Tropical Nature
Colonial and Post-Colonial Conservation in Africa and Asia
Published on 1. March 2025
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-1-80539-891-2 (ISBN)
Description
Across Africa and South-East Asia, the impulse to protect nature often dovetails with the domination of local people. From mass displacement to severe restrictions on land use and daily acts of violence, conservation work risks reproducing Eurocentric modes of colonialism and worsening the effects of the climate crisis. In this insightful and wide-ranging study of the colonial history of conservation, Tropical Nature seeks to provide a much-needed history of the Global South from its own perspective. Comparing case studies ranging from Ali Bongo's Gabon, to the postcolonial African itinerary of the agronomist Arthur Bunting, this volume advances a "small-scale global history" that deciphers the relations binding human societies to the non-human world.
Reviews / Votes
"The book raises a major issue: social and environmental justice. Those who advocate protection are not those who suffer its constraints." * Steve Hagimont, 20&21. Revue d'histoire, n degrees 159, 2023"The book as a whole insists on a contradiction that seems inherent to conservation: "this policy does not exist alongside destruction but with it". Highlighted by the title of the book, this contradictory association is found in two logics: protecting in order to exploit and exploiting in order to protect." * Colin Vanlaer, Moussons, n degrees41, 2023
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Library binding
Illustrations
Bibliography; Index; 22 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
605 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80539-891-2 (9781805398912)
DOI
10.3167/9781805398912
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Guillaume Blanc | Mathieu Guérin | Grégory Quenet
Tropical Nature
Colonial and Post-Colonial Conservation in Africa and Asia
E-Book
03/2025
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
€22.49
Available for download
Guillaume Blanc | Mathieu Guerin | Gregory Quenet
Tropical Nature
Colonial and Post-Colonial Conservation in Africa and Asia
E-Book
03/2025
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
€22.49
Available for download
Persons
Guillaume Blanc is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Rennes 2 and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2021-2026). His work focuses on the global governance of nature, with a particular concentration on Ethiopia and East Africa. He has recently published La nature des hommes (La Decouverte, 2024) and The Invention of Green Colonialism (Polity, 2022).
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Protecting Nature in Africa and Asia. Towards a Small-Scale Global History
Guillaume Blanc
Chapter 1. Laissez-Faire Conservation. Nature Protection in Colonial Vietnam
Pamela McElwee
Chapter 2. Setting up a Wildlife Department. Kenyan Expertise in Malaya
Mathieu Guerin
Chapter 3. Imperial Forests and Nature Reserves in Singapore, 1883-1959
Timothy P. Barnard
Chapter 4. Rambouillet, Agricultural Stations, and French Colonial Africa. Conserving and Improving Nature (1900-1930)
Raphael Devred
Chapter 5. Missing Conservation? On the Puzzling Dearth of Nature Conservation in Mandate Syria and Lebanon
Diana K. Davis
Chapter 6. Between Empire and Development. The Ubiquitous Life and Career of Arthur Hugh Bunting
Joseph M. Hodge
Chapter 7. The Adamsons, Born Free, and the Late Colonial Era. Images That Helped to Change the Animal World
William Beinart
Chapter 8.Conservation in the Days of Independence. the Case of the Seychelles, 1968-1974
Gregory Quenet
Chapter 9. Tracking Wildebeests. the Technological Mediation of Spaces for Humans and Wildlife in the Serengeti since 1950
Simone Schleper
Chapter 10. Conserving Nature in Mozambique. Relaying Conservation Practices and Imaginaries since Colonial Days
Rozenn Nakanabo Diallo
Chapter 11. Catfights and Crocodile Tears. Conflict, Charismatic Species, and Nature Professionals in India's Conservation History
Meera Anna Oommen
Chapter 12. Representing Space to Structure Time. Tropical Deforestation Fronts in the Light of Human-Territory Relations
Johan Oszwald
Conclusion: Studying Nature, Networks, and Power. What Next?
Guillaume Blanc
Index
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Protecting Nature in Africa and Asia. Towards a Small-Scale Global History
Guillaume Blanc
Chapter 1. Laissez-Faire Conservation. Nature Protection in Colonial Vietnam
Pamela McElwee
Chapter 2. Setting up a Wildlife Department. Kenyan Expertise in Malaya
Mathieu Guerin
Chapter 3. Imperial Forests and Nature Reserves in Singapore, 1883-1959
Timothy P. Barnard
Chapter 4. Rambouillet, Agricultural Stations, and French Colonial Africa. Conserving and Improving Nature (1900-1930)
Raphael Devred
Chapter 5. Missing Conservation? On the Puzzling Dearth of Nature Conservation in Mandate Syria and Lebanon
Diana K. Davis
Chapter 6. Between Empire and Development. The Ubiquitous Life and Career of Arthur Hugh Bunting
Joseph M. Hodge
Chapter 7. The Adamsons, Born Free, and the Late Colonial Era. Images That Helped to Change the Animal World
William Beinart
Chapter 8.Conservation in the Days of Independence. the Case of the Seychelles, 1968-1974
Gregory Quenet
Chapter 9. Tracking Wildebeests. the Technological Mediation of Spaces for Humans and Wildlife in the Serengeti since 1950
Simone Schleper
Chapter 10. Conserving Nature in Mozambique. Relaying Conservation Practices and Imaginaries since Colonial Days
Rozenn Nakanabo Diallo
Chapter 11. Catfights and Crocodile Tears. Conflict, Charismatic Species, and Nature Professionals in India's Conservation History
Meera Anna Oommen
Chapter 12. Representing Space to Structure Time. Tropical Deforestation Fronts in the Light of Human-Territory Relations
Johan Oszwald
Conclusion: Studying Nature, Networks, and Power. What Next?
Guillaume Blanc
Index