What happens when orthodoxies turn out to be misguided, exaggerated, or just plain wrong? The driving force behind much environmental policy in Africa is a set of powerful, widely perceived images including overgrazing, soil erosion, and the so-called ‘woodfuel crisis’. Yet such images obscure alternative perspectives, and often lead to inappropriate or even fundamentally flawed policies. Taking an interdisciplinary and historical perspective, this book brings together ten case studies by leading researchers to explain how and why orthodox thinking on the environment takes remarkably similar forms in different geographical and historical settings.
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