Deforestation discourses: Nature, narrative and policy in northwest Yunnan Province, P.R.C (China).

详细信息   

• 作者：Zackey ; Justin William.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2005
• 导师：Fan, C. Cindy
• 毕业院校：University of California
• 专业：Geography.;Political Science, Public Administration.;Environmental Sciences.
• ISBN：9780542564833
• CBH：3208338
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：13085755
• Pages：294

文摘

This dissertation explores how "environmental crisis" is perceived and constructed by different groups, and how these perceptions and constructions interact to shape the contested politics and practices of nature conservation and natural resource management in Northwest Yunnan, China. I argue that there is no single crisis. Instead, there are multiple crises that emanate from the global, national and local levels.;I first outline one of the most popular stories about the character and causes of Northwest Yunnan's "deforestation crisis." This story is informed by two very different narratives about the region's people and physical nature. One describes the region as a "Himalayan Garden of Eden," or "Shangri-la," in need of protection against the forces of modernization and development. The other describes the region as descending into ethnic minorities. These two narratives combine to create a "Himalayan Eden under threat" crisis narrative that has been instrumental in informing environmental policy, been used to assign blame for deforestation and has justified the material control of nature by government and international environmental organizations.;I then challenge this popular narrative in two ways. First, I suggest that the "deforestation crisis" is on factually-shaky ground and full of false assumptions about physical processes. Second, I construct a counter-narrative about why peasants cut trees based largely on listening to peasants themselves. Instead of seeing a "deforestation crisis" causing environmental ruin, peasants see "social and economic crises" (e.g. China's growing wealth gap, corruption and the retraction of the welfare state after economic reforms) causing poverty, discontent and apathy. To peasants, deforestation is merely an externality of some of these factors.;Overall, I argue that there are no saints or devils in the story of deforestation in Northwest Yunnan---but there are power relations. The poorly understood and contested nature of the "deforestation crisis" in Yunnan requires us to re-examine it more carefully in the context of these power relations. This is not because we are skeptics of conservation, but rather because we should be sensitive to the mobilization of crisis for political ends.