Forests Are Gold

<p><i>Forests Are Gold</i> examines the management of Vietnam's forests in the tumultuous twentieth century—from French colonialism to the recent transition to market-oriented economics—as the country united prospered and transformed people and landscapes. Forest policy has rarely been about ecology or conservation for nature’s sake but about managing citizens and society a process Pamela McElwee terms “environmental rule.” Untangling and understanding these practices and networks of rule illuminates not just thorny issues of environmental change but also the birth of Vietnam itself.</p>