State, Communities and Forests in Contemporary Borneo

Download or read book State, Communities and Forests in Contemporary Borneo written by Fadzilah Majid Cooke and published by ANU E Press. This book was released on 2006-07-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The name 'Borneo' evokes visions of constantly changing landscapes, but with important island-wide continuities. One of the continuities has been the forests, which have for generations been created and modified by the indigenous population, but over the past three decades have been partially replaced by tree crops, grass or scrub. This book, the first in the series of Asia-Pacific Environmental Monographs, looks at the political complexities of forest management across the whole island of Borneo, tackling issues of tenure, land use change and resource competition, 'tradition' versus 'modernity', disputes within and between communities, between communities and private firms, or between communities and governments. While it focuses on the changes taking place in local political economies and conservation practices, it also makes visible the larger changes taking place in both Indonesia and Malaysia. The common theme of the volume is the need to situate local complexities in the larger institutional context, and the possible gains to be made from such an approach in the search for alternative models of conservation and development.