ABSTRACT
Explanations of the causes of TMF loss and the role of small farmers often focus on human ecological and political economic arguments. The human ecological argument is based on the systems approach to the understanding of agrarian change while the political economic debates utilise the structural/ historical approach. This book argues that decision-making models of agrarian change are also capable of explaining the role of small farmers in TMF loss. This chapter therefore establishes political ecology as the best theoretical perspective on the role of small farmers in forest loss, especially at the micro (household) level of analysis.
