The political ecology of environmental management in the developing world

Abstract

This paper addresses selected aspects of environmental management in the developing world through the prism of a political ecology perspective. It begins with a brief overview of the evolution of political ecology. It then turns to two case studies from South-East Asia in order to explore spaces of confrontation and spaces of cooperation - spaces that encompass key elements of historical and contemporary environmental management in the developing world. In the process, the paper underlines the multifaceted politics of transaction that takes place in a world that can never be transformed simply through apolitical calls to "save nature".