ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the ecology of the Guinea savanna from the perspective of its potential for development. It identifies two systems of "bounded rationality" in relation to the exploitation of resources in the Guinea savanna. The first is that of the development planner, whose proposals to alleviate population pressures in the sudan and sahel by encouraging emigration to savanna regions would result in the rapid exhaustion of savanna resources, to the detriment of both settlers and native populations. The second is that of the local farmer, who is concerned with the management of resources but whose capacity to do anything other than maintain production, at whatever the long-term environmental cost, is also limited. The inhabitants of the Guinea savanna bear a tremendous burden of parasitic disease: onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trypanosomiasis, dracunculiasis, and malaria.
