Challenging neo-Malthusian deforestation analyses in West Africa's dynamicforest landscapes

Many influential analyses of West Africa lake it for granted that "original " forest cover has progressively been converted and savannized during the t wentieth century by growing populations. By testing these assumptions again st historical evidence, exemplified for Ghana and Ivory Coast, this article shows that these neo-Malthusian deforestation narratives badly misrepresen t people-forest relationships. They obscure important nonlinear dynamics, a s well as widespread anthropogenic forest expansion and landscape enrichmen t. These processes are better captured, in broad terms, by a neo-Boserupian perspective on population-forest dynamics. However, comprehending variatio ns in locale-specific trajectories of change requires fuller appreciation o f social differences in environmental and resource values, of how diverse i nstitutions shape resource access and control, and of ecological variabilit y and path dependency in how landscapes respond to use. The second half of the article presents and illustrates such a "landscape structuration" persp ective through case studies from the forest-savanna transition zones of Gha na and Guinea.