The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment

The title says it all. The collection of essays in this fine book sets out to demolish the myths, half-truths and downright falsehoods that have shaped thinking and policy-making on the African environment over the last few decades....It is always fun to see idols being knocked from their pedestals, though rather disturbing to see a whole gallery of them smashed at once. The authors would not wish us to conclude that there are no serious environmental problems in Africa. But they do urge us to be much more critical about environmental diagnoses, and the data on which they are based. Above all, we should probe the motives of those who propound, accept, and act upon narratives that are unproven and unsound. DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW
... a book of great authority which makes for fascinating reading. New as it is, it has already become a basic text for my third and fourth year classes. - Phillip N. Bradley in JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
...an engaging work which aims principally to abolish the existing myths surrounding the African environment by questioning the reasons behind those myths. THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
...it should be required reading by administrators, managers and students on a wide variety of land-use, development and environmental policy courses. COMMONWEALTH FORESTRY