Contenu du sommaire

Agriculture in a High Altitude Desert : the Central Altiplano of Bolivia. An environment essentially hostile to man as much by the feebleness and irregularity of its precipitation as by the frequency and severity of its freezing temperatures, agriculture in the central part of the Altiplano of Bolivia is devoted to foodstuff production and animal raising, in a setting of traditional communal villages. These haven't at all evolved even after the Revolution of 1952, even though provisional emigration to neighbouring regions hasn't ceased to grow.

A Problem of Urban Development : Kef, Tunisia In a country where about 20 % of the total population lives in urban communities and where the coastal region, favored because of its tourist sea resorts and which is given priority as respects facility improvements, Kef (25,000 inhabitants) is a bit out of the ordinary. Administrative seat located in the interior of the country, rural, poorly developed, subject to a demographic growth rate of only 3 % a year and overpopulated in relation to its present resources, this community, which takes pride in its long urban past, is today one of the rare cities capable of becoming a development center for the high Tunisian plains. This is apparent in the magnitude of migrations, accelerated since Indépendance, and which as a consequence have merited our serious study (family and social-professional composition, determination of the recruitment zone, that is, of the space influence of the city, etc.). Also studied are the repercussions of these migrations upon urban life (growth of unemployment, dépendance upon the State, uprooting of a large number of inhabitants, changes in the urban landscape). Efforts have been undertaken, both as concerns a solution to the problems of Kef as well as to reinforce its role of main administrative seat, to ameliorate matters, either by structural reforms (cooperatives) or by mobilization of the various local possibilities. But the results have remained mediocre, for the city has encountered fundamental problems which, upon analysis, prove to be the same as those of many cities of the Unaligned Nations.

Tourist Trade and the Canary Islands Even though of recent growth, tourism in the Canary Islands differs considerably from that in the Spanish peninsula. The winter season is by far the most important, and it is especially the Scandinavians who come then. In addition, nearly all of the tourists reach the archipelago via charter flights. Tourist facilities, of good quality, are for the most part concentrated in two cities, Puerto de la Cruz and Las Palmas, and it is only since some five years that they have branched out into all of the islands. Of recent origin though it may be, this tourist trade has in any case highly important economic and social consequences for an island economy in the process of development.

The Mining Sector in the Economy of the Republic of Congo Mineral prospecting has continued actively in these past twenty years and has produced positive results ; thus, several mines have been put into exploitation. A gold mine that is still operated on a small scale furnishes from 200 to 250 kilograms of gold per year. Tin, copper, zinc and lead are extracted from several mines by companies, notably at M'Passa ; production is still low. Potash is extracted in the coastal region, at Holle, where the Compagnie des Potasses du Congo has its seat and which employs almost one thousand local workers and 200 Europeans. Financially catastrophic, it is beneficial for the economy of the Congo. But in general, the great hopes that were placed in potash exploitation have proved to be deceiving. The extraction of petroleum, on the other hand, has promising possibilities. If the reserves at Pointe Indienne, located near Pointe Noire, are beginning to be depleted, those at Emeraude, offshore from the coast, are coming into production and the potential of this field can have positive effects on the Congo. Would it be possible to integrate the mining and oil production activities into the economy of the nation by creating industries which employ the raw materials ?