Agricultural Settlement Research Articles

Ideological Responses to Settler Colonialism: Political Identities in Post-Independence Tunisia

What explains variation in secular and Islamist political identity and behavior? I argue that local variation in colonial settlement encouraged the development of distinct Tunisian political identities across localities. Using data on political mobilization at the moment of independence, I find that differential colonial investments in local land and schools produced divergent secular and Islamist political identities. This relationship operates through two mechanisms; first, high local land expropriation by the French weakened the religious land tenure system (the waqf system) and traditional Islamic schools in those areas. Second, the increased presence of agricultural colonial settlers is also correlated with a greater presence of local French schools and higher enrollment of native Tunisians in French primary education. This variation in colonial experience also informs contemporary patterns of partisanship and social cleavages in Tunisia.

Intensification Of Arable Agricultural Land Use As A Response To Changing Agro-Ecological Context In The Benue Basin, Nigeria

This study investigated intensification of rural agricultural land use as a response to the changing agro-ecological context in the Benue basin. The objectives were to describe the changing agro-ecology of the region that is stimulating this response from farmers and to assess the level of agricultural land use intensification in the area. Field survey was the main design for data collection and was supplemented by archival search to access knowledge on the process of state intervention in the agricultural systems, population and settlement change in the area. A sample of 1,500 farming households, shared uniformly among the five states covered by the study, was used and questionnaire was the major instrument for data collection. In addition, the study made field observations and took photographs to depict farm scenes. Results showed that agro-ecological circumstances in the region have altered as manifested in over 100% rise in average population densities since 1991 in all the five states investigated as well as rapid urban expansion. It was also found that access to new farming technologies in form of new crop varieties, fertilisers and other farm chemicals has improved for 78% of respondents in the area through activities of government agencies such as agricultural institutions, agricultural development projects and river basin development authorities, and large scale farms which have emerged in the region. Also significant is the finding that farmers in the basin have accepted the philosophy and principles of productivist agriculture which commoditise production for the market. They are therefore prepared to accept the limited innovations that are available. The study recommends deliberate policy to exploit farmers’ disposition towards innovation adoption and commercialisation of production in the area through improved access to new farm technologies and extension services.

Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene

Fire regime changes are considered a major threat to future biodiversity in the Mediterranean Basin. Such predictions remain uncertain, given that fire regime changes and their ecological impacts occur over timescales that are too long for direct observation. Here we analyse centennial- and millennial-scale shifts in fire regimes and compositional turnover to track the consequences of fire regime shifts on Mediterranean vegetation diversity. We estimated rate-of-change, richness and compositional turnover (beta diversity) in 13 selected high-resolution palaeoecological records from Mediterranean Iberia and compared these with charcoal-inferred fire regime changes. Event sequence analysis showed fire regime shifts to be significantly temporally associated with compositional turnover, particularly during the last three millennia. We find that the timing and direction of fire and diversity change in Mediterranean Iberia are best explained by long-term human–environment interactions dating back perhaps 7500 years. Evidence suggests that Neolithic burning propagated a first wave of increasing vegetation openness and promoted woodland diversity around early farming settlements. Landscape transformation intensified around 5500 to 5000 cal. yr BP and accelerated during the last two millennia, as fire led to permanent transitions in ecosystem state. These fire episodes increased open vegetation diversity, decreased woodland diversity and significantly altered richness on a regional scale. Our study suggests that anthropogenic fires played a primary role in diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia. Their millennia-long legacy in today’s vegetation should be considered for biodiversity conservation and landscape management.

ESTIMASI POPULASI DAN KARAKTERISTIK HABITAT LUTUNG JAWA(Trachypithecus auratus E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812) DI RESORT BANDEALIT TAMAN NASIONAL MERU BETIRI

Changes in forest areas into agricultural areas and settlements cause the loss of some natural habitats, thus threatening the sustainability of the Javanese Lutung population. One of the Javanese Lutung habitats, Meru Betiri National Park. The purpose of this study was to determine the estimated population of Javanese Lutung and Javanese Lutung habitat characteristics in the Bandealit Resort of Meru Betiri National Park. Habitat characteristics were obtained through analysis of vegetation data, environmental data, and data on feed types by calculating the Important Value Index (INP) and its relation to environmental conditions in each habitat type. Population differences and habitat characteristics in each habitat type are obtained through Analysis of Variance (Anova) using SPSS (Statictical Program for Social Science) software. The results showed that the estimated population of Javanese Lutung in Meru Betiri National Park was 104 individuals found in 11 groups in all habitat types where each group consisted of 6-18 individuals. Components that have a real influence on each habitat type are temperature and humidity.

Review on Effects of Land Use Land Cover Change on Plant Species Composition, The Case of Ethiopia

Land use is the purpose to which land is put by humans (protected areas, forestry for timber products, plantations, row-crop agriculture, pastures, or human settlements). Land cover is the ecological state and physical appearance of the land surface (closed forests, open forests, grasslands). Land use change is when the use of a particular land is changed from one to another over time, (from natural vegetation (forest) to cultivation; cultivation to grazing or from swamp to cultivation). Ethiopia has the fifth largest floral diversity in tropical Africa. Between; 6,000-7,000 species of higher plants are estimated to exist in the country of which about 780-840 (12-13%) plant species are estimated to be endemic. Ethiopia is one of the most populous countries in Africa, which is experiencing huge land use land cover (LULC) dynamics from natural vegetation to farming practices and human settlement. Existing sources indicate that about 40% of the country’s land area was covered with dense forests at the turn of the 20th century. However, the forest coverage has reached a low level of 3.56%. Agricultural expansion is, by far, the leading land-use change associated with nearly all deforestation cases (96%) while energy consumption, infrastructure development involves both settlement expansion as well as the expansion of transport networks were also the major factor driving land use land cover change and resulting in Ethiopian plant species biodiversity loss. So that, estimation of land use impacts on biodiversity, especially at landscape scale, is necessary to ensure systematic conservation planning and designing sound land use management system. Keywords : Land use, Land cover, Plant species diversity, Biodiversity DOI : 10.7176/JBAH/9-3-05

Suitability Analysis of Groundwater for Eco-friendly Agricultural Growths in Food Basket of Pakistan

Water is an important component of earth’s atmosphere and it sustains ecosystems, agriculture and human settlements on earth (Samson et al., 2010). Salinity, sodicity and toxicity generally need to be considered for the evaluation of suitable quality of groundwater for irrigation (Khan et al., 2014; Cobbina et al., 2012; Todd and Mays, 2005). In Thal Doab Aquifer (TDA) groundwater occurs as a layer of fresh water over saline water and its availability is subjected to recharging potency of the Indus and Chenab rivers (Hussain et al., 2017 a, 2016 a).

Labour Control and the Establishment of Profitable Settler Agriculture in Colonial Kenya, c. 1920–45

ABSTRACTThis article contributes to the growing literature on the impact of colonial legacies on long-run development. We focus on Kenya, where it is previously argued that land tenure and taxation policies created an impoverished class of wage workers leading to lower living standards, high inequality, and stunted economic development. We take issue with this interpretation. Using archival sources, we map the rise of profitable settler agriculture. Next, we correlate settler profitability with taxation and the development of African agriculture. Contrary to previous studies, we find that labour came from areas that became increasingly more commercialized. Thus, a decline in African livelihoods was not a necessary pre-condition for the establishment of successful European settler agriculture. Instead a restructuring of the settler agricultural sector coinciding with tightened labour control policies can explain the increased profitability. An increased cultivation of high-value crops raised the value of labour. Reductions of African mobility lowered both the wage and transaction costs of finding and retraining workers enabling the settlers to raise their profit share. Our finding calls for a revision of the colonial legacy of European settler agriculture for long-term economic and social development in Kenya.

The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan by Sarah Cameron

Reviewed by: The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan by Sarah Cameron Aminat Chokobaeva (bio) Sarah Cameron, The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2018). 277 pp., ills. Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-1-5017-3043-6. Compared to the Ukrainian famine, or Holodomor as it has become colloquially and academically known, the famine of 1930–1933 in Soviet Kazakhstan has attracted only modest scholarly attention since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Sarah Cameron's book is a significant and timely contribution to the historiography of Soviet Central Asia and the debates about the nature of Soviet modernization and nation-building in the national peripheries. Clearly structured and written in a highly accessible style, the book follows the unfolding of one of the worst famines in human history. Cameron opens the book with an overview of the nomadic economy before and during the agricultural colonization of the Kazakh Steppe, focusing particularly on the environmental conditions of the steppe and the ways in which nomads adapted to its arid climate. Cameron observes that the rapid increase in the human and livestock population of the steppe caused by the mass resettlement of Russian peasants led to the exhaustion of soil and water sources, putting considerable pressure on the resources available to Kazakhs. As greater stretches of land were transferred to new colonists, nomads began migrating shorter distances and grew more dependent on grain grown by the peasants. At the same time, the number of animals that individual nomadic groups could pasture dwindled. By 1907, the average nutrition levels of nearly half of the Kazakh population of the steppe fell below the norm. The combined turmoil of civil conflict and drought that enveloped the region between 1916 and 1920 foreshadowed the collectivization famine; although forced grain requisitions were the primary reason for the famine of 1917–1920, its scale and lethality were magnified by the drought. Chapter 2 details the first Soviet efforts to build socialism in the steppe by promoting the development of the modern Kazakh nation and implementing land reforms that transferred agricultural land from Cossacks and settlers to Kazakhs to encourage nomads to take up settled farming. The failure of these reforms, which resulted in a dramatic drop in grain production, exposed the tensions between the Soviet nationality policy and Soviet agricultural policy. Furthermore, it convinced Moscow that nomadism and the clan structure of Kazakh society were to blame for the reluctance of Kazakhs to abandon [End Page 299] their nomadic lifestyle. The closure of the New Economic Policy and the demand for grain to finance rapid industrialization in the second half of the 1920s spelled the end of expert thinking that saw nomadism as making the best possible use of the steppe resources. The beginning of "Little October" in Kazakhstan, examined in chapter 3, signaled an assault on the traditional Kazakh society. The authorities confiscated the wealthy Kazakh elites, in the process impoverishing their poor kin who depended on kinship networks for survival and protection. To mobilize support for unpopular policies and to shake loose the established and customary loyalties, the authorities recruited local Kazakhs to implement the campaign. The drought that struck northern Kazakhstan in 1928 further compounded the effects of dekulakization in the republic. The first signs of impending famine became apparent already in 1928 as Kazakhs were forced to give up their livestock or slaughter their animals to avoid confiscation, but as Cameron explains in chapter 4, Moscow prioritized grain production at the expense of pastoralism. Collectivization appeared to be the perfect solution to the issue of falling rates of grain collection as it would allow both settling the nomads and expanding the sown area by freeing up additional lands. The freed land would in turn be cultivated by agricultural settlers from European Russia. In practice, collectivization had disastrous implications for the nomadic economy; in addition to losing their livestock to collective farms, which were woefully underfunded and underprovided for–of the planned 318 million rubles only 12 million was allocated for collectivization–nomads were required to shoulder both meat and grain procurement quotas. As more Kazakhs slaughtered or sold their animals...

Avian Abundance, Diversity and Conservation Status in Etago Sub-County Kisii County Kenya

Bird’s species diversity and abundance are being threatened due to agricultural activities and anthropogenic practices which causes habitat destruction and fragmentation. Understanding how avian species respond to habitat destruction is important towards development of effective measures to ensure that the environment is protected. A study on avian abundance, diversity and conservation status was conducted in Etago Sub-County, Kisii County Kenya from September 2018 to February 2019. Point counts and time species counts were used to carry out birds’ survey to determine their abundance and diversity in the secondary forest, sugarcane plantations, human settlement and mixed firms. A total of 4992 individuals were observed and recorded in the entire study area. The human settlement had the highest density of 1.664 ± 0.18 birds/ha followed by sugarcane plantation with 1.092 ± 0.16 birds/ha and Nyangweta secondary forest was third with 0.0819 ± 0.13. Mixed firms had the least density of 0.95 ± 0.017 bird/ha. Further Dunn’s multiple comparisons test showed that Mixed farming and forest had no significant difference and had mean rank difference of 11.37. In mixed farming vs human settlement there was a significant difference with a mean rank difference of 57.38; in mixed farming vs sugarcane farms there was no significant difference; in the four habitats, 114 species of birds were cumulatively recorded. Out of these, 106 species were recorded in the secondary forests, 98 human settlement and 87 species in the sugarcane plantations and 55 in mixed farms. There was a significant difference in bird diversity in the four habitats where Secondary forest had the highest diversity of 3.85 and sugarcane plantations had a diversity of 3.71 while human settlement and mixed firms had lower diversities of 2.6 and 2.5 respectively (df1 = 2, df2 = 0.0 F = 0.00001, P = 0.00001).

Our herstory: Beit Hillel's founding mothers

The article portrays the story of the founding mothers of Moshav Beit Hillel in Northern Israel that was largely erased from the villages' collective memory. It argues that without their entrepreneurial and resilient spirit, Beit Hillel would not have survived, thus hinting at the key role such women played in the history of the agricultural settlement in Israel.

Our herstory: Beit Hillel's founding mothers

The article portrays the story of the founding mothers of Moshav Beit Hillel in Northern Israel that was largely erased from the villages' collective memory. It argues that without their entrepreneurial and resilient spirit, Beit Hillel would not have survived, thus hinting at the key role such women played in the history of the agricultural settlement in Israel. https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJESB.2019.101702

The social appropriation of the Portuguese inner colonisation in Boalhosa

Like other European regimes, the Portuguese Estado Novo (1933-1974) implemented an agricultural colonisation policy that, influenced by the ideals of modernism and neo-Physiocracy, aimed at economic development, social pacification and the fostering of national identities, resulting in the settlement and populating of modern rural landscapes. However, the Portuguese regime coped with an enduring financial crisis, and relied on an official nationalism built upon a conservative-traditional society under the union of God, fatherland, work and family. Unsurprisingly, Portuguese inner colonisation was comparatively small-scale, aimed at converting farmhands into rural homeowners, and its modernising experiments had limited impact on the landscape. However, landscape and place are not passive concepts. They concurrently build and are built by political and economic agencies, social negotiations, embodied experiences, plural meanings and affections. Looking into primary sources and the outcomes of a micro-ethnography in Boalhosa, this paper intersects official-written history and emotional-sensory memory to illustrate consistencies and dissonances between political and social actors’ representations of the Portuguese inner colonisation. Based on exploratory observations in Boalhosa, it argues that while the lack of political assertiveness may have curtailed the Portuguese project, it also favoured its social appropriation by local communities and economies within a contextualised historical spatial continuum.

Understanding the drivers of deforestation and agricultural transformations in the Northwestern uplands of Cambodia

At the end of the 1990s, the Northwestern uplands of Cambodia were one of the last forest frontiers of the country. In a region that was the last Khmer Rouge stronghold, the opening of former conflict zones after a peace agreement initiated a vast movement of agricultural colonization. This movement was economically triggered by high market demand for agricultural commodities such as maize and cassava and fueled by a massive flow of spontaneous in-migration of land-poor farmers from lowland regions around the entire country. Focused on four upland districts along a pioneer front of Northwestern Cambodia, we analyzed historical trajectories of land use/cover changes using a chronological series of Landsat data from 1976 to 2016. We identified key drivers of deforestation using demographic data and qualitative information from local actors and other relevant stakeholders. We found a 65 percent forest cover loss due to conversion by smallholders into agricultural land for maize and cassava cultivation over a period of 15 years. The underlying mechanisms of land use change were further investigated to understand the diversity of individual farm trajectories and decision-making processes in relation to land conversion. These elements of diagnosis are essential to engage farming communities in innovative land use systems and to develop sustainable alternatives to boom crops that have led to the current situation of land degradation and economic instability.

The North-West Mounted Police, 1873– 1885 by Jack F. Dunn

Reviewed by: The North-West Mounted Police, 1873– 1885 by Jack F. Dunn Bill Waiser The North-West Mounted Police, 1873– 1885. By Jack F. Dunn. Calgary: Jack F. Dunn Publishing, 2017. xi + 815 pp. Illustrations, maps, charts, bibliography, index of names. $30.00 CAD, $35.00 USD, cloth. Jack Dunn’s North-West Mounted Police, 1873– 1885, is a big book, coming in at 815 pages. That might be surprising to western historians because of the spate of existing books on Canada’s world-famous police force. It might be even more surprising because of the period under examination. Dunn has limited his study to only twelve years— from the formation of the mounted police in 1873 to the 1885 North-West Rebellion. Dunn, though, was clearly dissatisfied with past studies and wanted to gather as much information as possible about the “formative years” of the NWMP. After all, in his words, it was “certainly the most momentous twelve-year period in Canadian prairie history.” It was the police who “open[ed] the land for white settlement” and oversaw the changes that accompanied the agricultural colonization of the region. It’s a heady claim. But Dunn never provides a full explanation for his interpretation. He seems to prefer to let the chapters make the case: an eclectic mix of everything that is to be known about the mounted police and their activities during this period. Dunn has mined a wealth of resources about the NWMP and found a good deal of fascinating material— from duties, kit, desertions, sick leave, and recreation to horses, posts, crime, and border patrols. Some of his findings would make great trivia questions. It’s quite evident from Dunn’s history that the police served as a kind of handyman for the federal government. There was no task that they were unwilling to shoulder in the interests [End Page 389] of maintaining a Canadian presence in the region and ensuring good relations with the Indigenous population. Indeed, Dunn claims that when the NWMP marched across the southern prairies in 1874 (known today as the Long March), the force “effectively established law and order” in the region. He also suggests that one of the main reasons that the Mounties were successful was that they were essentially working in a wilderness with little white settlement. But Dunn’s argument begs the question as to whether the police were able to operate in the Prairie West because they were accepted by the Indian population and did not meet any resistance to their presence. Did the Mounties really exercise mastery over the Indians? And was the police-Indian relationship before 1885 undermined by Indian Affairs policies that went against the spirit and intent of the treaties? There are bound to be quibbles in a book of this size. Dunn, for example, suggests that the Canadian government initiated the treaties when in fact it was the Cree who forced Ottawa to negotiate Treaty 6 with them in 1876. And his use of “squaw” in discussing police-Indian sexual relationships is unacceptable. Dunn also offers little nuance in examining the participation of Indians in the North-West Rebellion— they are largely rebels in his eyes. Still, the book is a good reference work. The time line, detailed index, and contemporary photographs are welcome additions to mounted police history. Dunn is to be thanked for pulling all the material together in one source. Bill Waiser Department of History University of Saskatchewan Copyright © 2019 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

AFFECTED COMMUNITIES - RISING SOCIAL DISPARITIES FORMULATING A BALANCE BETWEEN MAINTAINING UNIQUE VALUE OF AN ESTABLISHED COMMUNITY AND THE NEEDS TO IMPROVE ITS QUALITY OF LIFE - A CASE STUDY OF KAMPONG BHARU; A TRADITIONAL URBAN VILLAGE IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

The Kampong Bharu community was established by the Colonial British government in the late nineteenth century as a 'Malay Agricultural Settlement' - a riverside area strategically removed from the old city centre of Kuala Lumpur, where many of the economic activities fuelled the city's early growth. Ethnic Malay families from several villages were relocated here and given exclusive land rights to maintain a 'village life'. Due to complex land rights enactment, entitlements and inheritance laws, many parcels in this neighbourhood have remained untouched for more than a century. The appearance and lifestyle associated with Kampong Bharu today are seemingly at odds with a city that aggressively grows around it. This paper explores the neighbourhood and documents the complexities and contradictions of urban development that the area encapsulates. Kampong Bharu today sits in the heart of the city. Many parcels of the land have changed ownership. The agricultural land with its modest original house gradually expanded into a sprawling, ramshackle home for dozens of extended families. It has become the hotspot for resettlement for new urban migrants that come to the city to resettle during pre and post- independence. Many historical events have happened here and it has become one of the most well-known neighbourhood in the city. Efforts by the authority to develop this area failed due to various reasons. They had tried to establish a balance between the concerns of long-term inhabitants and the demands of modern development. This paper examines the reasons and also explores how stakeholders in Kampong Bharu have been involved in recent redevelopment efforts. Key stakeholders including landowners, residents, village heads, and leaders of local associations were interviewed, and their concerns and aspirations were documented.

Regional paleoclimates and local consequences: Integrating GIS analysis of diachronic settlement patterns and process-based agroecosystem modeling of potential agricultural productivity in Provence (France).

Holocene climate variability in the Mediterranean Basin is often cited as a potential driver of societal change, but the mechanisms of this putative influence are generally little explored. In this paper we integrate two tools–agro-ecosystem modeling of potential agricultural yields and spatial analysis of archaeological settlement pattern data–in order to examine the human consequences of past climatic changes. Focusing on a case study in Provence (France), we adapt an agro-ecosystem model to the modeling of potential agricultural productivity during the Holocene. Calibrating this model for past crops and agricultural practices and using a downscaling approach to produce high spatiotemporal resolution paleoclimate data from a Mediterranean Holocene climate reconstruction, we estimate realistic potential agricultural yields under past climatic conditions. These serve as the basis for spatial analysis of archaeological settlement patterns, in which we examine the changing relationship over time between agricultural productivity and settlement location. Using potential agricultural productivity (PAgP) as a measure of the human consequences of climate changes, we focus on the relative magnitudes of 1) climate-driven shifts in PAgP and 2) the potential increases in productivity realizable through agricultural intensification. Together these offer a means of assessing the scale and mechanisms of the vulnerability and resilience of Holocene inhabitants of Provence to climate change. Our results suggest that settlement patterns were closely tied to PAgP throughout most of the Holocene, with the notable exception of the period from the Middle Bronze Age through the Early Iron Age. This pattern does not appear to be linked to any climatically-driven changes in PAgP, and conversely the most salient changes in PAgP during the Holocene cannot be clearly linked to any changes in settlement pattern. We argue that this constitutes evidence that vulnerability and resilience to climate change are strongly dependent on societal variables.

Quantifying the impacts of the human activities on the evolution of Po delta territory during the last 120 years

Our study investigates the land use evolution of the Po River Delta (Italy, about 18,000 ha) over the last 120 years to evaluate the impacts of human activities. The various land uses and their evolution have been evaluated through the analysis of different historical maps and aerial photographs. The land use maps have been realized using the third level of the Corine-Land-Cover (CLC) legend. The assessment of the anthropic pressures on the evolution of the territory has been done by expert's judgment on the impact of the different land uses on natural environment.From 1894 to 2015, the land use change is mainly characterized by a conversion of the natural wetlands into agricultural areas, and fishing valleys classified as artificial wetlands in the period between 1892 and 1978. As a result of agricultural and economic policies, agricultural practices became a major driver of wetland loss, and then the urbanization related to agricultural settlement had provided additional impacts on wetland loss.Scientists and technicians indicate that industrial/commercial and harbour related activities are the most important factors that contribute to the degradation of the land use, while, positive impacts have been attributed to natural land use and in particular lagoons, forests and green areas. The cumulative human impact maps show that more than 50% of the territory is degraded during the following three periods: i) a first period (1894–1955) of good environmental conditions mainly due to the presence of highly positive ecological systems; ii) a second period (1955–2000) of intense degradation along coastal areas and the transportation roads; iii) reduction of degradation processes. Finally, we believe our methodology represents an effective geospatial approach in land management: the map of human pressures and the involvement of the experts highlight to managers and policy-makers the impacts of human activities.

The Elevationists: Gerrit Smith, Black Agrarianism, and Land Reform in 1840s New York

This article tells the story of the attempt by Gerrit Smith to establish a farming settlement for free African Americans in the Adirondack Mountains of New York from 1846 to 1850. Smith was a white abolitionist and a founding member of the Liberty Party. Over the course of the 1840s, he became increasingly committed to the land reform movement, coming to believe that the small family farm was the key to lasting environmental health and economic prosperity. Smith’s settlement scheme represents an attempt to merge the racial politics of abolitionism with the environmental ideology of Free Soil agrarianism. His plan attracted the attention of some of the period’s most prominent black abolitionists, including James McCune Smith, Henry Highland Garnet, and Frederick Douglass, who came to see farm life as a means to restore African Americans’ health after the damage wrought by slavery and racism. This article traces the discourse of agrarianism that took shape around Smith’s settlement plan, which saw farm life as being capable of elevating both the farmer and the land itself.

Comparative Analysis of forestry policy and implementation during the AK Party Period in Turkey

Political and economic transformations in many parts of the world have threatened the existence of forests and the sustainability of forestry. Industry, agriculture, energy and land settlement policies inflict damage on forests and other natural assets. This kind of damage, tantamount to deforestation, is the result of government policies that consider forests as a source of revenue, not as an asset to be protected. This study evaluated the success of forestry policies and practices under the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) over a period of 13 years. The previous 13 years were then taken as a control group and compared to them in order to evaluate the success of the AK Party. Overall 26 years of forestry policies and practices in Turkey (1989–2015) were examined. According to the official records, Turkey's forests areas are growing. This growth, however, is not caused by the afforestation but by the effects of immigration from the countryside to cities. Also increased demand for wood is intensifying the pressure on forests. Although the use of forests for non-forestry purposes fragments the forest ecosystems and reduces forested areas, these losses have not been recorded by official statistics. Protected areas are being transformed into recreational areas and their management is not following the wishes of the people. The reason for this is that the government prioritises economic growth over environmental concerns.

Evaluation of Human—Elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) Conflict in Aceh Province, Indonesia

The occurrence of human-elephant conflict varies and extends in the elephant’s home ranges. In general, the conflict is generated by the damage of agricultural crops. The purpose of this study is to evaluate conflict from the wild elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in Aceh Province. This study was conducted in five sub-dictricts (Cot Girek, Mane, Meureudu, Sampoiniet and Pante Ceureumen) with documented human-elephant conflicts byusing interview and questionnaires methods. The data were obtained from the communities directly affected by elephant crop raiding, as well as indigenous leaders and local government officials. The data collected includes causes of human-elephant conflict and typology of human-elephant conflict in Aceh Province. The data are analyzed in descriptions to give a specific picture of the cause of human-elephant conflict and its typology in Aceh. The results showed that expansion of agricultural land, plantations, settlements and forestry industries directly affect the reduction of elephant habitat, which may cause human-elephant conflict. The typology of human-elephant conflicts are; damaging plants/vegetation, damaging cottages and community houses, attacking human and/or elephants killed by humans. The study gives a special illustration of human-elephant conflicts which may facilitate the effort and participation of the community to mitigate future conflicts in Aceh.