Biodiversity & Ecology

Journal of the Division Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants , Institute for Plant Science and Microbiology, University of Hamburg.

Forest resources Research article Open Access

Seeing deforestation in Zambia - On the discrepancy between biophysical land-use changes and social perception

David Parduhn* and David Frantz

Article first published online: 24 April 2018

DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00339

*Corresponding author contact: david.parduhn@uni-hamburg.de

<< Volume 6

Biodiversity & Ecology (Biodivers. Ecol.)

Climate change and adaptive land management in southern Africa - assessments, changes, challenges, and solutions,
edited by Rasmus Revermann, Kristin M. Krewenka, Ute Schmiedel, Jane M. Olwoch, Jörg Helmschrot & Norbert Jürgens

Volume 6, pages 317-323, April 2018

PDF (1.8 MB)

English

Abstract: Zambia has been losing about 250,000 ha of forest annually. The actors said to be responsible for this trend include charcoal producers and shifting cultivators. This widely shared understanding is fl awed, however, and instead refl ects a Zambian way of ?seeing deforestation?, which is introduced in this paper. This paper shows, through the combination of ethnography and remote sensing, that deforestation detected from afar does not necessarily refl ect local perceptions, a phenomenon that has fundamental implications for the way forest loss is addressed in Zambia.

Portuguese

Resumo: A Zâmbia tem vindo a perder cerca de 250000 ha de fl oresta anualmente. Os responsáveis referidos são, entre outros, os produtores de carvão e os agricultores itinerantes. Porém, esta percepção amplamente partilhada é incorrecta, refl ectindo antes uma maneira Zambiana de ?ver a desfl orestação?, a qual é introduzida neste artigo. Este estudo mostra, através da combinação de etnografi a com detecção remota, que a desfl orestação detectada à distância não refl ecte necessariamente as percepções locais, o que tem implicações fundamentais para a forma como a perda fl orestal é abordada na Zâmbia.

Suggested citation:
Parduhn, D. & Frantz, D. (2018) Seeing deforestation in Zambia - On the discrepancy between biophysical land-use changes and social perception In: Climate change and adaptive land management in southern Africa – assessments, changes, challenges, and solutions (ed. by Revermann, R., Krewenka, K.M., Schmiedel, U., Olwoch, J.M., Helmschrot, J. & Jürgens, N.), pp. 317-323, Biodiversity & Ecology, 6, Klaus Hess Publishers, Göttingen & Windhoek. doi:10.7809/b-e.00339