Thomas K. Rudel: Tropical Forests: Regional Paths of Destruction and Regeneration in the Late Twentieth Century

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This book contains an insightful, poignant discussion of deforestation dynamics in the tropics during the last few decades of the twentieth century. It is based mainly on a literature review of some 270 case studies of tropical land use and land cover change from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that sought to isolate the factors that explain the temporal and spatial patterns of forest destruction or regeneration that have unfolded. However, the book surely benefits as well from Thomas K. Rudel’s own extensive field work, primarily in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The author makes a solid case for his view, shared by others (e.g. Meyer and Turner 1992), that deforestation issues are best understood and addressed by using a regional, meso-scale approach, simply because the conditions and dynamics that affect the world’s forests feature considerable inter-regional variation. Interestingly, the utility and wisdom of such middle-scale analyses also were extolled, he points out, by an array of earlier and distinguished thinkers, such as Plato, John Stuart Mill, Bacon, and George Lewis. Rudel thus presents his findings in relation to seven tropical regions wherein conditions and influences on land use lead to “identifiable regional trajectories” of forest change (p. 13), distinct enough to warrant the classification he proposes. The regions include: Central America and the Caribbean; the Amazon Basin; West Africa; Central Africa; East Africa; South Asia; and Southeast Asia. Each one is covered, respectively, in Chaps. 3 through 9. Chapter 1 contains the introduction to the book while Chap. 2 provides a brief but illuminating overview of key definitions and concepts (e.g. afforestation vs. reforestation), existing theory on deforestation, and the main methodological and analytical approaches that have been used in studying deforestation. Here Rudel offers valid insights on the limitations of some approaches that dominate the studies presented in the literature. He notes, for example, that the variable-oriented statistical analyses, which tend to focus primarily or exclusively on either economic, political, or demographic variables, seek to generalize about the importance of particular factors but often with little or no regard for variations in circumstance and scale. As well, they commonly are weak with regard to synthesis, that is, in identifying patterns of “conjoint causation.” Hence, such analyses can be overwhelming, with the effect of provoking “a search for simplicity, usually by refocusing on actoror situation-specific analyses” (p.20). But with regard to actoror agent-based models, such as, I presume, linear programming and decision-tree modeling in relation to a “prototypical” farmer in a community, Rudel correctly asserts that although they offer certain advantages, the “simplifications required...can come at a high empirical price.” Given these limitations, the author instead chooses to explore the conditions and contexts that lead to forest cover declines or expansions and to consider where and when particular explanations of deforestation are valid. The regional situations he describes clearly reveal the multitude of factors at various scales that can come together to influence land use and land cover over time. These factors include national and international economic policies; policies on agriculture, forestry, and other natural resources; land tenure security or the lack thereof; availability and cost Hum Ecol (2008) 36:613–615 DOI 10.1007/s10745-008-9182-5