Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon

The rate of forest cover loss in the humid tropics of Cameroon is one of the highest in Central Africa. The aim of the large-scale, two-year research project described here was to understand the effect of the country's economic crisis and policy change on small-scale agricultural systems and land-cl...

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Autores principales: Sunderlin, William D., Ndoye, O., Bikie, H., Laporte, N., Mertens, B., Pokam, J.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2000
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/18154
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author Sunderlin, William D.
Ndoye, O.
Bikie, H.
Laporte, N.
Mertens, B.
Pokam, J.
author_browse Bikie, H.
Laporte, N.
Mertens, B.
Ndoye, O.
Pokam, J.
Sunderlin, William D.
author_facet Sunderlin, William D.
Ndoye, O.
Bikie, H.
Laporte, N.
Mertens, B.
Pokam, J.
author_sort Sunderlin, William D.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The rate of forest cover loss in the humid tropics of Cameroon is one of the highest in Central Africa. The aim of the large-scale, two-year research project described here was to understand the effect of the country's economic crisis and policy change on small-scale agricultural systems and land-clearing practices. Hypotheses were tested through surveys of more than 5000 households in 125 villages, and through time-series remote sensing analysis at two sites. The principal findings are: (1) the rate of deforestation increased significantly in the decade after the 1986 onset of the crisis, as compared to the decade prior to the crisis; (2) the main proximate causes of this change were sudden rural population growth and a shift from production of cocoa and coffee to plantain and other food crops; and (3) the main underlying causes were macroeconomic shocks and structural adjustment policies that led to rural population growth and farming system changes. The implication of this study is that it is necessary to understand and anticipate the undesirable consequences of macroeconomic shocks and adjustment policies for forest cover. Such policies, even though they are often not formulated with natural resource consequences in mind, are often of greater relevance to the fate of forests than forest policy
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spelling CGSpace181542025-01-24T14:20:28Z Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon Sunderlin, William D. Ndoye, O. Bikie, H. Laporte, N. Mertens, B. Pokam, J. agriculture change deforestation economic crises household surveys policies structural adjustment The rate of forest cover loss in the humid tropics of Cameroon is one of the highest in Central Africa. The aim of the large-scale, two-year research project described here was to understand the effect of the country's economic crisis and policy change on small-scale agricultural systems and land-clearing practices. Hypotheses were tested through surveys of more than 5000 households in 125 villages, and through time-series remote sensing analysis at two sites. The principal findings are: (1) the rate of deforestation increased significantly in the decade after the 1986 onset of the crisis, as compared to the decade prior to the crisis; (2) the main proximate causes of this change were sudden rural population growth and a shift from production of cocoa and coffee to plantain and other food crops; and (3) the main underlying causes were macroeconomic shocks and structural adjustment policies that led to rural population growth and farming system changes. The implication of this study is that it is necessary to understand and anticipate the undesirable consequences of macroeconomic shocks and adjustment policies for forest cover. Such policies, even though they are often not formulated with natural resource consequences in mind, are often of greater relevance to the fate of forests than forest policy 2000 2012-06-04T09:06:09Z 2012-06-04T09:06:09Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/18154 en Sunderlin, W.D., Ndoye, O., Bikie, H., Laporte, N., Mertens, B., Pokam, J. 2000. Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon . Environmental Conservation 27 (3) :284-290. ISSN: 0376-8929.
spellingShingle agriculture
change
deforestation
economic crises
household surveys
policies
structural adjustment
Sunderlin, William D.
Ndoye, O.
Bikie, H.
Laporte, N.
Mertens, B.
Pokam, J.
Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon
title Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon
title_full Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon
title_fullStr Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon
title_full_unstemmed Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon
title_short Economic crisis, small-scale agriculture, and forest cover change in Southern Cameroon
title_sort economic crisis small scale agriculture and forest cover change in southern cameroon
topic agriculture
change
deforestation
economic crises
household surveys
policies
structural adjustment
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/18154
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