A Framework for Understanding On-farm Environmental Degradation and Constraints to the Adoption of Soil Conservation Measures: Case Studies from Highland Tanzania and Thailand

Abstract

This article presents a simple but valuable framework that helps to generate a clear understanding of the social causes of environmental degradation and factors that affect land user decision-making in soil conservation. It is grounded in structuration theory and resonates with recent ideas encompassed by the “sustainable livelihoods” approach. The framework is illustrated with reference to two case studies in mountainous areas where officials have, for some time, expressed a considerable degree of concern about degradation. The first is from the Uluguru Mountains of central-eastern Tanzania and the second is from the Chiang Dao District of the Northern Highlands of Thailand. The framework helps to reveal the diverse factors contributing to a lack of investment in conservation measures in these two places, in a comprehensive but nondeterministic and culturally-specific way.