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Examines the contrast between the formulation of problems in development policy, and the perspectives of villagers in Kissidougou (Guinea) in relationship to 'demonstrably' false ideas about environmental change. It appears that these false ideas have come to acquire validity in policy circles, while others, more correct and espoused by inhabitants, have been excluded from consideration and investigation.Article concludes that:the environmental degradation theory embraced by many practitioners in the development community should be seen as a 'development narrative' which does not necessarily relate to the empirical data about agro-ecological dynamics in realitythere are massive differences between external accounts of African villagers' environmentally destructive use of land and their own locally experienced realitiessavannisation of tropical forests is not actually taking place. Indeed, the woody vegetation cover of savannas have been increasing during the period when policy makers have believed the oppositear from being relics, Kissidougou’s forest islands prove to have been created by local populationsthe Kissidougou zone is a 'post-savanna' rather than a 'post-forest' zonean environmental state should be understood within a historical context of continual transitionthe development narrative of forest destruction is intimately tied with the priveliging of forest, which coincide with the broader politico-ethnic interests of urban Kissi ethnic groupsthe disjuncture between locally lived reality and the degradation discourse has to be considered as a political as much as a methodological one [author]
