Beyond the Sacred Forest

Reflecting new thinking about conservation in Southeast Asia, Beyond the Sacred Forestis the product of a unique collaboration involving ethnographic research in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Scholars from those countries and the United States rethink the translation of environmental concepts between East and West, particularly ideas of natureand culture; what conservationmight mean; and how conservation policy is applied and transformed in the everyday landscapes of Southeast Asia. As this collection of essays demonstrates, the researchers focus more on folk, community, and vernacular conservation discourses than on those of institutions and the state. Thick with ethnographic detail, their essays provide powerful examples of why social, political, historical, and economic factors are central to the success or failure of conservation initiatives. Natural resource managers and policy makers who accept and work with these factors are likely to enjoy greater and more enduring success than those who simply seek to remove the influence and impact of humans from the landscape. As many of the essays suggest, this requires the ability to manage contradictions, to relinquish orthodox ideas of what conservation looks like, and to practice continuously adaptive management techniques. It requires practitioners who are deeply reflexive and able to focus less on short-term goals and more on long-term engagement with the relationships between people and nature. Contributors. Upik Djalins, Amity A. Doolittle, Michael R. Dove, Levita Duhaylungsod, Emily E. Harwell, Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells, Lye Tuck-Po, Percy E. Sajise, Endah Sulistyawati, Yunita T. Winarto

Michael R. Dove is the Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Director of the Tropical Resources institute, and Professor of Anthropology, at Yale University. Percy E. Sajise is an Honorary Research Fellow of Biodiversity International, an Adjunct Fellow at the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Philippines), and Adjunct Professor in the School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of the Philippines, Los Baos. Amity A. Doolittle is a Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.