This book explores how environmental policies are made and enforced in Africa. Specifically
this project explains the gap between intent and impact of forest policies focusing on three
African societies facing persistent deforestation today: Madagascar Tanzania and Uganda. The
central claim of the study is that deforestation persists because conservation policies and
projects which are largely underwritten by foreign donors consistently ignore the fact that
conservation is possible only under limited and specific conditions. To make the case the
author examines how decision-making power is negotiated and exercised where communities make
environmental decisions daily (local level) and where environmental policies are negotiated and
enacted (national level) across three distinct African political systems.
