论殖民主义对殖民地生态环境的破坏——以萨赫勒地区的花生种植为例

Research on the Destruction to the Ecological Environment in the Colonies by Colonialism: the Case Study of Groundnuts Planting in the Sahel

非洲萨赫勒地区属于热带半干旱气候,降雨稀少,土壤贫瘠,但当地农、牧民采用传统的农牧业生产方式,互相配合,应对干旱。在殖民时期,为了获得工业原材料,殖民政府通过利用当地贵族在村社的间接统治以及宗教在萨赫勒地区的作用,发挥税收制度和货币市场的能动性,加大投资力度,建立现代化交通贸易网络,大力推广花生种植。到了独立时期,萨赫勒各国缺乏经济基础和完整的工业体系,不得不依靠"花生经济"换取工业产品。无论是旧殖民主义还是新殖民主义,发达资本主义国家对萨赫勒地区的经济控制导致了当地农民不得不依靠单一经济作物的种植,而花生种植则是以消费生态环境作为代价。随着花生种植的力度和广度的不断扩大,环境承载力降低,20世纪60年代末期降雨的大幅减少成为诱因,最终导致萨赫勒地区大规模出现土地荒漠化。

Sahel belongs to the tropical semi-arid climate in Africa with scarce rainfall and poor soil, but local farmers and herdsmen cooperated with each other for dealing with drought by traditional farming-grazing production mode. During the colonial period, in order to obtain industrial raw materials, colonial government promoted the cultivation of groundnut vigorously, which using the local nobility in the village indirectly and role of religion in the Sahel, exerting the initiative of the tax system and money market, increasing investment and building a modern transportation and trade network. In the period of independence, owning to the lack of economic basis and complete industrial system, the countries of Sahel had to rely on ＂groundnut economy＂ in exchange for industrial products. Both old colonialism and Neo colonialism, developed capitalist countries which controlled the economy led to the Sahel farmers had to rely on a single economic crop, namely groundnuts growing which are at the expense of destruction of the environment. With the growing strength and breadth of the groundnut planting, it has reduced the environmental carrying capacity. At the end of 1960s, a sharp reduction in rainfall is a inducement, which eventually led to large scale emergence of land desertification in Sahel.