Forests Are Gold

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"Ho Chi Minh, the founder of modern Vietnam, once famously remarked that "forests are gold--if we know to protect and develop them well, they will be very precious." Ho's statement conveys important ideas about nature, the state, and society that are relevant in understanding contemporary environmental issues in Vietnam. For Ho and other political leaders, forests have been about more than trees: they were about the development and administration of both people and landscapes. This book presents a genealogy of forest management in Vietnam from the beginning of French colonial rule to the present day. Using detailed ethnographic, interview, archival and biological data, Pamela McElwee presents a nuanced perspective on environmental change through the eyes of subjects on the ground. By explaining how knowledge about forests was generated, and by whom, and how this knowledge was used by different actors engaged in forest governance, the book shows that forests are not "natural" entities outside of human influence"--