1st Edition
Sustainable Land Management in the Tropics Explaining the Miracle
Bringing together case studies from Kenya, Benin, Cameroon and the Philippines, this volume provides a multidisciplinary overview of the economics of natural resource management in Tropical regions, at household and village level. By comparing a wide array of climatic and economic conditions, it examines the effect of location and access to the market - as well as the importance of national policies - have on soil and water conservation. The book not only analyzes the benefits of soil and water conservation based on econometric studies, but also assesses the costs involved. In doing so it challenges commonly held assumptions about poorer community's ability to finance such measures.
Biography
Dr Kees Burger, Department of Development Economics, Wageningen University, The Netherlands and Dr Fred Zaal, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'This volume analyses and follows up the impact on the population environment debate made by More People, Less Erosion, 1994, a study of sixty years of environmental and social change in Machakos, Kenya. Including a detailed farm-based questionnaire and a careful mathematical analysis of four countries this book confirms that given a road to market and some land scarcity, farmers can find means to protect the soils. It is a finding that bears repeating.' Mary Tiffen, formerly of the Overseas Development Institute, London 'Sustainable Land Management in the Tropics is a timely addition to Ashgate's International Land Management Series...the book provides well-considered and engaging fodder for anti-Malthusians and related discourses on people-environment relationships.' Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 'This book makes an enlightening contribution to the population-environment debate.' International Journal of Environment and Pollution
