Tropical Nature

Guillaume Blanc is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Rennes 2 and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2021-2026). His work focuses on the global governance of nature, with a particular concentration on Ethiopia and East Africa. He has recently published La nature des hommes (La Découverte, 2024) and The Invention of Green Colonialism (Polity, 2022).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: Protecting Nature in Africa and Asia. Towards a Small-Scale Global HistoryGuillaume BlancChapter 1. Laissez-Faire Conservation. Nature Protection in Colonial VietnamPamela McElweeChapter 2. Setting up a Wildlife Department. Kenyan Expertise in MalayaMathieu GuérinChapter 3. Imperial Forests and Nature Reserves in Singapore, 1883-1959Timothy P. BarnardChapter 4. Rambouillet, Agricultural Stations, and French Colonial Africa. Conserving and Improving Nature (1900-1930)Raphaël DevredChapter 5. Missing Conservation? On the Puzzling Dearth of Nature Conservation in Mandate Syria and LebanonDiana K. DavisChapter 6. Between Empire and Development. The Ubiquitous Life and Career of Arthur Hugh BuntingJoseph M. HodgeChapter 7. The Adamsons, Born Free, and the Late Colonial Era. Images That Helped to Change the Animal WorldWilliam BeinartChapter 8.Conservation in the Days of Independence. the Case of the Seychelles, 1968-1974Grégory QuenetChapter 9. Tracking Wildebeests. the Technological Mediation of Spaces for Humans and Wildlife in the Serengeti since 1950Simone SchleperChapter 10. Conserving Nature in Mozambique. Relaying Conservation Practices and Imaginaries since Colonial DaysRozenn Nakanabo DialloChapter 11. Catfights and Crocodile Tears. Conflict, Charismatic Species, and Nature Professionals in India’s Conservation HistoryMeera Anna OommenChapter 12. Representing Space to Structure Time. Tropical Deforestation Fronts in the Light of Human-Territory RelationsJohan OszwaldConclusion: Studying Nature, Networks, and Power. What Next?Guillaume BlancIndex

“The book raises a major issue: social and environmental justice. Those who advocate protection are not those who suffer its constraints.” • Steve Hagimont, 20&21. Revue d'histoire, n° 159, 2023“The book as a whole insists on a contradiction that seems inherent to conservation: "this policy does not exist alongside destruction but with it". Highlighted by the title of the book, this contradictory association is found in two logics: protecting in order to exploit and exploiting in order to protect.” • Colin Vanlaer, Moussons, n°41, 2023