AbdouKarim You may have a point and am not disputing. Regardless increasing demand of any resources means scarcity. Population is one of the variables that with any increase will reduce either quality or quantity of a said resource. I have not seen a study that puts every blame of land degradation on population but surely a factor. Yes we are agrarian. Isn't that people in need of land for food production - hence more/faster depletion. As humans we can change from agrarian and/or improve on techniques. Isn't that management? International trade and debt, especially debt servicing for The Gambia is a problem. Again proper and inform management should ameliorate some of those problems. On the flip side trade is not only good but important. Fair trade is more a political phenomenon than it's economic. In economics trade is anchored on comparative advantage theorem. Unless you totally exclude and/or downplay the role of population increase we are in agreement. Regards Burama On Friday, May 30, 2014, abdoukarim sanneh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Burama > That is neomalthusian narrative. Population growth is always use as the > cause and the results factor is negated. The results to resource > degradation is beyond demographic narrative of population growth. We are an > agrarian economy and so depend on natural resources for livelihoods. > Poverty nexus land degradation is was negligent and population growth > always take a center stage and becomes the dominant thesis. Do you look > into international political economic issues such debt and its impact on > mortgaging our natural resources in servicing debtors. Lack of fair trade > and it's association poverty natural resources uses etc. > > ------------------------------ > Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 05:23:42 -0400 > From: [log in to unmask] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[log in to unmask]);> > Subject: Re: What's Our Make-up & How Was/Is It Managed > To: [log in to unmask] > > Abdoukarim > > Gambia is considered one of the overcrowded nation by all estimators > including WHO’s > > Having 1.7million on about 11000 sq. km = 155 people/sq. km. Considering > not all of the 11K is not land - some water, some forest, roads, etc is > highly dense. > > Gambia at one time (some times in the 90s) used to be the fasted growing > in the sub region. Not only due to natural birth but also the subregional > conflicts contributed to that trench > > Estimates (WHO 2010) - 55% are living in the urban area - that means we > are not symmetrically spread over the nation. > > Multi- factors contributed to resources degradation (resources in the > broader sense) - some natural and others human. I can still try provide > studies/sources that said so. > > I just stated few stats and never suggest Mathusianism, others and/or > otherwise.Put it simply I never suggest we control people in favor of > resources. > > In fact I asked question whether our poverty was a given or mismanagement. > > Thanks for your input. > > Burama > > > > On May 30, 2014, at 4:17 AM, abdoukarim sanneh < > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Neo-malthusian framing of over population is very wrong. Poverty and > political economy is the cause of resource degradation. Gambia is not an > over populated country. > > ------------------------------ > Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 23:27:47 -0400 > From: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: What's Our Make-up & How Was/Is It Managed > To: [log in to unmask] > > Demba, the Burama I know does not take no for an answer but i will advice > that we narrow the focus of the discussion and take on population, land > water, economy and governance separately, if we are to be effective. > > Some will argue that if you deal with governance the rest will fall in > line. > Jefferson put it nicely when he said we are all endowed with the right to > life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. > > Even China had to adopt these principles (yes in baby steps) before they > became the world's factory. > > IMalanding Jaiteh > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Demba Baldeh > Date:29/05/2014 20:37 (GMT-05:00) > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [G_L] What's Our Make-up & How Was/Is It Managed > > Interesting questions Burama. I guess with the land, population density, > agriculture, forestry etc.. Dr. Jaiteh can help us. Him and I had a similar > discussion that looked at our overpopulation, agricultural land and > erosion. He is with us here and may have done some modern approach research > into such data... Dr. can you help us with some insights? These are good > observations... For me we are poorly managed but record keeping, reliable > statistics are an epidemic problem. > > It would be interesting to look at population, resources vs economic > development. China comes to mind with over a billion people but their > economy and standard of living continue to improve.. Yet there is arguably > no Democracy in China.. How do we reconcile those contradicting > approaches... Does a nation have to have Democracy and them to develop? How > about human rights? Interesting and stimulating questions.. > > Thanks > > Demba > > > On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 7:52 AM, Burama Jammeh<[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > Estimates has it that at the dawn of independence we were less than 1/2 > million people. Today extrapolated estimates put us at 1.7million people. > Estimated average density of about 125 people/km > > Area - about 11K sq. km > > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To > unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web > interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search > in the Gambia-L archives, go to: > http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the > List Management, please send an e-mail to: > [log in to unmask] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[log in to unmask]);> > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To > unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web > interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html > > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: > http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the > List Management, please send an e-mail to: > [log in to unmask] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[log in to unmask]);> > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤