Historical ecology of peri-village forest patches in tropical West Africa

人们越来越关注通过各种当地生计活动维持的人类改造植被，这些植被最终支持了丰富的生物和文化多样性。西非的“上几内亚森林生态系统”因其丰富的动植物群植物群而被指定为生物多样性热点之一，但该地区主要由人为改造的植被组成。该项目描述和分析了几内亚独特的植被与当地人民土地利用系统之间的历史相互作用。这项研究强烈暗示，植被更好地积极评价为文化或“田园”景观，而不是传统的局外人的看法，最后剩下的残余的天然森林被当地人摧毁。

Growing attention is being focused on human-modified vegetations maintained by various local subsistence activities, which have eventually supported rich bio- and cultural diversity. The “Upper Guinea Forest Ecosystem” in West Africa is designated as one of the biodiversity hotspots because of its rich fauna and flora, but the area is composed mostly of human-modified vegetation. This project described andanalyzed the historical interactions between the Guinean unique vegetation and local people’s land use systems. The study strongly implies that the vegetation is better evaluated positively as cultural or “pastoral” landscape rather than the conventional outsiders’view of the last remaining remnant of the natural forest being destroyed by the local people.