Defining and Explaining Tropical Deforestation: Shifting Cultivation and Population Growth in Colonial Madagascar (1896-1940)

Abstract

The case study of deforestation in Madagascar demonstrated how deforestation is a complex phenomenon that reflects interconnections between land-based resources, human groups, and global political economy; specifically, there is a link between changing land use practices affecting shifting cultivation and tropical deforestation. The general development model of exponential population growth and shifting cultivation causing deforestation and environmental degradation is too simplified, places undue blame on the victims, and isolates shifting cultivation practices from the reality of land use patterns in specific places at specific times. Problematic also is the way definition, delimitation, and discussion of environmental problems shapes possible solutions. This analysis suggests a theoretical view that links reconstructed regional geography with political ecology. The assertion is that deforestation is historically based on multiple social processes within Madagascar. Land use practices and resource access decisions during the colonial period affected land management and degradation. The colonial state policy played a role in the destruction of tropical flora by fire, shifting cultivation, and grazing, and the responses of Europeans and Malagasys. Context and multiplicity of motivations and practices were key. A review was presented of reconstructed regional geography and political ecology and global tropical deforestation. The description of the political economy of deforestation during colonial times focused on the movement of population into the forests after 1896 and French annexation. Famine resulted. Shifting cultivation laws were passed between 1881 and 1913, due to the desire for rational forest resource management. Ecologically and socially these rules were difficult to enforce; there were resistance due to the threat of the elimination of subsistence living for wage work. Destructive logging practices and forest product extraction after 1921 are described. During 1900-1941, population was below or at replacement level, but the government still blamed Malagasys. Shifting cultivation meant different things to the subsistence farmers, the state, and international agencies. Denial of context promotes an ideology of repression, fuels fear and prejudice, and promotes the wrong solutions.