Development Narrative Of Deforestation In West Africa
The development narrative in the documentary, Second Nature (1996), can be seen as story with a beginning, middle and end as defined by Roe (1994). Narratives frame the dynamics of a system and then discuss how they evolve to produce a set of outcomes (Leach, Scoones & Stirling, 2010). Counternarratives typically focus on how the arguments of a particular story differ from more predominant narratives (Roe, 1991).
In this case, the prevailing narrative that rural villagers in West Africa damage the land by deforestation (Sayer, 1992) is challenged by the notion that, in fact, they enrich the landscape by increasing forest coverage (Fairhead & Leach, 1995). The complex interaction of the rural villagers with the ecology of the region forms the system and the competing narratives were established as a result of alternative framing of this system. The construction of a framework depends on the methodological approaches adopted and their results, which are subject to the interpretation by local communities, scientists, international organisations and politicians (Leach, Scoones & Stirling, 2010).
This essay will focus on how the alternative narrative to deforestation was formed by anthropological research in Guinea and the consequences this has on policies. The research project, named COLA, connected anthropologists, Melissa Leach and James Fairhead, with local researchers including historian Dominique Millimouno. The team conducted an ethnographic study of two villages, in Kissidougou, thus creating a network of actors. The use of ethnography was beneficial to the research, as it allowed the team to appreciate how everyday practices are perceived and interpreted by the community. Relying heavily on the oral accounts of the inhabitants of Toly and Sandaya the researchers learnt that both areas had once been solely savannah but were now covered by forest islands (Second Nature, 1996).
A variety of techniques used by inhabitants helped transform the landscape including planting trees for shade, food or to protect the villages from fires. Other farming methods were used like mounding to soften and fertilises the ground, crop and the use of the grass for thatching or cattle grazing to reduce the risk of fires spreading. Elders accounts of ancestors settling in the savannah and encouraging the growth of the forest was later found in 27 of the 38 villages studied in Kissidougou (Fairhead & Leach, 1995), reinforcing the narrative. However, one problem that arose is the reliability of the local accounts. This uncertainty lead to the use of archives and aerial footage, which played a crucial role in confirming that large areas of savannah had transformed into forest islands surrounding settlements, which further enlarged overtime (Fairhead & Leach, 1995). This contrasts with the prevailing narrative that settlers entered dense forest cover and created savannah regions through harmful practices, such as fire setting and cultivation shifting (Sayer, 1992).
In fact, the inhabitants of Toly claim that burning the culled trees can improve the soil quality (Second Nature, 1996). But still many argue that without the presences of humans, forest cover would be vast in West Africa. The opposing frames have developed as a result of different methodologies. Combing several sources such as oral accounts, archives and aerial footage provided a greater range of evidence for the narrative. Specifically, the use of ethnographic studies has created a counternarrative that encompasses local knowledge and history (Fairhead & Leach, 1995). Linking similar findings elsewhere, such as Ghana (Kansanga, Atuoye & Luginaah, 2007) and Sierra Leona (Munro & Horst, 2016), has strengthened this environmental narrative that farmers in West Africa have been unfairly stigmatised (Fairhead & Leach, 2003).
To reduce uncertainity in the story, the responses of the scientists who believe that humans have caused degradation in Kissidougou and how they interpret Fairhead and Leach’s findings are unfairly omitted from the narrative. Stories give rise to policy narratives about development, which influence everyday decisions made by governments and institutions. As Roe (1991: 288) states “rural development is a genuinely uncertain activity, and one of the principal ways practitioners, bureaucrats and policy makers articulate and make sense of this uncertainty is to tell stories or scenarios that simplify the ambiguity”. Based on the simplified narrative that rural communities are leading to deforestation and need to be controlled, a series of strategies were implemented in the 1990s to reduce the impact they had including; the encouragement of swamp farming, imposing fire bans, the prohibition of culling endangered trees and the replanting of flora (Fairhead & Leach, 1995).
The narrative has a wide reach and was embedded in the education system in Guiana. However, counternarratives prioritise different goals and values and hence put forth alternative solutions. Fairhead and Leach (1995) argue for policy practices that should support and perhaps regulate a range of local indigenous vegetation management techniques to increase forest cover in the savannah. Problematically, existing policy narratives are resistant to change even when empirical evidence against them is generated. This is because competing narrative produces ambiguity that decision makers wish to avoid (Roe, 1991). This is illustrated in the documentary, Second Nature (1996), when the National Director of the Forestry Department articulates that dense forestation used to exist in Kissidougou but mass savannisation has occurred; this is inline with the governing narrative. Although many in the intellectual field and aid organisations rejected the findings initially in the 1990s they have slowly changed their opinions. More research in the intellectual field is being conducted and aid organisations have adopted practices in line with the counternarrative (Second Nature, 1996).
This is in line with Roe’s (1991) analysis that to further the shift of narratives, one must make the counternarrative “less objectionable”. To conclude, the development narrative in the documentary, Second Nature (1996), highlights that’s the current policy narrative on environmental degradation in West Africa needs rethinking. By using different methodological approaches they produce an alternative framework, which argues that local practices aren’t always harmful to the land and can, in fact, produce forest growth. Narrative policy analysis, therefore, should focus on using local knowledge to instigate effective environmental policies.
