Contenu du sommaire

Regional différenciation and social change in Central Goias agriculture. In the immense regions of the Brazilian Amazonia and Centro-Oeste , the establishement of an organized policy for the opening up and planning of the region dates but from sixties. The objectives, redefined by the Second National Development Scheme (1975-1979) remain the production of agricultural surpluses, the usage of excess manpower from the Nordeste, and the preparation of industrial decentralization from the South East. The analysis of the agricultural economy in two samples areas from Central and Southern Goias illustrated by examples of farms, aims to attribute the relative importance of the changes going on to the roads opening up, the official planning policy and individual enterprise. But, over a distance of a few hundred kilometers, these regions are affected by very sharp contrasts in the population density as well as in the structures and methods of agriculture. In the South, in a mature region already densely populated by Brazilian standards, governmental incentives allowed modernized farms, with a trend towards agrobusiness, to replace with increased profits the old fazendas, but thereby worsening, through mechanization and cattle raising specialization, the social and landowning problem created by the existence of a large class of landless people. In the North, the underpopulation of a recently colonized region determines that the pioneer-type farms tend towards a very low yiedling cattle raising which is beginning to improve as new trunk roads open up the area. As government land is ceded to private individuals, huge properties are created, the existence of which makes the future of the small family farms look very bleak. Specialization in cattle raising is still an answer to the scarcity of manpower here. Int he South, it is already a speçulative activity permitted, thanks to better transport facilities, by the nearness of large urban markets. La spécialisation pastorale est encore ici une réponse à la rareté des hommes. Elle est déjà dans le Sud une spéculation qu'autorise, grâce à de meilleures liaisons, la relative proximité des grands foyers urbains de consommation.

Sea Fishing Activities in Reunion. Sea fishing activities in Reunion have evolved in different manners during the past twenty-five years. Fishing and gathering on the fringe reefs are the original forms (which have not yet been studied) which, covering a limited exploitation area, produce some interesting results. They are still very often a display of living folklore, but are more and more being threatened with overfishing and legal restraints. Coastal fishing is well-known. The study here concentrates on its growth and its difficulties. New statistic tables are presented, as well as estimations regarding tonnage and real value. High-sea fishing to the south involves, since 1951, the fish and crayfish round the southern French islands. The production of crayfish is now controlled (a quota has been set). High-sea tropical fishing was the great hope of the years between 1962 and 1972, but most often the results have been disappointing. The overall results of the Reunion activities over these past twenty-five years shows a progression in tonnage and in value. But these results remain ina¬ dequate. The solutions for continued growth should be fish-farming and abetter use of the cold water resources around the southern French islands.

The Ivory Coast Forests ; Natural Wealth in the Process of Disappearance. In spite of the customary use of the term «savannah» for designating a part of its territory, Ivory Coast is above all a wooded nation. The plant-covered countrysides in the North, formed practically exclusively of tree groups (dense, clear), or shrub plants joined to the ombrophile and mesophile forests in the southern part, make of it an incontestably forest country. For decades, lumber has been, along with cocoa and coffee, one of the main pillars of the national economy. Because of the foreign currency that exporting it brings in, because of its influence in the industrialization process, and because of the role it plays in land improvement programs in the country, lumber in large part accounts for the good results of the Ivory Coast economy. But important changes are now taking place. The intensive exportation of wood products and the hunger for arable land -in an ascendant growth pattern since some ten years now-consume between 450,000 to 500,000 hectares of wooded land each year. There are today no more than 3 to 4 millions hectares of wooded areas that remain, most of them being located in the West and Southwest. The new port of San Pedro evacuates a larger and larger amount of the lumber destined for export. The last reserves now being tapped, the Ivory Coast forests are threatened with extinction. Reforestation conforms to immediate needs and is wholly inadequate as regards future requirements. The trading partners of Ivory Coast (principally the 9 European Common Market countries) are now turning towards other forest nations of Africa, as well as to those of Southeast Asia. The final chance of Ivory Coast, which is in reality simply harvesting the fruits of a catastrophic management policy as regards its natural resources, resides in the promotion of species that it has until now neglected in the international markets.