The Environmental Crunch in Africa

Description

This book discusses the problems and challenges of environmental–ecological conditions in Africa, amidst the current craze of economic growth and ‘development’. Africa’s significant economic dynamics and growth trajectories are marked by neglect of the environment, reinforcing ecological crises. Unless environmental–ecological and population growth problems are addressed as an integral part of developmental strategies and growth models, the crises will accelerate and lead to huge costs in later years. Chapters examine multiple emerging tension points all across the continent, including the potential benefits and harm of growing urban-based ecotourism, the trajectory of labour-saving technologies and the problems facing agro-pastoralism. Although environmental management and sustainability features of African rural societies should not be idealized, functional 'traditional' economies, interests and management practices are often bypassed, seen by state elites as inefficient and inhibiting 'growth'. In many regions the seeds are now sown for lasting environmental crises that will affect local societies that have rarely been given opportunity to claim accountability from the state regimes and donors driving these changes. Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii Introduction: Promise and Peril in Africa—Growth Narratives vs. Local Environmental Problems (Jon Abbink)....Pages 1-28 Cash for Cashews: Does It Add Up? (Margaret L. Buckner)....Pages 29-50 Trade-Offs Between Crop Production and Other Benefits Derived from Wetland Areas: Short-Term Gain Versus Long-Term Livelihood Options in Ombeyi Watershed, Kenya (Serena A. A. Nasongo, Charlotte de Fraiture, J. B. Okeyo-Owuor)....Pages 51-83 Agriculture, Ecology and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Trajectories of Labour-Saving Technologies in Rural Benin (Georges Djohy, Honorat Edja, Ann Waters-Bayer)....Pages 85-112 Is Growing Urban-Based Ecotourism Good News for the Rural Poor and Biodiversity Conservation? A Case Study of Mikumi, Tanzania (Stig Jensen)....Pages 113-135 Losing the Plot: Environmental Problems and Livelihood Strife in Developing Rural Ethiopia—Suri Agropastoralism Vs. State Resource Use (Jon Abbink)....Pages 137-178 Cameroon’s Western Region: Environmental Disaster in the Making? (Moses K. Tesi)....Pages 179-205 The Impasse of Contemporary Agro-pastoralism in Central Tanzania: Environmental Pressures in the Face of Land Scarcity and Commercial Agricultural Investment (Tadasu Tsuruta)....Pages 207-240 Down by the Riverside: Cyclone-Driven Floods and the Expansion of Swidden Agriculture in South-western Madagascar (Jorge C. Llopis)....Pages 241-268 Challenging Impediments to Climate Change Initiatives in Greg Mbajiorgu’s Wake Up Everyone (Norbert Oyibo Eze)....Pages 269-286 Future in Culture: Globalizing Environments in the Lowlands of Southern Ethiopia (Echi Christina Gabbert)....Pages 287-317 Back Matter ....Pages 319-324