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Conservation and development issues in North Australia
Book Reviews Land is Life: Land Reform and Sustainable Agriculture, N. Dudley, J. Madeley and S. Stolton (eds), xv + 155 pp., 1992, lntermediate Technology Publications, London, f9.95 pbk
Lund is Life is a compilation of short accounts of some of the relationships between land tenure, rural development and environmental pressures in a variety of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. The message of the book, which is based upon the contributions to a 1991 conference orgdnised by the German Foundation Development and Peace and the Swedish Right Livelihood Award, is uncompromising: ‘When farmers own their own land they are more likely to produce more food and to farm the land in a sustainable way.’ It also repeats familiar denunciations of the evils wrought by the rich North and agribusiness in developing countries and promotes organic methods of agriculture. As such, it is not a balanced book, but its authors, most of whom work for pressure groups and think-tanks with interests in ecology or Third World development, would no doubt argue that the issue - of feeding the increasing population of the world in a sustainable manner - is far too important to be sidetracked by the niceties of academic equilibrium. They may be right; and the book is written with a simplicity and directness which not only indicates the confidence of the authors in their case, but may also make it seductively attractive to students. ‘More work needs to be done to explore the links between land reform and sustainable agriculture’, say the editors, but it is clear that they, and their colleagues, have already made up their minds: land reform and organic farming are the answer. A word of warning is therefore in order. The remedies offered by the contributors may not be the best in all parts of the world. Nor should it be forgotten that many Third World governments - often, it must be admitted, acting under strong pressure from one or other of the super-powers have pursued policies which have been hostile to agriculture, prevented the migration of their traditionally nomadic people by enforcing inherited colonial frontiers, and undermined the economic potential of their countries by corruption and squabbling at home and disputes with their neighbours abroad. Hunger in the Third World in the recent past has been closely correlated with armed conflict, with causal connections running in both directions between the two phenomena. But these complications lie well beyond the scope of a book which concentrates on only a narrow selection of the economic and sociological circumstances which are pertinent to the development of agriculture. The book opens with a couple of longer and more general pieces, exploring the links between land tenure, sustainable land use and the prevention of hunger. Dudley outlines the problems associated with the Green Revolution and high-tech agriculture, rejects the argument that hunger is caused by overpopulation, and rehearses the case against the North, with its inappropriate aid, Scrougelike collection of interest payments from the South, and discriminatory trade practices. He goes on to outline the principles of sustainable, low-input farming, and to put the case for land reform. Otzen then presents a short and highly generalised overview of the destruction of agricultural resources in the South and the steps which are needed if those resources are to be stabilised. Therefore, the remaining two-thirds of the text are given over to brief pieces on a variety of topics, from rural problems in Brazil and the transfer of land to the Amazonian indians in
197
Colombia to land reform in Zimbabwe since independence and examples of rural problems in India and Thailand. The book concludes with some short notes on organic farming in Europe and the concluding statement by the participants at the 1991 conference about the way forward for agricultural development. There is a list of references, but no index. ANDREW DAWSON Department of Geogruphy and Geolog.y, University of St Andrew, U.K.
Conservation and Development Issues in North Australia, Ian Moffatt and Ann Webb, 277 pp., 1992, North Australia Research Unit, Darwin, $25.00 + p. & p.
Just as European scientists have been concerned with the issue of sustainable land-use options, so too Australia’s scientific community has recently turned its attention to the ways the ecosystem should be managed to avoid environmental degradation. To date much of the theorising and the bulk of the research work has concerned temperate agriculture in Australia - that area of the continent which includes much of NSW. Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the south-western section of Western Australia. What has been missing until now has been an assessment of environmental problems occurring in what Australians call the ‘Top End’. Approximately one-third of the continent lies above the Tropic of Capricorn, an area of some 1.5 million square kilometres. Unlike the southern regions it experiences wet and dry seasons, is very sparsely populated and has an agricultural economy based upon extensive beef production on savanna grasslands. In 1991 the North Australia Research Unit held a conference in Darwin which aimed to establish which conservation and production issues would need to be addressed if northern pastoral and coastal areas were to achieve sustainable development in the 1990s and beyond. The book provides a selection of 29 of the 36 delivered at the conference. The papers are quite wide-ranging but the predominant focus is that of the biological sciences. As might be expected from those trained in empirical precision. the book is replete with tables, charts, maps and diagrams: it is also very well referenced. While the book appears to lack any formal structure or thematic unity-moving as it does from topics of tourism, rainforest habitat, birdlife, mine rehabilitation. impacts of fires, rangeland management and Aboriginal community its various case studies nevertheless development provide the reader with a very clear understanding of what might be interpreted as the overall incompatibility of present development strategies and environmental conservation. The three opening chapters are written by authors interested in the ethical, cultural and political implications of pursuing sustainable production in Australia’s tropics. In conceiving of the ecosystem as a victim of progress the authors argue that the market may not be the best mechanism to determine land use in the North. The so-called economic rationalism believed to be part of the intellectual baggage of the leaders in large-scale
198
Book Reviews
private and public organisations is singled out by one author as the most likely barrier to a sustainable future in the tropics.
Global Forest Resources, Alexander S. Mather, 1991. Belhaven Press, London, &42.50 hbk
The need for co-ordinated management of the some 10,000 kilometres of northern Australian coastline is well argued in the following three chapters, with the authors conceding that exploitation practices will continue unless the fragmentation of responsibility between various layers of government is overcome through co-operative effort. They believe that a clear vision of environmental-protection needs in the North can only be developed by governments in close consultation with local communities. This latter theme re-emerges in a number of papers toward the end of the book. The remaining middle 1X or so chapters contain bio-physical analyses of environmental problems currently experienced in the North. The information will be of interest to scientists and others concerned with vegetation management and biological conservation. One of the most interesting chapters in this section - that by Derek Eamus and Gordon Duff of the Northern Territory University and dealing with the effects of increased carbon dioxide levels on vegetation in the tropics - argues that vegetation change in the North will be more dramatic than that being predicted for temperate areas in Australia, Europe and the U.S.A. The reason is that the anticipated increase in droughts, floods and cyclones occurring as a direct result of climatic change will exacerbate environmental destruction in the more tropical regions of the world.
Alexander Mather’s book on the world’s forest resources is a very welcome volume. It seems that every 30 years or so, someone is moved to write a comprehensive overview of the topic, and Mather’s book is the third and latest. Zon and Sparhawk first undertook the task in 1923, and Haden-Guest and others edited a massive collection (which included a chapter by Zon) in 1956. The latter volume was primarily concerned with wood resources, but ended with an outlook paper by Rostlund that scanned the problems of deforestation and worried about the dangers of continuing to open up inaccessible ‘virgin’ forests to exploitation. He saw continuing this as a ‘cultural blockage’ and concluded that ‘there are bright patches on the horizon and much thick weather’. Mather sees the world’s forests in much the same dual way. Clearly they are changing faster than ever before, but while massive deforestation is proceeding, especially in the tropics, there are also efforts for preservation. better management and plantation establishment that provide some bright patches in a global scene that is more dismal than it was 34 years before. Mather comes to the ‘obvious conclusion’ that the ‘lessons from the history of forest resources in one part of the world are not heeded in others’.
The book’s attributes are that it provides a sober academic assessment of the environmental problems of tropical Australia, that it does not shy away from some of the more controversial issues (Aboriginal land management. governmental intractability, and questions of future lifestyle options for Australians) and that it provides for the first time an excellent resource for the student wanting information about conservation in the North. It therefore fills an important gap in our knowledge about northern development and provides an understanding of the barriers to successful nature conservation in a region of growing economic importance to Australia. The book has two minor faults. First, it purports to be about North Australia per se but its focus is primarily the Northern Territory. Little information is provided about Central and Northern Queensland which make up at least one-third of the Top End - and as most of those who contributed to the book would almost certainly agree, it would be dangerous to extrapolate the findings from regions with different soils, rainfall patterns and land use. Second, there were some absences/silences: the issues of rural community survival (and its relationship to environmental security) and of ecotourism, the economic imperatives of present methods of farming in the tropics (and how the environment may be compromised by them) and the influence of foreign ownership on environmental management are not adequately covered. A second volume which sought to address the above and other socio-economic concerns of land use in the tropics would be an excellent accompaniment to this first very well-produced and in many ways understated yet disturbing -- book.
341 pp..
Unlike the previous volume, Mather’s is arranged thematically to deal with history, resource extent and distribution, control and management, use, environment, tropical forests and policies. The chapters are well supported by about 100 maps, figures and tables and the book is lavishly provided with some 700 references. It thus provides a very useful overview of the topic and plenty of leads for those who wish to follow-up particular matters or update the statistics, most of which extend to 1985-1986. It is clearly a valuable volume for university students and libraries, and for the many people becoming involved in forest issues at the international level. Surprisingly. it contains no reference to ‘bio-diversity’ and its six pages on ecological effects are too few for the topic. Its greatest strength is that it shows the complexity of the scene and thus provides salutary corrections to many simplistic positions taken about the sector. In many ways the world after the UNCED conference at Rio looks different from the way it did when Mather wrote the book. Notably, the concept that many aspects of the world’s forests are global has become much more apparent. Mather does not justify his title and although he deals with climatic warming briefly and mentions the loss of species in the tropics. his treatment does not really extend much beyond international relations in the timber trade, aid and forest decline. Post-Rio, a global view of the world’s forests needs to consider the paradox that the developed countries assert the importance of the genetic resources of the tropics while silnultaneously exploiting them and their people, The world also looks rather different from the southern hemisphere than it does from Mather’s somewhat northern perspective. To me, this is most marked in the chapter on the control and management of the resource where the discussion of ownership fails to recognise the diversity of customary ownership patterns throughout the Pacific, for example, or the fact that farm forestry is the major source of forest resources in countries like Bangledesh. These comments aside, the volume is a useful addition to the
Lund is Life is a compilation of short accounts of some of the relationships between land tenure, rural development and environmental pressures in a variety of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. The message of the book, which is based upon the contributions to a 1991 conference orgdnised by the German Foundation Development and Peace and the Swedish Right Livelihood Award, is uncompromising: ‘When farmers own their own land they are more likely to produce more food and to farm the land in a sustainable way.’ It also repeats familiar denunciations of the evils wrought by the rich North and agribusiness in developing countries and promotes organic methods of agriculture. As such, it is not a balanced book, but its authors, most of whom work for pressure groups and think-tanks with interests in ecology or Third World development, would no doubt argue that the issue - of feeding the increasing population of the world in a sustainable manner - is far too important to be sidetracked by the niceties of academic equilibrium. They may be right; and the book is written with a simplicity and directness which not only indicates the confidence of the authors in their case, but may also make it seductively attractive to students. ‘More work needs to be done to explore the links between land reform and sustainable agriculture’, say the editors, but it is clear that they, and their colleagues, have already made up their minds: land reform and organic farming are the answer. A word of warning is therefore in order. The remedies offered by the contributors may not be the best in all parts of the world. Nor should it be forgotten that many Third World governments - often, it must be admitted, acting under strong pressure from one or other of the super-powers have pursued policies which have been hostile to agriculture, prevented the migration of their traditionally nomadic people by enforcing inherited colonial frontiers, and undermined the economic potential of their countries by corruption and squabbling at home and disputes with their neighbours abroad. Hunger in the Third World in the recent past has been closely correlated with armed conflict, with causal connections running in both directions between the two phenomena. But these complications lie well beyond the scope of a book which concentrates on only a narrow selection of the economic and sociological circumstances which are pertinent to the development of agriculture. The book opens with a couple of longer and more general pieces, exploring the links between land tenure, sustainable land use and the prevention of hunger. Dudley outlines the problems associated with the Green Revolution and high-tech agriculture, rejects the argument that hunger is caused by overpopulation, and rehearses the case against the North, with its inappropriate aid, Scrougelike collection of interest payments from the South, and discriminatory trade practices. He goes on to outline the principles of sustainable, low-input farming, and to put the case for land reform. Otzen then presents a short and highly generalised overview of the destruction of agricultural resources in the South and the steps which are needed if those resources are to be stabilised. Therefore, the remaining two-thirds of the text are given over to brief pieces on a variety of topics, from rural problems in Brazil and the transfer of land to the Amazonian indians in
197
Colombia to land reform in Zimbabwe since independence and examples of rural problems in India and Thailand. The book concludes with some short notes on organic farming in Europe and the concluding statement by the participants at the 1991 conference about the way forward for agricultural development. There is a list of references, but no index. ANDREW DAWSON Department of Geogruphy and Geolog.y, University of St Andrew, U.K.
Conservation and Development Issues in North Australia, Ian Moffatt and Ann Webb, 277 pp., 1992, North Australia Research Unit, Darwin, $25.00 + p. & p.
Just as European scientists have been concerned with the issue of sustainable land-use options, so too Australia’s scientific community has recently turned its attention to the ways the ecosystem should be managed to avoid environmental degradation. To date much of the theorising and the bulk of the research work has concerned temperate agriculture in Australia - that area of the continent which includes much of NSW. Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the south-western section of Western Australia. What has been missing until now has been an assessment of environmental problems occurring in what Australians call the ‘Top End’. Approximately one-third of the continent lies above the Tropic of Capricorn, an area of some 1.5 million square kilometres. Unlike the southern regions it experiences wet and dry seasons, is very sparsely populated and has an agricultural economy based upon extensive beef production on savanna grasslands. In 1991 the North Australia Research Unit held a conference in Darwin which aimed to establish which conservation and production issues would need to be addressed if northern pastoral and coastal areas were to achieve sustainable development in the 1990s and beyond. The book provides a selection of 29 of the 36 delivered at the conference. The papers are quite wide-ranging but the predominant focus is that of the biological sciences. As might be expected from those trained in empirical precision. the book is replete with tables, charts, maps and diagrams: it is also very well referenced. While the book appears to lack any formal structure or thematic unity-moving as it does from topics of tourism, rainforest habitat, birdlife, mine rehabilitation. impacts of fires, rangeland management and Aboriginal community its various case studies nevertheless development provide the reader with a very clear understanding of what might be interpreted as the overall incompatibility of present development strategies and environmental conservation. The three opening chapters are written by authors interested in the ethical, cultural and political implications of pursuing sustainable production in Australia’s tropics. In conceiving of the ecosystem as a victim of progress the authors argue that the market may not be the best mechanism to determine land use in the North. The so-called economic rationalism believed to be part of the intellectual baggage of the leaders in large-scale
198
Book Reviews
private and public organisations is singled out by one author as the most likely barrier to a sustainable future in the tropics.
Global Forest Resources, Alexander S. Mather, 1991. Belhaven Press, London, &42.50 hbk
The need for co-ordinated management of the some 10,000 kilometres of northern Australian coastline is well argued in the following three chapters, with the authors conceding that exploitation practices will continue unless the fragmentation of responsibility between various layers of government is overcome through co-operative effort. They believe that a clear vision of environmental-protection needs in the North can only be developed by governments in close consultation with local communities. This latter theme re-emerges in a number of papers toward the end of the book. The remaining middle 1X or so chapters contain bio-physical analyses of environmental problems currently experienced in the North. The information will be of interest to scientists and others concerned with vegetation management and biological conservation. One of the most interesting chapters in this section - that by Derek Eamus and Gordon Duff of the Northern Territory University and dealing with the effects of increased carbon dioxide levels on vegetation in the tropics - argues that vegetation change in the North will be more dramatic than that being predicted for temperate areas in Australia, Europe and the U.S.A. The reason is that the anticipated increase in droughts, floods and cyclones occurring as a direct result of climatic change will exacerbate environmental destruction in the more tropical regions of the world.
Alexander Mather’s book on the world’s forest resources is a very welcome volume. It seems that every 30 years or so, someone is moved to write a comprehensive overview of the topic, and Mather’s book is the third and latest. Zon and Sparhawk first undertook the task in 1923, and Haden-Guest and others edited a massive collection (which included a chapter by Zon) in 1956. The latter volume was primarily concerned with wood resources, but ended with an outlook paper by Rostlund that scanned the problems of deforestation and worried about the dangers of continuing to open up inaccessible ‘virgin’ forests to exploitation. He saw continuing this as a ‘cultural blockage’ and concluded that ‘there are bright patches on the horizon and much thick weather’. Mather sees the world’s forests in much the same dual way. Clearly they are changing faster than ever before, but while massive deforestation is proceeding, especially in the tropics, there are also efforts for preservation. better management and plantation establishment that provide some bright patches in a global scene that is more dismal than it was 34 years before. Mather comes to the ‘obvious conclusion’ that the ‘lessons from the history of forest resources in one part of the world are not heeded in others’.
The book’s attributes are that it provides a sober academic assessment of the environmental problems of tropical Australia, that it does not shy away from some of the more controversial issues (Aboriginal land management. governmental intractability, and questions of future lifestyle options for Australians) and that it provides for the first time an excellent resource for the student wanting information about conservation in the North. It therefore fills an important gap in our knowledge about northern development and provides an understanding of the barriers to successful nature conservation in a region of growing economic importance to Australia. The book has two minor faults. First, it purports to be about North Australia per se but its focus is primarily the Northern Territory. Little information is provided about Central and Northern Queensland which make up at least one-third of the Top End - and as most of those who contributed to the book would almost certainly agree, it would be dangerous to extrapolate the findings from regions with different soils, rainfall patterns and land use. Second, there were some absences/silences: the issues of rural community survival (and its relationship to environmental security) and of ecotourism, the economic imperatives of present methods of farming in the tropics (and how the environment may be compromised by them) and the influence of foreign ownership on environmental management are not adequately covered. A second volume which sought to address the above and other socio-economic concerns of land use in the tropics would be an excellent accompaniment to this first very well-produced and in many ways understated yet disturbing -- book.
341 pp..
Unlike the previous volume, Mather’s is arranged thematically to deal with history, resource extent and distribution, control and management, use, environment, tropical forests and policies. The chapters are well supported by about 100 maps, figures and tables and the book is lavishly provided with some 700 references. It thus provides a very useful overview of the topic and plenty of leads for those who wish to follow-up particular matters or update the statistics, most of which extend to 1985-1986. It is clearly a valuable volume for university students and libraries, and for the many people becoming involved in forest issues at the international level. Surprisingly. it contains no reference to ‘bio-diversity’ and its six pages on ecological effects are too few for the topic. Its greatest strength is that it shows the complexity of the scene and thus provides salutary corrections to many simplistic positions taken about the sector. In many ways the world after the UNCED conference at Rio looks different from the way it did when Mather wrote the book. Notably, the concept that many aspects of the world’s forests are global has become much more apparent. Mather does not justify his title and although he deals with climatic warming briefly and mentions the loss of species in the tropics. his treatment does not really extend much beyond international relations in the timber trade, aid and forest decline. Post-Rio, a global view of the world’s forests needs to consider the paradox that the developed countries assert the importance of the genetic resources of the tropics while silnultaneously exploiting them and their people, The world also looks rather different from the southern hemisphere than it does from Mather’s somewhat northern perspective. To me, this is most marked in the chapter on the control and management of the resource where the discussion of ownership fails to recognise the diversity of customary ownership patterns throughout the Pacific, for example, or the fact that farm forestry is the major source of forest resources in countries like Bangledesh. These comments aside, the volume is a useful addition to the