ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the impact of human activities and their consequences on the woods, soils and water of George Perkins Marsh's own native Vermont in the USA. It provides an institutional economics approach to analyse the underlying causes of continuing environmental degradation: poverty, population, poor policies and trade. The book suggests that environmental degradation will persist because it is the static result of the ongoing dynamic contest between opportunistic individuals and institutional adaptation. It reviews biological research on African rangeland and highlights its management implications for donor and national government policy. The book argues that the mainstream view of range science is fundamentally flawed in its application to certain rangeland ecologies and forms of pastoral production. It explores a wide spectrum of cross-cutting environmental themes.
