the complex set of hypotheses makes more sense of what is actually going on than does the simple set, and that the policy implications of this challenge are not trivial. On the complex view, there is no way of ever getting it 'right': of bringing the social into long-term harmony with the natural (which, of course, is the whole idea behind sustainable development). So, if the whole system we are all caught up in is the way the complex hypotheses say it is, how do we behave sensibly within it?

The first essential is that the policy process, and the science and research that supports it, be sufficiently variegated: that they incorporate a plurality greater than the two-fold variety that the simple hypotheses allow. Democracy, in other words, does make a difference: the voice of the 'ignorant and fecund peasant' has to be heard. The second essential - making room for 'other voices' in science-for-policy - has still to be achieved. It entails the setting aside of all those familiar policy tools (cost:benefit analysis, for instance, and general equilibrium modelling) that would work a treat if human and natural systems were simple, and the putting together of a new tool-kit: one that is appropriate to policy in a complex world. The paper therefore concludes with a brief description of that unfamiliar tool-kit: reflexivity aids, scenario planning and artificial life modelling.

Michael Thompson is an innovative contributor to environmental debate in both developed and developing countries. His book, 'Uncertainty on a Himalayan Scale' (with M.Warburton and T.Hatley: Milton Ash, 1986), was instrumental in reversing orthodox explanations of environmental degradation in the Himalayas, and 'Divided we stand: redefining politics, technology and social choice' (with M.Schwartz: Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1990) is widely considered a classic in introducing cultural theory to environmental thought. He has contributed to research at many international institutions including the Institute for Policy and Management Research (Santa Monica); the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria); and Unilever Research (UK). A renowned mountaineer, he also participated in major climbing expeditions to the Himalayas during the 1970s.

Chapter in preparation, and paper appeared in the Geographical Journal, late 1997

FROM ENVIRONMENTAL ORTHODOXIES TO ENVIRONMENTAL ENTITLEMENTS

Robin Mearns, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex

What happens when orthodoxies turn out to be misguided, exaggerated, or just plain wrong? The driving force behind much environmental policy in developing countries is a set of powerful, widely perceived images including overgrazing, soil erosion, desertification, and the so-called 'woodfuel crisis'. Yet such images obscure alternative perspectives, and often lead to inappropriate or even fundamentally flawed development policy and practice. Drawing on a recent review of ten historically informed case studies (see 'The lie of the land' Leach and Mearns, 1996), this paper summarises arguments grounded in the sociology of science and of development to explain how and why orthodox thinking about the environment takes remarkably similar forms in different geographical and historical settings.

But where do we go from here in formulating new approaches to environmental research and policy making in developing countries? On the one hand, a realist perspective suggests that we can learn from history, and that 'better' science, policy and practice is possible. On the other hand, 'environmental problems' only have meaning in relation to specific groups of people in particular geographical and historical contexts. This has profound implications for the way science is used in public policy: it must take account of such 'plural rationalities' surrounding environmental problems and their solutions, and has led some to call for a 'democratisation of expertise'. Drawing on an extended form of 'entitlements analysis', the paper considers how a new approach to understanding the dynamic relationships between environment and society can help achieve sustainable natural resource management. The 'environmental entitlements' approach examines the role of institutional arrangements in influencing who has access to and control over what resources, and shows how this has implications for environmental sustainability which are independent of aggregate population pressure.

Robin Mearns is a geographer at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex (later at World Bank). He founded the IDS Environment Group (with M.Leach) in 1990. He has field experience in Papua New Guinea, the East and Horn of Africa, Mongolia and post-Soviet Central Asia, and has carried out research, training, operational and advisory work on land and agrarian reform, pastoral institutions, common property resource management, household energy, rural development forestry, and poverty-environment interactions. He is co-author of 'Beyond the Woodfuel Crisis: People, Land and Trees in Africa' (with G.Leach: Earthscan, 1988), and co-editor of 'The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment' (with M.Leach: James Currey, 1996).

WORKSHOP 1: SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN THE DRYLAND MARGINS

AGRICULTURE INTENSIFICATION IN THE NIGERIAN SAHEL

Prof W.M. (Bill) Adams, , Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

Debates about the response of agropastoral systems in dryland Africa to aridity, environmental change ('drought') and population growth have been dominated by pessimistic arguments about ecological breakdown and system collapse. Some studies, for example in the Kano Close Settled Zone (Nigeria) and Machakos (Kenya) suggest a much more dynamic interaction of people, environment and economy. This paper discusses data from a 5-year monitoring study of soils, cultivators and livelihoods across environmental and demographic gradients in the Sahelian zone of NE Nigeria. The focus of this study is the process of intensification of dryland agriculture in the context of socio-economic strategies (variously labelled coping, survival or adaptation).

Bill Adams spans human and physical geography and North and South with his interests in third world development, water and irrigation in Africa, and conservation in the UK. A prolific writer, he is author of 'Future Nature: a vision for conservation' (Earthscan, 1996), 'Green Development' (Routledge, 1990), 'Wasting the Rain : rivers, people & planning in Africa' (Earthscan, 1992) and 'Nature's Place: conservation sites and countryside change' (Allen & Unwin, 1986), and co-editor of 'The Physical Geography of Africa' (Oxford, 1996) and 'Indigenous Irrigation and Change in African Agriculture' (Leiden, forthcoming).

Paper appeared in the Geographical Journal, July 1997

AFTER THE FLOOD: LOCAL INITIATIVE IN USING A NEW WETLAND RESOURCE IN THE SOUROU VALLEY, MALI.

Prof Philip Woodhouse, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester

The paper gives a preliminary account of findings from a field study of rice cultivation in the Sourou valley in south east Mali. The project seeks to explore the way local institutions control the use of renewable natural resources, and has focused on changing use of small-scale wetland resources in dryland areas of sub-Saharan Africa. This paper describes how a rise in the water level has seasonally-flooded a perennial river. It described the development of rice farming which has followed this change during the past seven years as a result of local initiatives. It presents some preliminary findings on the impact of these changes on the local economy, which include emerging land conflicts and social differentiation, and on interpretations of customary land tenure.

Philip Woodhouse trained in soil science and rural development, and is a staff member at IDPM. His interests are project management; African farming systems; irrigation systems; transfer of the Green Revolution to Africa; environmental risk assessment and management in rural areas. He has worked in Botswana, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, and South Africa. His recent work has appeared in 'Water Resources Development', and 'Public Administration and Development'.

Paper appeared in the Geographical Journal, late 1997

UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY: THE IMPACTS OF STRUCTURAL LAND USE CHANGE ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLES OF THE KALAHARI, BOTSWANA.

Dr Deborah Sporton and Prof. David S.G. Thomas, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield

Environmental degradation and change associated with development has both human and physical dimensions, but research frequently takes either an environmental or a social perspective, without fully investigating variability in both. In this paper we outline a project that seeks to examine society-environment interrelationships arising from the commercialisation of pastoralism in the Kalahari of Botswana. Social and ecological dimensions of the issue are simultaneously investigated, which enables better attribution of causality in a spatially variable environment. By drawing on research findings, it is shown that a multi-disciplinary approach is particularly important when either the physical environment displays high temporal variability (i.e. drylands), or where social changes and policy developments are rapid. This ensures that interpretations based on the different components of the environmental issue are subject to the same ‘time bounded' controls. Even when such an approach is taken, the rapid dynamics of the issue means considerable care in needed if it is attempted to extrapolate specific findings to the status of general explanations.

Deborah Sporton lectures in geography at Sheffield University, and has research interests in demography, poverty, society-environmental interaction, environmental entitlements and environmental change in relation to dryland pastoralism in the Kalahari. David Thomas was professor of geography and director of the Sheffield Centre for International Drylands Research and later moved to Oxford. His research is on long term environmental change in drylands, aeolian landforms, sediments and processes, desertification, savanna rangeland dynamics and processes and the social and environmental consequences of pastoral expansion. His major publications include: 'Arid Zone Geomorphology' (edited, 1996); 'The Kalahari Environment' (with P.A.Shaw: Cambridge 1991); 'Landscape Sensitivity' (edited with R.J.Allison: Wiley 1993) ; the highly controversial 'Desertification: Exploding the Myth' (with N.Middleton: Wiley, 1994; and the 'Third World Atlas of Desertification' (with N.Middleton: Edward Arnold/UNEP, 1996).

Paper appeared in Applied Geography, 1997

THE DYNAMICS OF SOIL FERTILITY CHANGE: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS FROM ZIMBABWE

Prof Ian Scoones, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex

Soil fertility is currently being highlighted as a major issue for African agricultural development. But embedded within policy statements are a series of underlying assumptions and methodological commitments. This paper questions these, arguing that a historical approach to understanding the dynamics of soil fertility change offers important insights of relevance to development policy and planning. A case study of environmental change from southern Zimbabwe emphasises how issues of non-linear dynamics, spatial heterogeneity and the role of contingent events in precipitating change are important in understanding the nature of soils and their management. Transformation of soils is seen to be the result of a complex interaction of factors, mediated by a variety of social, economic and political institutions over time. Such insights suggest a more embedded, context-specific, adaptive and learning approach to intervention, which rejects simplistic, aggregated assessments of people-resource relationships, but, instead, takes uncertainty, complexity, and the potential for non-linear change seriously.

Ian Scoones is a natural resource ecologist specialising in dryland agricultural and pastoral ecosystems. He studies ecological dynamics by combining scientific and rural people's knowledge, and develops participatory methodologies. He has experience in southern Africa (Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa), the Horn (Ethiopia and Sudan) and West Africa. He has edited several books on pastoral issues and rural livelihoods including 'Living with Uncertainty: new directions in pastoral development in Africa' (IT, 1993), 'Range Ecology at Disequilibrium' (edited with R.Behnke & C.Kerven: ODI, 1993), 'Beyond Farmer First: rural people's knowledge, agricultural research and extension practice' (with J.T. Thompson, IT, 1994), 'Sustaining the Soil' (with C.Reij & C.Toulmin: Earthscan, 1996) and is author of 'Hazards and Opportunities: Farming Livelihoods in Dryland Africa - Lessons from Zimbabwe' (with others: Zed, 1996).

Paper appeared in the Geographical Journal, July 1997

WORKSHOP 2: FOREST USE, FOREST HISTORY

REFRAMING FOREST HISTORY AND POLICY IN WEST AFRICA

Prof James Fairhead, Sussex U. and Prof Melissa Leach, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex

Forestry and conservation policy in much of West Africa has, since early colonial times, been framed within a conviction of rapid and recent forest loss and savannisation. This paper locates the production of such deforestation knowledge in its historical, scientific, political and institutional context. Using historical data and sources sensitive to inhabitants' own perspectives, it exposes deforestation 'orthodoxy' as vastly exaggerating the rate and extent of forest loss, while excluding evidence of human-assisted forest advance. It suggests how reconceptualisation of issues concerning ecological and social dynamics, timescale and agency point towards a reframing of West African forest history which has very different policy implications.

Melissa Leach is a social anthropologist specialising in gender and environment, ecological history, forest-savanna dynamics, participatory forest management, farming systems and social change, and the social construction of ecological knowledge. She works in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone and Guinea, and joined IDS in 1990. She has written 'Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic', (with James Fairhead: Cambridge, 1996) (also a film), 'Rainforest Relations: gender and resource use among the Mende of Gola, Sierra Leone' (Edinburgh, 1994), and co-edited 'The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment' (with R Mearns: James Currey, 1996). James Fairhead is an anthropologist interested in forest dynamics, ecology, and agrarian issues in Africa, particularly in Zaire, Rwanda, and Guinea. He is currently teaching at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, and was formerly a research fellow at the School of Oriental & African Studies. His works include 'Misreading the African Landscape', written with Melissa Leach.

Paper appears in modified forms in a book on West African forests, edited by Reg Cline-Cole, and in 'Timescales & Environmental Change' (Eds. G Chapman & T. Driver, Routledge 1996)

RAIN FOREST EXTRACTION AND CONSERVATION IN AMAZONIA

Oliver T. Coomes, Professor of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Concern over the fate of the Amazonian rain forest and is peoples has prompted a wave of internationally sponsored initiatives that promise to conserve the forest while benefiting indigenous peoples. Particular attention is given to traditional extractive activities, such as forest products gathering, agroforestry, fishing, and hunting, that provide both subsistence as well as cash income. Today, literally hundreds of NGOs are working in the Basin, seeking by a variety of means - from the promotion of new rainforest products and creation of extractive reserves to improved harvesting technologies and reformed marketing schemes - to raise rural incomes and thereby improve prospects for local management of sustainable use of rain forest resources.

In this paper, I review the challenges faced by such endeavours and identify several important disjunctures between praxis and research on rain forest extraction and conservation in Amazonia. Drawing on experience in western Amazonia, I visit several key themes that underpin initiatives to promote conservation through rain forest extraction, related to the nature of the forest and its people, the economic logic of forest product extraction and trade, and the role of extraction in the household economy. My critique points to three key issues that require much closer attentin by both NGOs and scholars; 1) the microeconomic and geographic factors shaping resource use decisons by forest peasant households 2) the fluid and endogenous nature of social relations that arise around forest product extraction and 3) the role of life-cycle factors and historical experiences in shaping resource use patterns of forest peasant households. Research on these issues promises to provide a firmer basis for conservation and a clearer undertanding of the real prospects and problems posed by forest product extraction for economic development and rain forest conservation in Amazonia.

Oliver T. Coomes (PhD, Wisconsin-Madison) is a Canadian geographer working on natural resource use and peasant livelihood in Amazonia, both past and present. He is currently studying the role of forest product extraction in the Amazonian peasant economy, the fate of market-oriented agroforestry systems under land constraint, and peasant adaptive responses to environmental change in the Amazonian lowlands. His work has appeared in the 'American Anthropologist', 'Journal of Latin American Studies', 'Latin American Research Review', 'Hispanic American Historical Review', 'Forest and Conservation History', and 'World Development'. He has written 'Prosperity's Promise: The Amazon Rubber Boom and Distorted Economic Development' (with B.Barham, Westview Press, 1996).

Paper appears (authored with Brad Barham) in the Geographical Journal, 1997

IF WE DON'T CUT DOWN THE FOREST, WHAT WILL THERE BE TO EAT?

Prof Janet Townsend, Department of Geography, University of Durham

In land settlement/colonisation, women tend to lose out. In the case of pioneers in the rainforests of Latin America, gendered problems relate strongly to the specific environmental conditions and changes. The overriding pressure bringing pioneers to the rainforest is the search for livelihood, but alternative livelihoods figure little in conservation plans. There is, for instance, no state or commercial interest in the sustainable forest gardens of Mexico which are, for lack of markets, yielding to non-sustainable ranching. The participation of pioneers themselves, women and men, in the search for alternatives is not a panacea but it is a prerequisite for the amelioration of both social and environmental problems.

Janet Townsend has been instrumental in introducing the theme of gender to environmental research in developing countries, and her work has formed part of a postmodern response to development. She has conducted research on land colonization and development in Colombia, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Mexico, and Brazil. Her books include 'Women's voices from the rainforest' (with others: Routledge, 1995); 'Gender in the Third World' (with S.Radcliffe: IDS, 1988); 'Indigenous peoples: a fieldguide to development' (with J.Beauclerk and J.Narby: Oxfam, 1988); and 'Geography of Gender in the Third World' (edited with J.Momsen: Hutchinson, 1987).

Contact author for information on this paper.

WORKSHOP 3: SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN HIGHLAND SYSTEMS

TRANSFORMERS OR TRANSFORMED? INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS AND THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE ANDES

Anthony (Tony) Bebbington, Professor, Clark University, USA.

The enthusiasm of new social movements and civil society has inspired a body of writing demonstrating the capacities of these organizations in 'grassroots environmental action': capacities to resist development, to manage resources sustainably, and to implement alternatives. This writing has placed on the development map a new set of actors who play important roles in mediating the relationships between locality, region and nation, and between environment, technology, livelihood and development. However, the enthusiasm for subaltern agency has often clouded analyses of environmental and social structures that in some measure lie behind, and indeed also ahead of, the production of these new actors. If we were to understand these new social actors as produced, as much as producers, then we may be better placed to appreciate the extent, and the boundaries, of the potential that lie within their initiatives.

This paper pursues this theme through an analysis of several indigenous organisations from four localities in the highlands of Ecuador and Bolivia. The paper analyses the processes through which these organizations have emerged (and not emerged) and locates the organizations within the structural trends affecting the Andean environment. The picture that emerges if one of 'islands' of successful alternatives demonstrating sustainable intensification of rural land use and livelihoods. These islands, however, are surrounded by a deeper sea of less positive change: of environmental degradation, of out-migration and of rural economies that refuse to develop self-reinforcing and inclusive forms of growth. This requires that we take a more guarded view of the initiatives of these organisations. Rather than celebrate them, we need perhaps to ask why they have not occurred more widely - and under what conditions they may occur more widely. Only by linking actors to structures in our analysis can we begin to understand how those actors might be part of a process through which structures of Andean under-development might be transformed rather than just have their effects alleviated intermittently over space and time.

Tony Bebbington (Ph.D., Clark University) is a British geographer with interests in rural development, agrarian change, and institutions in Latin and Central America. He has held research positions at Cambridge University, the Overseas Development Institute, International Institute for Environment and Development, and the World Bank, and holds a fellowship in the Center for Advanced Studies at Stanford University. He has authored many articles in leading journals such as 'World Development' and 'Economic Geography' and monographs on development policy and agricultural change, including 'Reluctant Partners' (with J.Farringdon: Routledge, 1993), 'NGOs and the State in Latin America' (with G.Thiele: Routledge 1993) and 'Los Actores de una Decada Ganada' (with G Ramon et al: Abya-Yala, 1992).

Paper appears in the Geographical Journal, July 1997 (published as 'Building Social Capital/Restoring Natural Capital? Local Organisations and Islands of Sustainability in the Andes')

IT'S ALL IN THE MOUND: FERTILITY MANAGEMENT UNDER STATIONARY SHIFTING CULTIVATION IN THE PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS (title of written version)

Prof Paul Sillitoe, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham

The farming regime of the Wola highlanders of Papua New Guinea features the cultivation of some sites semi-permanently under non-perennial crops within the broad context of a swidden strategy. A review of indigenous knowledge and cultivation practices and agricultural data, combined in an environmental ethnoscience perspective, accounts for the sustainability of this improbable-seeming farming regime, featuring the cultivation of some sites semi-permanently under non-perennial crops within the broad context of a swidden strategy. An investigation of the fertility status of the soils cultivated, together with local management strategies, suggests how these people avoid the soil constraints that might otherwise prompt long-term fallowing of sites under tropical subsistence agricultural systems. Organic matter and the elements N and K all decline significantly with time under cultivation. The other major nutrient P also falls, although its levels are relatively low throughout. Other nutrients show no significant variation. These findings comply with the wide variety of crops observed under cultivation early in the life of gardens, followed later by a virtual sweet potato monocrop. It is the practice of soil mounding, with the incorporation of compost from occasional short grassy fallow intervals, that allows farmers to manage soil fertility constraints, together with the cultivation of sweet potato as the staple crop, which is able to continue yielding adequately long-term, following the initial decline in nutrient availabilities.

Paul Sillitoe has many years of research experience in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and a particular interest in social change, economic development, and agricultural systems. His work is particularly important for combining detailed anthropological analysis with careful monitoring of environmental change and soil processes. He is author of 'Roots of the Earth: Crops in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea' (Manchester, 1983) and 'Place Against Time: Land and Environment in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea' (Harwood Academic, 1996). In 1997, he holds a visiting chair in PNG and will be studying forest conservation and development.

LIVELIHOODS, MIGRATION AND STABILISING MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENTS: THE 20TH CENTURY IN SOUTHERN BOLIVIA

Dr David Preston, emeritus Leeds University, & Mark Macklin, School of Geography, University of Leeds and Dr Jeff Warburton, Department of Geography, University of Durham

The valleys surrounding Tarija, southern Bolivia, are striking for the extensive eroded areas that characterise the fine fluvio-lacustrine sediments which occur around the parts of the margins of the valleys. Farming is concentrated in the valley bottoms where irrigation has facilitated cultivation since long before the coming of the Spanish. The valley slopes and unirrigated areas in the valley bottoms are covered with secondary vegetation, dominated by acacia and prosopis but with relict stands of podocarpus, alnus and tipuana in some hillsides. It is evident that the existing vegetation is degraded. Rural people do not rate environmental deterioration as a major threat to their livelihoods.

The livelihoods of rural households in the Tarija valleys comprise a complex set of strategies which interweave farm and non-farm work in city and countryside in both Bolivia and neighbouring Argentina. Those involved in movement of cocaine and related narco-capital are members of the urban business sectors. Migration has been an important element of human livelihoods during at least the past thousand years, for Tarija lies at the junction of high mountain, valley and sub-tropical lowland environments. This ecological variety is used by contemporary graziers whose movement of cattle makes use not only of micro-environmental variation within the valleys but also of the bettered-watered east-facing hillslopes some hundred kilometres to the east. Migration of both people and livestock is fundamental to the sustainability of contemporary livelihood strategies. Historical livestock movements involved movement of sheep and goats as well as cattle, largely to the high plateaux and valleys to the west.

Although many elements of the Tarija environment appear degraded with visually-impressive badlands surrounding the city, there is limited evidence to suggest that degradation is recent. Areas of active erosion are comparatively small and probably make up less than 10 per cent of the surface area of the valleys. Over much of the surface, erosion is limited and closely related to slope and lithology. Human interference is clearly important close to urban settlements and associated with road building. A range of evidence of livestock numbers and composition suggests that during the 20th century livestock numbers have fluctuated and that sheep and goats are less numerous than 50 years ago. Similarly, in a sub-catchment studied intensively over three years, local residents believe that vegetation is denser than previously.

Evidence from natural science investigations, involving lichenometric and fluvial geomorphological research, suggests that floods and associated erosion linked to periods of high rainfall were particularly common during the latter part of the 19th century but have decreased in both frequency and intensity during the present century. There is no evidence to suggest that the break-up of the great estates consequent on the 1952 land reform was associated with increased erosion.

This research suggests that contemporary urban perceptions of environmental change are seriously flawed and that environmental degradation is strongly related to climatic fluctuations as well as changes in regional population both before and after the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. Contemporary resource use is sustainable in many parts of the valleys and localities in which rapid erosion is taking place are reduced in area and associated with very specific situations of environmentally-damaging human use and physical fragility.

David Preston has worked for many years on environment and development in the highlands of Latin America. He has also studied agrarian change and development in Java at the Australian National University, Canberra. At the University of Leeds, he was engaged in an EU funded study of environmental change and development in Bolivia with the co-authors of this paper. His books include 'Latin American Development: Geographical Perspectives' (Longman, 1995), 'Environment, Society, and Rural Change in Latin America' (edited: Wiley, 1980), and 'Economies and Societies in Latin America' (with P.Odell: Wiley, 1978).

Paper appears in the Geographical Journal, 1997

WORKSHOP 4: THE REGULATION OF URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS

POLLUTION PATTERNS DURING THE INDUSTRIAL TRANSITION

R.M. (Rick) Auty, Reader, Department of Geography, Lancaster University

During the industrial transition from a traditional economy to a developed economy (now underway in the fast-industrialising nations), the total volume of emissions traces an S-shaped curve as the pollution-intensity of GDP first intensifies and then eases. The evolving internal structure of manufacturing leads to systematic change in the pollution shadow as industry diversifies from agro-processing into capital-intensive intermediates and skill-intensive goods, and finally into research-intensive products. This implies that emissions are initially likely to be dominated by water-borne organic pollutants: rapid growth then occurs in air-borne pollution and solid waste, followed by high growth of hazardous materials. Sizeable deviations from the aggregate pattern can result from differences in the natural resource endowment, industry and environment policies and institutional capacity. Options for the adequate regulation of environmental pollutants are explored in the paper.

Prof Rick Auty was an influential researcher on industry, international environmental regulation, and resource issues in developing countries. His books include 'Approaches to sustainable development' (ed. with K.Brown: Pinter, 1996); 'Challenging the orthodoxies', (ed. with J.Toye: Macmillan, 1996); 'Patterns of development' (Edward Arnold, 1995); 'Economic development and industrial policy: Korea, Brazil, Mexico, India and China' (Mansell, 1994); 'Sustaining development in mineral economies: the resource-curse thesis' (Routledge, 1993); and 'Resource-based industrialisation' (Clarendon, 1990). He held positions at the Harvard Institute for International Development; Dartmouth College; Georgetown, Guyana; and the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. He also led the Environment and Resources study group of the UK Development Studies Association.

Paper appears in the Geographical Journal, July 1997

ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION AS CITIES GET LARGER, WEALTHIER AND BETTER MANAGED

David Satterthwaite, ex-Director of the Human Settlement Programme, International Institute for Environment and Development, London

Perhaps contrary to the conventional wisdom, the most serious urban environmental problems in the South are less evident in most of its largest cities. This is partly because most of the largest cities are concentrated in the largest economies. In many cities, this is also partly because of more competent and democratic city authorities in the larger cities. However, part of the reason is also the ability of city-based consumers and producers in these cities to transfer their environmental costs to other regions or nations or to future generations, in an un-sustainable fashion. This paper considers these issues and how the scale and nature of cities' environmental problems change as they get bigger, wealthier and better managed.

David Satterthwaite participates in numerous projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, mainly on issues of housing, health, environment, urban development and rural-urban linkages, and is a strong supporter of collaborative, relevant research. He was advisor to the World Commission on Health and Environment and to the Brundtland Commission, and is a Board member of IIED-America Latina in Buenos Aires. Recent publications include 'The Environment of Children ' (principal author: Earthscan, 1996); 'Environmental Problems in Third World Cities' (with J.E.Hardoy and D.Mitlin: Earthscan, 1992) and 'Squatter Citizen: Life in the Urban Third World' (with J.E.Hardoy & D.Mitlin: Earthscan, 1989). He was also the main author of UNCHS, 'An Urbanizing World: the Global Report on Human Settlements' (Oxford, 1996). He edits 'Environment and Urbanization', the key journal in this field.

Paper appears in the Geographical Journal, July 1997

ECOLOGICAL MODERNISATION, ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN THAILAND AND VIETNAM

Prof Tim Forsyth, Development Studies Institute/ Department of Geography, London School of Economics

This paper addresses the problems of introducing fast and effective environmental policy in rapidly industrialising countries. The theme of 'ecological modernisation' has been developed in countries of the North to describe environmental policy in which environmental regulation and business performance are used to synergistic effect, and this characterises many recent policy initiatives in Thailand and Vietnam. However, this may result in the transfer of environmental agendas from Northern to Southern countries, and consequently the exclusion of local environmental perceptions which need to be acknowledged in order to address environmental problems, and also to ensure that policy works.

I review recent environmental policy initiatives in Thailand and Vietnam, and compare these with responses from newly-emerging environmental/social movements. I argue that policy objectives under ecological modernisation may cause an extension of Beck's 'risk society' from Northern countries to the elites of developing countries, and consequently may lead to an institutionalisation of environmental policy objectives which do not represent alternative, non-elite perceptions of environmental priorities. As a result, assessments of environmental perception and policy in rapidly industrialising countries need to acknowledge further the role of economic class in the experience of environmental problems, and in the emergence of environmental civil society.

However, evidence from locations such as Saigon suggest that some local state structures may proactively seek to represent non-elite viewpoints in policy, as well as encourage foreign investment and industrial growth. Evidence therefore suggests that ecological modernisation may be combined with local views if there is a suitable guiding state mechanism for representation, rather than letting representation be dominated by elite groups. Although environmental threats are becoming more global through industrialisation, perceptions of threats and policy responses can still incorporate local agendas.

Tim Forsyth is Prof of international development at the London School of Economics. His research interests are in the representation of local knowledge in environmental science and policy, and in developing responses to environmental problems which may be incorporated with economic change of benefit to local comunities. He has conducted research in Thailand and Vietnam, and has published papers on Himalayan environmental degradation in Thailand, the use of tourism in environmental management, and civil-society responses to industrial pollution. Fluent in Thai, he has worked as a journalist for Associated Press in Bangkok, and the regional business magazine, 'Asia, Inc.' in Hong Kong. He has worked with WWF on sustainable tourism and business regulation ('Sustainable Tourism: moving from theory to practice': WWF, 1996).

Paper available from author.

THE CLOSING ADDRESS.

Koy Thomson, assistant executive director, International Institute for Environment & Development, London. HOT LINK

Koy Thomson set out the major conclusions from this meeting, exposing the points of conflict and agreement over research agendas and policy linkages. He challenged the research community not to gratuitously 'de-bunk' environmental 'orthodoxies', but to work more closely with policy actors. The 'human dimensions of global environmental change' group, represented by Bill Turner and some participants from the floor, seemed to have a different research agenda to the majority of speakers at the meeting, who were concerned with socially and politically sustainable development and environmental policy/justice issues at smaller spatial scales. For the first, 'environment' is an object and a source of important and potentially life-threatening transformations that require study and regulation - for the second it is a heterogeneous arena for struggle, survival and resistance. These agendas need to be combined or linked, possibly around the themes of complexity, sustainability of interventions, and 'policies that work'. 'Expert' scientific agendas like Green Revolution technologies or large irrigation projects, far from solving environmental problems, actually seem to have posed a danger to local-level environmental movements where they are not 'hybrid' (ie drawing on diverse knowledge). International environmental agreements, discussed more in the first research grouping, are essential and should not be overlooked here. To proceed, a new set of policy tools are required which acknowledge both the extent of environmental problems, and the huge capacity for resistance and adaptation to them in an Earth Transformed.

Koy Thomson has particular responsibility for research and policy development which links together the expertise of IIED's programmes. Working for many years with Richard Sandbrook at Friends of the Earth , then IIED and the London Cycling Campaign, and now chief exec of Children in Crisis (2016) he has considerable experience in environmental policy. His concluding remarks to the Environmental Transformations conference appear in the Geographical Journal (with Tim Forsyth and Simon Batterbury, July 1997).

THE SESSION DISCUSSANTS

Simon Batterbury is co-organiser of this conference, and is lecturer in human geography at Brunel University, where he has been since 1993. Before this, he was a research student at a German-funded environmental programme in Burkina Faso. His early fieldwork in Burkina was on resource conservation for a Ph.D. at Clark University, under an SSRC/ACLS Africa Fellowship. He is currently studying social and environmental change in southwest Niger with Andrew Warren as part of the ESRC's Global Environmental Change programme, and is also a researcher and active participant in environmental and green transport movements in the UK. His work appears in several journals, and he is editing papers from this meeting for publication.

David Drakakis-Smith was professor of geography at Liverpool University before his death, and authored and edited many works on development in Asia and Africa including 'Ethnicity and Development ' (edited with D.Dwyer: Wiley 1996); 'Island Tourism: Trends and Prospects' (edited with D.Lockhart: Pinter, 1996); 'Economic and Social Development in Pacific Asia' (edited with C.Dixon: Routledge 1993); 'Pacific Asia' (Routledge, 1991); 'Third World City' (Routledge, 1990) and 'Urban and Regional Change in Southern Africa' (edited: Routledge, 1992).

Prof Stephen Nugent lectured in Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His latest book deals with peasants of mixed ancestry in Amazonia, and is entitled' Amazonian Caboclo Society; An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Economy' (Berg, 1993) .

Colin Sage is was lecturer in International Environmental Policy at Wye College, before moving to U College Cork in Ireland, with an interest in the way global and national policies fashion livelihood possibilities at the local level. He has research experience in Bolivia on drug crop cultivation, in Mexico on forest management, and Indonesia on transmigration, and an interest in population issues. His publications include 'Strategies for sustainable development: Local agendas for the South' (edited with M.Redclift: Wiley, 1994).

David Simon is Prof in Development Geography, and director of the Centre of Developing Areas Research (CIDAR) at Royal Holloway College, University of London. His research is on economic and political development in Africa. His books include 'Transport and Development in the Third World' (Routledge, 1996), 'Structurally Adjusted Africa' (edited: Pluto, 1995), 'Cities, Capital and Development' (Belhaven, 1992), and 'Third World Regional Development' (edited: Chapman, 1990). He is also current head of the Developing Areas Research Group of the Institute of British Geographers.

Prof Michael Stocking was based at the University of East Anglia, formerly Professor of Soil Science at the School of Development Studies. His research interests include soil conservation, land resources, rural development, and social forestry, and he has conducted widespread consultancy work throughout Africa and Asia. His major publications include 'People & Environment' (edited with S Morse: UCL Press, 1995) and Soil Degradation and Rehabilitation in Mediterranean Environmental Conditions (edited with J.Albaladejo & Diaz, E: CSIC, Madrid, 1990), and numerous monographs and papers.

Andrew Warren was professor of geography at UCL, and a desert geomorphologist. His research was on sand dunes, wind erosion and dryland management. He works on an ESRC-GEC project on environmental change in SW Niger with Simon Batterbury, and has also edited a series of well known books on environmental conservation with Fred Goldsmith. His publications include 'Desert Geomorphology' (with R.Cooke and A.Goudie, UCL Press, 1992); 'Aeolian Geomorphology' (with I. Livingstone: Longman, 1996); and 'Desertification and Drought in the Sudano-Sahelian Region 1985-1991' (UNSO, 1992).

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