ABSTRACT
It has been observed that many of the development approaches relating to environmental issues adopted by developing countries, particularly those by the least developed ones, are colonial in origin. Such an approach, or model, understands and analyses environmental issues as purely environmental in character rather than a complex social, political, economic, and ecological set of inter-related concerns. It also lays the blame for environmental destruction on the incapability of land users, links the issue to over-population, and establishes policy directions that insist on active participation in the market economy (Blaikie, 1985). Recent observations and analysis of local-specific experiences have indicated the failure of such an approach in that it has instead contributed to environmental damage. Faced with the prospect of uncontrolled environmental exploitation as a necessary consequence of economic growth and industrialization, it became essential that appropriate development paradigms be sought.
