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Tropical forests, international jungle : the underside of global ecopolitics / Marie-Claude Smouts ; translated from the French by Cynthia Schoch.
LIBRA SD247 .S5613 2003
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Smouts, Marie-Claude.
- Series:
- CERI series in international relations and political economy
- The CERI series in international relations and political economy
- Standardized Title:
- Forêts tropicales-jungle internationale. English
- Language:
- English
- French
- Subjects (All):
- Forest management--Tropics--International cooperation.
- Forest management.
- Rain forests--Management--International cooperation.
- Rain forests.
- Forest policy--Tropics--International cooperation.
- Forest policy.
- Rain forests--Government policy--International cooperation.
- Forest conservation--Tropics--International cooperation.
- Forest conservation.
- Rain forest conservation--International cooperation.
- Rain forest conservation.
- International cooperation.
- Rain forests--Management.
- Tropics.
- Physical Description:
- xiii, 266 pages : maps ; 22 cm.
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
- Summary:
- This book explores the complexities of what are tropical forests, what role they play not only in the environmental but in trade, nutrition, energy, and almost every facet of natural and social life for those living there and beyond. Although for most in the developed world tropical forests have gained a status of part of our world heritage, these forests are not really part of the global commons or a global public good. Developing nations maintain control over the forests within their borders and often use the forests as they see fit. The international system for mediating the issue is a fractured group of nongovernmental organizations and transnational networks, often with competing views of how to manage tropical forests. Despite this seemingly grim picture, Marie-Claude Smouts sees signs of improvements. A changing world view toward forest depletion is influencing countries both north and south. Some progress toward better forest management has been made in the field, and there is a general awareness of the need to develop participatory management, one of the few notions to have emerged that takes in the issue in all its complexity. Although forests will continue to be used commercially, a new dynamic process is underway that should maintain them far into the future.
- Contents:
- The political construction of an ecological concept 3
- The ecological functions of an endangered heritage 6
- The stakes of multifunctionality 13
- Sustainable development and political rhetoric 17
- Tropical forests and global politics 22
- Chapter 1 The Construction of a Global Issue 26
- Versions of deforestation 28
- The TFAP: a techno-bureaucratic production 30
- Versions of survival: from Chico Mendes to indigenous peoples 35
- The global register: the greenhouse effect and biodiversity 43
- The forest as World Heritage 45
- Of game and trees 48
- Chapter 2 A Good in Search of a Definition 55
- Uncertain knowledge 56
- Controversial definitions 56
- Competing programs 60
- Forest vigilantes 65
- Competing epistemic communities 67
- Forestry: a profession in suspension 73
- The discreet charm of economics 77
- The counteroffensive of the social sciences 81
- Chapter 3 Deforestation: An Endless Debate 84
- Seeking the guilty party 87
- The poor versus the forest? 87
- The agricultural paradigm 94
- Intertwined responsibilities 97
- The example of the Amazon 97
- Industry and large construction projects 101
- Forest fires with a message 103
- Chapter 4 The Timber Trade: Guilty Party and Scapegoat 105
- A complex system of interactions 106
- A commodity rationale 107
- A changing geography 108
- The appeal of paper 117
- A changing political economy 120
- Asian competition 121
- Microeconomic networks and illegal dealings 125
- Chapter 5 Ecopolitics Inch by Inch 129
- The emergence of a normative discourse 132
- The forest convention: a premature ambition 136
- ITTO, FAO, and the World Bank: a continuing education 140
- Salvation through the Market? 158
- The merchandising of functions 158
- The price of sinks 166
- Chapter 6 Conserving the Tropical Forest 172
- The social costs of conservation 173
- Protect what and how? 174
- Conserve for whom? 177
- What funding for the global common good? 181
- Sustainable forest management: a conflictual notion 184
- An elastic content 185
- To each his own truth 188
- The French gamble 191
- Ecocertification and labeling schemes 195
- The round dance of criteria and indicators 195
- The rise in power of the Forest Stewardship Council 197
- The battle of certificates 205
- Beneath the conflicts, ethics? 208
- Appendix Briefing on ITTO'S Project Work 248.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [222]-247) and indexes.
- ISBN:
- 1403962030
- OCLC:
- 51848599
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