Contenu du sommaire

The Mountain Ranges of Malawi ; Tropical Environments at High Altitudes and Problems Arising From Exploitation and Development Policies. The creation of supplementary farm land for food crops and export commodities such as tea and coffee poses a permanent danger for the natural resources of the highlands of Malawi. Illegal felling of trees is causing the disappearance of mountain forests. A control over commercial plantations and a programmed replanting of trees is possible, but there is no way of stopping the unauthorized agricultural activities of small peasant landholders. The plan that presents a theoretical development program for Mount Michiru provides an example of the multi-purpose use of a mountain chain under long-term economic, social and environmental perspectives. Making a population first aware of the importance that the protection of an environment has and then educating it as to how this may be achieved, plays an important role in the protection of mountain environments.

Population Growth, Land Development and Slope Stabilization ; What is the Future for Rwanda ? The latest statistics refering to demographic growth in Rwanda during the next twenty-five years present a catastrophic scenario with rural population densities comprised between 1 ,000 and 1 ,500 inhabitants per sq. km. and farms reduced to less than one hectare, upon which eight to twelve people must eke out a living. These changes will entail - and already involve - a destructuralization of traditional systems of production and of space occupation, which means a more and more aggravated inadaptation of the exploitation of slopes, ineluctably leading to a rapid destruction of the agro-pedological potential. One of the only solutions appears to be, apart from a draconian limitation of births, land development in the catchment zones. This should bring about a better means of satisfying the human needs of the communities and would enhance the potentialities of the slopes and improve their resistance to erosion.

Economic and Ecological Problems as Regards Dense Liberian Forests. Liberia, one of the last remaining islands of thick rain forest in West Africa, is seeing its forest disappear with a great rapidity, both because of industrial exploitation (construction lumber, in large part for exportation) as well as to make way for classical shifting agriculture. After an analysis of the causes and consequences of this landclearing on the forest ecosystem, the author proposes a forestry model integrated into the traditional method of exploiting land, which would make it possible to replace the present predatory manner of exploiting a forest with the notion of a renewable natural resource.

Men and Capital Across the Pacific ; Towards a Japanization of the Hawaiian Islands ? Japan and the Japanese have played a major part in the extensive transformations that the Hawaiian archipelago has undergone in the past century. To begin with, the immigration of Japanese laborers for the sugar care plantations (1868-1907), accompanied or folio wed up until 1924 by «picture brides», madeof the Japenese group a very important element of the overall population. Japanese immigrants and their descendants applied every endeavor to become fully integrated into their new social environment while at the same time seeking to maintain their cohesion and their specific characteristics. The political, business and cultural success of the second (Nisei) and third (Sansei) generations of descendants gives witness to this harmonious integration. But today the Japanization of Hawaii is not a result of any internal development but is directly linked to massive infusions of Japanese capital, chiefly in the land and real estate sectors. More particularly, Japanese money is heavily invested in tourist activities, now in great part catering to Japanese clients.