ABSTRACT
North were root causes of environmental degradation (Multinational Monitor 1992). In the case of tropical deforestation, poverty among shifting cultivators
and rapid national population growth rates are common explanations. Such cause-effect relationships exemplify the most commonly employed Western
discourse concerning tropical deforestation in the South. Neo-Malthusian theory links population growth to shifting cultivation and this, in turn, to tropical
deforestation. Multilateral organizations, mainstream environmentalists, and the Western media deploy and disseminate versions of this explanation throughout
the world. This particular definition makes “the problem” amenable to technical solutions of modernization and birth control.
