This dissertation creates two new theoretical tools to analyze
connections between politics and environmental change. The first
section develops the concept of Northern ‘shadow ecologies’ to
understand the environmental impact of a Northern state on Southern
resource management. A Northern shadow ecology is the aggregate
environmental impact of government aid and loans; corporate
investment and technology transfers; and trade, including
purchasing practices, consumption, export and consumer prices, and
import tariffs. After outlining Japan’s shadow ecology, the next
part constructs an analytical lens to uncover salient Southern
political causes of timber mismanagement. This spotlights modern
patron-client links between Southern officials and private
operators that debilitate state capacity to implement resource
policies.
Using these analytical tools, and building on extensive
primary sources and more than 100 in-depth interviews, the
remainder of the thesis examines the two most important factors
driving commercial timber mismanagement in Indonesia, Borneo
Malaysia, and the Philippines: pervasive patron-client ties between
Southeast Asian officials and timber operators; and the residual
and immediate environmental impact of Japan. In a continual
struggle to retain power in societies with fragmented social
control, Southeast Asian state leaders build potent patron-client
networks that syphon state funds, distort policies, and undermine
supervision of state implementors. In this setting, the state is
often unable to enforce timber management rules as implementors --
in exchange for gifts, money, or security --
ignore or assist
destructive and illegal loggers, smugglers, and tax evaders.
Japan’s shadow ecology has expedited timber mismanagement, and
left deep environmental scars that impede current efforts to
improve timber management. Post-1990 Japanese government and
corporate policy changes to integrate environmental concerns have
marginally improved forestry ODA, and contributed to token
corporate conservation projects. As well, there is now less
Japanese investment, technology, and credit linked to logging. But
massive timber purchases from unsustainable sources, wasteful
consumption, timber prices that ignore environmental and social
costs, import barriers that deplete Southern revenues, and the
residual impact of past Japanese practices continue to accelerate
destructive logging in Southeast Asia.
Sustainable tropical timber management will require
fundamental changes to Japan’s shadow ecology. It is also
imperative to confront Southern political forces driving
deforestation. While reforms will certainly face formidable --
perhaps insurmountable -- political and economic barriers, unless
the world community tackles these issues, the remaining primary
forests of Southeast Asia will soon perish. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/7123 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Dauvergne, Peter |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 7091069 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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