SBR-9506434 Thomas J. Bassett Leslie Gray University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The Social and Physical Dynamics of Environmental Change in Western Burkina Faso A multi-scale investigation of the social and physical dimensions of land degradation in western Burkina Faso is the goal of this research project. The perceptions and decisions of villagers that constitute the crucial links in the causal chain connecting social processes to land degradation will be evaluated. The effects of changing cropping practices on soil quality and social organization will be analyzed for one village. Hypotheses generated from the single village analysis will be tested using surveys from several villages. Mapping how various processes like new agricultural technologies; transformations in land, labor, and wealth; and shifts in government agricultural and conservation policy, have interacted and influenced the actions, perceptions, and decisions of small-scale farmers, is crucial in understanding and explaining place-specific degradation. Such understanding will improve society's ability to minimize such land degradation.
