The Social Lives of Forests

Past, Present, and Future of Woodland Resurgence

Susanna B. Hecht, Kathleen D. Morrison, Christine Padoch

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English

University of Chicago Press
26 July 2016

Social & cultural anthropology; Forests, rainforests; Management of land & natural resources; Conservation of the environment

Forests are in decline, and the threats these outposts of nature face-including deforestation, degradation, and fragmentation-are the result of human culture. Or are they? This volume calls these assumptions into question, revealing forests' past, present, and future conditions to be the joint products of a host of natural and cultural forces. Moreover, in many cases the coalescence of these forces-from local ecologies to competing knowledge systems-has masked a significant contemporary trend of woodland resurgence, even in the forests of the tropics.

Focusing on the history and current use of woodlands from India to the Amazon, The Social Lives of Forests attempts to build a coherent view of forests sited at the nexus of nature, culture, and development. With chapters covering the effects of human activities on succession patterns in now-protected Costa Rican forests; the intersection of gender and knowledge in African shea nut tree markets; and even the unexpectedly rich urban woodlands of Chicago, this book explores forests as places of significant human action, with complex institutions, ecologies, and economies that have transformed these landscapes in the past and continue to shape them today. From rain forests to timber farms, the face of forests-how we define, understand, and maintain them-is changing.

Edited by: Susanna B. Hecht, Kathleen D. Morrison, Christine Padoch
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 23mm, Width: 15mm, Spine: 3mm
Weight: 737g
ISBN: 9780226322681
ISBN 10: 0226322688
Pages: 507
Publication Date: 26 July 2016
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Further / Higher Education , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

"Susanna B. Hecht is professor in the Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of The Scramble for the Amazon and the ""Lost Paradise"" of Euclides da Cunha. Kathleen D. Morrison is the Sally and Alvin V. Shoemaker Professor of Anthropology and department chair at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author or editor of several volumes, including Daroji Valley: Landscape History, Place, and the Making of a Dryland Reservoir System. Christine Padoch is the research director of forests and livelihoods at the Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia."

Reviews for The Social Lives of Forests: Past, Present, and Future of Woodland Resurgence

An all-too-uncommon union of the hard and social sciences, <i>The Social Lives of Forests</i> is a groundbreaking work that reframes both the history of the world's forest lands and the debate over their future. Stressing the centuries-long human role in the creation and maintenance of wooded landscapes, and their relation to both rural and urban life in the globalized world of today and in the past, the articles in this book collectively provide a new way to think about forest ecosystems and their inhabitants. This is a book that will surprise and inform historians, ecologists, foresters, environmentalists--and anyone who cares about the forests around us. --Charles C. Mann author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus