Description
Corruption and simple failure are blamed as key causes of deforestation in the state of Edo in Nigeria. Here, von Hellermann (anthropology, U. of London) examines both the ecology and politics of the Benin kingdom to find a cause, including separating farms and forest through reservation and dereservation, managing the forests through logging and regeneration, reinventing farm and forest through work at Taungya, and making Okomu National Park an example of conservation. It seems that most succumbed to corrupt practices, but that simple failure to follow through on preset plans was also to blame. Annotation ©2014 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Governance failure and corruption are increasingly identified as key causes of tropical deforestation. In Nigeria’s Edo State, once the showcase of scientific forestry in West Africa, large-scale forest conversion and the virtual depletion of timber stocks are invariably attributed to recent failures in forest management, and are seen as yet another instance of how “things fall apart” in Nigeria. Through an in-depth historical and ethnographic study of forestry in Edo State, this book challenges this routine linking of political and ecological crisis narratives. It shows that the roots of many of today’s problems lie in scientific forest management itself, rather than its recent abandonment, and moreover that many “illegal” local practices improve rather than reduce biodiversity and forest cover. The book therefore challenges preconceptions about contemporary Nigeria and highlights the need to reevaluate current understandings of what constitutes “good governance” in tropical forestry.
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