Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:06:22.303Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Change in African Vegetation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

R.W.J. Keay
Get access

Extract

A common element in all African studies is the background of the African environment. My first real sight of Africa, thirty years ago, was in the long train journey from Lagos to Zaria. As a botanist, I was fascinated then by the changing patterns of vegetation — different kinds of forest and savanna, a rich diversity of plant species. I suppose all members of our Association have seen something of Africa's vegetation and, especially on long journeys, may have thought it monotonous and dull. However, as with all forms of scholarly inquiry, what at first sight seems uniform becomes, on close inspection, a puzzling jumble, and only after a fair amount of study do meaningful patterns and causal relationships emerge. My interest was aroused by that very obvious part of the African environment and over the years I found that my vegetational studies were often relevant to researchers in quite different disciplines.

Type
ASAUK Presidential Address
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 1 , 1973 , pp. 5 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Buechner, H.K. and Dawkins, H.C. (1961). Vegetation change induced by elephants and fire in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. Ecology 42 : 752–766.10.2307/1933504CrossRefGoogle Scholar
di Castri, F. (1971). Environmental problems in the less developed countries, goals and strategies. Swedish Ecological Research Committee Bulletin 13 : 2–20.Google Scholar
Jones, E.W. (1956). Ecological studies on the rainforest of southern Nigeria. IV : The plateau forest of the Okomu Forest Reserve. J. Ecol. 44 : 83–117.10.2307/2257155CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laws, R.M. (1968). Interactions between elephant and hippopotamus populations and their environments. E. African Agric. & For. J. 33 : 140–147.10.1080/00128325.1968.11665306CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obeid, M. and Seif El Din, A. (1970). Ecological studies of the vegetation of the Sudan. I : Acacia Senegal (L.) Willd. and its natural regeneration. J. appl. Ecol. 7 : 507–518.10.2307/2401975CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shantz, H.L. and Turner, B.L. (1958). Vegetational changes in Africa over a third of a century. Univ. of Arizona, Report 169.Google Scholar
Talbot, L.M. (1971). Ecological aspects of aid programmes in East Africa, with particular reference to rangelands. Swedish Ecological Research Committee Bulletin 13 : 21–51.Google Scholar
United Nations Declaration on the Human Environment (1972) Stockholm.Google Scholar
Unwin, A.H. (1920). West African forests and forestry. 10.5962/bhl.title.57756CrossRefGoogle Scholar