National Geographic Society-Funded Project :
“ Forest Loss and Commodity Chains in Northern Madagascar”
Abstract from proposal: The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between rates of deforestation, as detected through ground-truthed satellite images, and agro-economic activities in northern Madagascar, an island of rich biodiversity and high levels of deforestation. Forest loss is often blamed on poor subsistence farmers, but this study challenges this assumption by hypothesizing that cash-crop agriculture and charcoal production on Madagascar’s northern forests represent the most important drivers of forest destruction there. By tracing these products in a commodity chain from production to distribution and finally consumption, this study also places proximate use patterns within regional and global contexts. The results will contribute to scientific knowledge of both natural and human-environmental processes of global change.
For our research in 2004, we prepared for field research by analyzing a time series of satellite images, with the goal of comparing areas where there was significant change with areas where there had been little change. We identified and gave preliminary descriptions of 27 sites that we wanted to visit in the field. Once in the field, we visited the majority of those sites.
The PI on this grant is Lisa L. Gezon. Other formal participants are Glen M. Green and Sean Sweeney. Benjamin Z. Freed has also joined the research team.
Presentation of Research
The first presentation to come out of that research will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Washington, D.C. in 2005. The abstract follows:
GEZON, Lisa L. (West Georgia) and FREED, Benjamin Z. (Emory) The Elephant and the Blindfold: Challenging Myths of Deforestation Through Collaborative Research in Madagascar
Research involving people with different academic training provides the opportunity to gather and assess many points of view. In our 2004 investigation of land use and land cover changes in northern Madagascar, we found that a synthesis of individual perspectives led to a sophisticated debunking of a common myth: that local people, through their primary production activities, are largely responsible for deforestation. Data from researchers trained in cultural anthropology, geology, remote sensing, and physical anthropology contributed to this finding. Specifically: 1) Historical research, ethnographic inquiry, and attention to extra-local policies and consumption patterns helped confirm that a complex of factors accounted for recent patterns of land cover change; 2) higher primate densities near local human populations helped corroborate that humans have long historical ties to their environment; and 3) evidence from geology and a time series of remotely sensed images showed that most savannah areas considered to have been deforested probably never had primary forest during the Holocene. Through team research, in which each member presents strengths while being attuned to those of others, people studying different parts of the “elephant” can come together to construct a nuanced understanding of how those parts fit together.