What do you think?
Rate this book
Deforestation: Social Dynamics in Watersheds and Mountain Ecosystems
247 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1988
51 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 27, 2017
This book comprises a series of papers by various authors and was published for the European Year of the Environment 1987 - 1988. It is also promoted by the International Centre for Alpine Environments.
1. Uncertainty on a Himalayan scale
2 Development in the face of uncertainty
3 Soil and Water impacts of deforestation
4 Forestry and watershed management
5 The explanation of land degradation in Nepal
6 Alternative social forestry development strategies
7 Poverty, Women and young people
8 The Chipko movement.
Anyone at all interested in forestry and deforestation or change of land use, or mountainside erosion, or hydrological management, will learn from this book. And if you think you know it all, you will learn about the social conditions of people who depend on forests.
Much of the research relates to Nepal and other countries on the south side of the Himalayas such as Bhutan, India and Pakistan. Other parts of the world are mentioned, for instance south Asian rainforests.
Uncertainty arises when satellite imagery is in its infancy and footfall surveys may not be asking the right questions of the right people. We hear a lot about families and heads of families having rights to land or the products of forest; in the later chapters we are reminded that it is generally women and children who have to fetch firewood, herbs and water, walking further as forests are removed. The government may be reluctant to plant on land owned by a village in community, but this does not excuse the fact that 90% of planting aid (seedlings, fertiliser, fencing, terracing, planting workers, guards for the trees) goes to the big landowners or village leaders. This in a country where the average life expectancy is under 50 years and, since modern medicine was introduced to Nepal, the population has been exploding because fewer children die.
But is it more important to protect the ever smaller and more precarious hill farm terraces on the sides of impossible mountains? People here need trees for fuel and animal browse, but they can't eat them. We're told the animal breeds are so poor that 90% of what they eat goes to keeping them alive; compare this to a Friesian cow or merino sheep. The mountainsides are held in place by tree roots but sometimes there is a landslip anyway. Leaving a wide strip of trees along the banks of a stream helps to prevent soil erosion. Trees also hold moisture in the soil, hold fertile soil and leaf litter in place. If they are removed soil creep will make the land a 'wet desert'.
At this time the authors don't appear to have known that the Himalayas are still growing. "The impact which raised these mountains still results in occasional seismic activity." While tax assessors are told one story by villagers, travellers may be told another by the hospitable people. Eric Newby, traveller and author, gets quoted but much of the evidence shown is from experts in soil, forestry or hydrology - or sociology. The Chipko women linked arms around trees to protect them from government timber cutters, saying that the products of trees were clean water and air. These were the first 'tree huggers' and the term is used in this book.
The first paper contains some pontificating at the start on what constitutes an exact science, with the author making up terms and expounding on them (cis-science anyone?) but on page five he gets on with the work and starts telling us about Nepal. At that point we start to learn. This is a fascinating read.
1. Uncertainty on a Himalayan scale
2 Development in the face of uncertainty
3 Soil and Water impacts of deforestation
4 Forestry and watershed management
5 The explanation of land degradation in Nepal
6 Alternative social forestry development strategies
7 Poverty, Women and young people
8 The Chipko movement.
Anyone at all interested in forestry and deforestation or change of land use, or mountainside erosion, or hydrological management, will learn from this book. And if you think you know it all, you will learn about the social conditions of people who depend on forests.
Much of the research relates to Nepal and other countries on the south side of the Himalayas such as Bhutan, India and Pakistan. Other parts of the world are mentioned, for instance south Asian rainforests.
Uncertainty arises when satellite imagery is in its infancy and footfall surveys may not be asking the right questions of the right people. We hear a lot about families and heads of families having rights to land or the products of forest; in the later chapters we are reminded that it is generally women and children who have to fetch firewood, herbs and water, walking further as forests are removed. The government may be reluctant to plant on land owned by a village in community, but this does not excuse the fact that 90% of planting aid (seedlings, fertiliser, fencing, terracing, planting workers, guards for the trees) goes to the big landowners or village leaders. This in a country where the average life expectancy is under 50 years and, since modern medicine was introduced to Nepal, the population has been exploding because fewer children die.
But is it more important to protect the ever smaller and more precarious hill farm terraces on the sides of impossible mountains? People here need trees for fuel and animal browse, but they can't eat them. We're told the animal breeds are so poor that 90% of what they eat goes to keeping them alive; compare this to a Friesian cow or merino sheep. The mountainsides are held in place by tree roots but sometimes there is a landslip anyway. Leaving a wide strip of trees along the banks of a stream helps to prevent soil erosion. Trees also hold moisture in the soil, hold fertile soil and leaf litter in place. If they are removed soil creep will make the land a 'wet desert'.
At this time the authors don't appear to have known that the Himalayas are still growing. "The impact which raised these mountains still results in occasional seismic activity." While tax assessors are told one story by villagers, travellers may be told another by the hospitable people. Eric Newby, traveller and author, gets quoted but much of the evidence shown is from experts in soil, forestry or hydrology - or sociology. The Chipko women linked arms around trees to protect them from government timber cutters, saying that the products of trees were clean water and air. These were the first 'tree huggers' and the term is used in this book.
The first paper contains some pontificating at the start on what constitutes an exact science, with the author making up terms and expounding on them (cis-science anyone?) but on page five he gets on with the work and starts telling us about Nepal. At that point we start to learn. This is a fascinating read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review