Local
Environmental Change and Society in Africa. 2nd ed.
Abstract
M.A. Mohamed Salih, ed.
Local Environmental Change and Society in Africa. 2nd ed.
OSSREA, Addis
Ababa. 2001. xiii + 225p.
Compilation
of papers that deal specifically with local environmental change. By focusing on
local environmental change and society, they offer an opportunity to obtain a
comparative perspective on topics pushed aside by an apparent interest in global
environmental issues. The case studies presented in this book illustrate how
environmental degradation has contributed to the distortion of local
institutions and economies, thus denying local communities the right to eke out
their living in a productive and healthy environment. The contributors highlight
the seriousness of the difficulties involved in conflating national policies and
local reality, and imposing global policy instruments on local communities.
Understandably, the case studies demonstrate that local communities resist
putting their faith in environmental policies and plan imposed on them by global
or national institutions that often deprive them of access to and control over
their local environment.