Tropical Nature

Colonial and Post-Colonial Conservation in Africa and Asia

Guillaume Blanc, Mathieu Guérin, Grégory Quenet (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

328 Seiten

2025
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-80539-891-2 (ISBN)

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An insightful and wide-ranging study of the colonial history of conservation projects, Tropical Nature seeks to provide a much-needed history of the Global South from its own perspective. In doing so, this volume collection spotlights a “small-scale global history” that deciphers the relations binding human societies to the non-human world.

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.

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 Découverte, 2024) and The Invention of Green Colonialism (Polity, 2022).

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 Guérin

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)

Raphaël 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

Grégory 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

Erscheinungsdatum	05.02.2025
Reihe/Serie	Environment in History: International Perspectives
Zusatzinfo	Bibliography; Index; 22 Illustrations
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
ISBN-10	1-80539-891-1 / 1805398911
ISBN-13	978-1-80539-891-2 / 9781805398912
Zustand	Neuware