Land Degradation and Society, Piers Blaikie & Harold Brookfield, (London: Methuen & Co Inc., 1987), 284pp.
Understanding environmental problems; making effective use of technical information; politics; market approaches; applicable to water resource issues; written for the first party participant.
Land Degradation and Society is an examination of the land degradation problem and approaches to mitigation, and the cost involved in such mitigation. Blaikie and Brookfield acknowledge the significant contributions made by multiple authors to whom they attribute several chapters.
Land Degradation and Society is required reading for ARSC 5020/7020 as taught by Professors Michael Glantz and Jim Wescoat. This work will be of interest to those who wish an understanding of the land degradation problem and possible solutions. The first chapter defines the problem of land degradation and presents a history of the debate on the subject. The chapter also examines: the conceptualization of the role of land management, marginality, hazards and the environmental paradigm. Finally, they offer an explanation of the approach to land degradation which will be the basis of further exploration in this book. The second chapter examines approaches to the study of land degradation. The authors discuss the relationship between population and land degradation and use the example of the erosion problem inNepal as an illustration. The next chapter addresses the problems of measuring land degradation and the types of measurement used.
Following a discussion of decision-making in land management, the authors examine the economic costs, and benefits of degradation and its repair. The relationship among colonialism, development and degradation is explored before the authors proceed to a discussion of land degradation in the Mediterranean and Western Europe. William Clarke is a contributor to a chapter which examines land degradation in pre-capitalist social systems. A large chapter nine is devoted to consideration of the relationship of enterprise and politics in the development and subsequent degradation of tropical rain forest lands. The shift from forest and grassland to cropland is addressed for which the examples from Indonesia and Fiji are offered. The next chapter focuses upon the degradation of common property resources.
The authors examine land degradation in socialist countries with Vaclav Smil's contribution which addresses the worsening of the ancient Chinese problem of land degradation. Chapter twelve discusses the relationship among the farmer, state and land in developedmarket economies. Toward this end Judy Messer examines the sociology and politics of land degradation in Australia. The final chapter offers retrospection on the work contained in the book, and possible pathways for the future.
Land Degradation and Society offers a comprehensive and methodical examination of land degradation and the causes and possible sources for mitigation contained in human societies.
T. A. O'Lonergan
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