The Faculty of Anthropology and the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (VNU) respectfully invite teachers, scientists and students to attend the seminar:
- Topic: "Forests are Gold": Environmental Rule in Vietnam and Beyond
- Speaker: Assoc. Prof Pamela McElwee, The State University of New Jersey, USA
- Time: 9:00 am Monday, July 11, 2016
- Location: Meeting room, 2nd floor, building H, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 336 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi
- Summary:Ho Chi Minh famously remarked that “Forests are gold; if we know to protect and develop them well, they will be very precious.” His message was clear: forests were more than simply trees, and environmental policies should be about the development and administration of both human populations and natural landscapes. In a recently published book titledForests Are Gold: Trees, People and Environmental Rule in Vietnam, I examine interventions in forest landscapes in Vietnam that began during the French colonial era, moving through a mid-century era of high socialism, war, and collectivization, and now continuing in an age of market-oriented economics. Throughout these different and turbulent periods, one thing has remained constant: the control and management of forests in Vietnam has not been primarily about environmental protection, but rather about other social goals, such as population resettlement, economic development, and transformation of social and cultural groups. I term this process “environmental rule”, and argue that environmental rule occurs when states, organizations, or individuals use environmental or ecological reasons as justification for what is really a concern with social planning. While the intervention said is to “improve” or “protect” the environment itself, in reality, underlying improvements to people or society are envisioned. I argue that these forms of environmental rule have left a legacy of both social unease and environmental degradation, and the book identifies why and how such policies of rule continue to be applied.
- About the speaker: Pamela McElwee is an associate professor of human ecology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, with affiliations in anthropology, geography, public policy, and womens' and gender studies. She has conducted research in Vietnam since 1996 on environment and development issues. She is the author ofForests Are Gold: Trees, People and Environmental Rule in Vietnam(U of Washington Press, 2016), and articles in various environmental, anthropological and development studies journals. She is also the co-editor ofGender and Sustainability: Lessons from Asia and Latin America(U. of Arizona Press, 2013). McElwee holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Forestry & Environmental Studies from Yale University, and an MSc in Forestry from Oxford University.
