Rikard Andersson

Trees and People

Historical land-use information from culturally modified trees

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In a global perspective, the human impact on forest
ecosystems varies greatly in type, frequency and
magnitude. Knowledge of the history of forest use is
crucial for understanding the development of
forests, which in turn helps to understand how
societies react to forest development. Culturally
modified trees (CMTs) are features that can be dated
precisely, and they bear witness to unique events of
human activity. CMTs are traces from historical uses
of forest resources that reflect the activities of
local communities and extend far back in time, and
therefore offer information not usually available
from other sources. CMTs have high potential for
assessing human activity and possibly human impacts
on forest ecosystems, particularly those concerning
local indigenous uses. Periods of increased activity
in a certain area are reflected in peaks in the
distribution of CMT dates. These also show the time
period and speed of abandonment of a traditional
forest use in a landscape. CMTs contradict the idea
of pristine forests but symbolize the traditional
view that people are part of nature rather than
separate from it.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
• Seitenzahl: 72
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 220mm x 150mm x 4mm
• Gewicht: 113g
• ISBN-13: 9783639104042
• ISBN-10: 3639104048
• Artikelnr.: 25733893

Autorenporträt

Rikard Andersson has a PhD in ecology (forest history) and works
at present at the Geological Survey of Sweden. He will start his
post-doctoral work in 2009 concerning tree-ring signals of
traditional cutting practices in northern England. This work
will be presented in an upcoming book.