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Natural Resource Management and Mismanagement

Observations from Southeast Asian Agricultural History

  • Chapter
A History of Natural Resources in Asia

Abstract

Using evidence from the history of agriculture in Southeast Asia, this chapter attempts to say something about the conditions required for effective management of natural resources. Effective management, as understood here, means management for sustainability. In recent literature sustainability is often defined in eclectic ways and according to abstract criteria, such as preserving the “quality” of the environment and the “integrity” of ecosystems (Smith and Jalal 2000, 16). In this chapter, however, sustainability simply means that the availability of whatever resource is under discussion—be it food, soil, or biodiversity—does not decrease over time.

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Authors
  1. David Henley
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Hull, UK

    Greg Bankoff (Professor of modern history) (Professor of modern history)

  2. Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Peter Boomgaard (senior researcher, Professor of economic and environmental history of Southeast Asia) (senior researcher, Professor of economic and environmental history of Southeast Asia)

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© 2007 Greg Bankoff and Peter Boomgaard

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Henley, D. (2007). Natural Resource Management and Mismanagement. In: Bankoff, G., Boomgaard, P. (eds) A History of Natural Resources in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230607538_2

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