POPLINE Document Number: 075295
Author(s):
Ferguson-Bisson D
Source citation:
AMBIO, 1992 Feb;21(1):90-4.
Abstract:
Development strategies must consider the interrelationships between problems and the common underlying causes in order to plan effective programs to break the cycle of demographic pressure, natural resource degradation, rural poverty, and women's disadvantage position. When one considers the vantage point of the poor, it is a mistake to assume that rural men and women are passive or destructive players in the scenario. An effective approach is to "maximize their potential" for making rational decisions, and then address the material and technical obstacles. Investment in health and education is a worthy and necessary longterm goal. Desperate land managers are a good example of shortsightedness. Concern is raised about the trendiness of specific issues such as food security, the population explosion, and sustainable development. The potential role of women needs to be considered in any development intervention, i.e., women must be equally considered as members of the various social and economic groups of which they are members. Root causes can be thus obscured and diverted. Rational land management is reviewed in light of the links between health and nutrition; legal, regulatory and policy factors; access to information; and economic factors. Programs concerned with demographic factors, environmental degradation, and the role of women are constrained when these issues are compartmentalized. Gender statistics are not enough. The constraints on women's health are malnutrition and chronic disease and closely spaced pregnancies which not only affect productivity but human suffering. Legal and policy decisions can counteract each other and contribute to environmental degradation. Uncertain or unfavorable tenure conditions or timber exploitation and agricultural intensification for communal land conversion for exportation enhance environmental degradation. Mismanagement of land results also from forced policies on, for instance, pastoralists in Kenya. Resettlement schemes sometimes push people into marginal areas which leads to discouraged land managers without adequate new knowledge to deal with problems such as soil erosion or illiteracy. distinctions are made between disinterested, ill-informed, and desperate land managers. Immediate subsistence needs for survival, particularly among female household heads, always supersede environmental concerns. Findings show that poor soil conservation is associated with lone female heads with insufficient resources to exchange labor with friends and relatives.
Keywords:
Developing CountriesIndex page
Critique
Population Growth
Population Pressure
Rural Population
Agricultural Workers
Poverty
Land Supply
Land Tenure
Economic Development
Agricultural Development
Program Development
Environment
Health Status Indexes
Nutrition Indexes
Women's Status
Women
Population Dynamics
Demographic Factors
Population
Carrying Capacity
Natural Resources
Population Characteristics
Labor Force
Human Resources
Economic Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Rural Development
Programs
Organization and Administration
Health
Nutrition