GLOBAL ENVIRON MENT a Journal of History and Natural and Social Sciences N

GLOBAL ENVIRON MENT A Journal of History and Natural and Social Sciences n. 4 – 2009 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT A Journal of History and Natural and Social Sciences

HALF-YEARLY JOURNAL – II – N. 4/2009

EDITORS IN CHIEF/MAURO AGNOLETTI AND GABRIELLA CORONA

EDITORS/ STEVEN ANDERSON, MARCO ARMIERO, PIERO BEVILACQUA, GUILLERMO CASTRO, RANJAN CHAKRABARTI, YOUNG WOO CHUN, JOHN DARGAVEL, KOBUS DU PISANI, REINALDO FUNES MONZOTE, STEFANIA GALLINI, MICHAEL GRODZINSKI, POUL HOLM, RÜDIGER KLEIN, VIMBAI CHAUMBA KWASHIRAI, JULIA LAJUS, GIL LATZ, JINLONG LIU, PAOLO MALANIMA, GENEVIÈVE MASSARD-GUILBAUD, JOHN R. MCNEILL, MARTIN MELOSI, SIMONE NERI SERNERI, RICHARD D. ORAM, WALTER PALMIERI, DESIRÉE A.L. QUAGLIAROTTI, IAN D. ROTHERHAM, DIETER SCHOTT, PETER SZABO, ENRIC TELLO, CHLOE VLASSOPOULOU, VERENA WINIWARTER, TOSHIHIRO YOSHIDA

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THIS MARK CERTIFIES THE USE OF PAPER-MAKING FIBRES FROM INTEGRATED AND SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY OPERATIONS WHERE CONTROLLED FELLING AND REPLANTING POLICIES ARE ENACTEDGE Contents Editorial – Mauro Agnoletti, Gabriella Corona 5 Research articles Sustaining Soil Fertility: Agricultural Practice in the Old and New 8 Worlds – Geoﬀ Cunfer, Fridolin Krausmann Peasant Protest as Environmental Protest. Some Cases from the 18th 48 to the 20th Century – Manuel González de Molina, Antonio Herrera, Antonio Ortega Santos, David Soto History and Governance in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, 78 Tanzania, 1959-1966 – Peter J. Rogers Macroeconomic and Environmental History: Th e Impact of 118 Currency Depreciation on Forests in British India, 1873-1893 – Sashi Sivramkrishna

Historiographies Agroecosystem, Peasants, and Confl icts: Environmental History in 158 Spain at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century – Antonio Ortega Santos

Around the World “Bridging Divides for Water”: Th e 5th World Water Forum 182 (WWF) and the Alternative Water Forum – Eugenia Ferragina

Library Reinaldo Funes Monzote discusses Shawn William Miller 190

Abstracts 196 GEBiographies 200 editorial n this fourth issue, Global Environment continues its exploration of the scientifi c paradigms of global environmental history. Th e geographical variety of the regions the articles deal with – from IKansas to Latin America, from Austria to Spain, from India to parts of the African continent – is paralleled by the variety of the authors’ methodological and historiographic approaches. Geoff Cunfer and Fridolin Kraussman off er an interesting comparative study of two editorial areas very distant from one another, examining the historical evolution of energy balances to analyze the impact of farming on land fertility and environmental sustainability. Th eir results are original and of great interpretive usefulness, and their methods applicable to studies on other places and contexts. Sashi Sivramkrishna traces back to the late nineteenth century the historical roots of the connections between macroeconomic policies and the environment in colonial India, which already appears to have been a part, at this time, of a broader global context. Th e article co-written by Manuel Gonzales de Molina, Antonio Herrera, Antonio Ortega and David Soto refl ects on the need to re-examine the history of environmentalism from the perspective of social confl ict. Along with an interesting casuistry, this essay provides important interpretive keys for the role of confl icts over resources, such as the diff erence between “environmentalist” and “Green” confl icts. In his review of Swan William Miller’s book on the relationship between man and the environment in Latin American countries before and after the coming of the Europeans, Reinaldo Funes Monzote points out some new themes for future historical research on this geographical region, viz., the ultimate causes of environmental deterioration over the last decades, and the integration of Latin America into the world system from 1492 onward. Eugenia Fer- ragina reports on the activities and debates of the world forum on water held at Istanbul in March 2009. This forum is a testimony of the centrality of this theme and the planet-wide issues it is connected with, such as social inequalities and water as a denied right, the effects of climate change, water security, and water management and policies. It saw the participation not only of major international organizations such as the United Nations, Unesco and FAO, but also of financial institutions such as the World Bank. In the present issue we inaugurate a new section entitled “Histo- riographies”, where we intend to present general overviews of studies, especially from countries for which linguistic barriers have so far hindered our knowledge of their scholarly production. Antonio Ortega Santos retraces the development of Spanish environmental historiography from the late 1980s onward, highlighting its connections with Latin America and strong civic commitment, as well as the thematic and methodological variety of its inspiration: from agrarian studies and studies on land ownership to forest history, ecological economic history, and the study of environmental conflicts in a historical perspective. This issue, like the previous ones, reaffirms the multiform character of global environmental history’s methods, contents, interpretive categories, and research fields, and the vastness of its temporal and spatial scope. Global environmental history offers a wide spectrum of cognitive approaches to environmental issues seen in a historical perspective, opening up boundless research scenarios and fields. It offers a truly fertile soil for the development of the paradigm of complexity, which is becoming increasingly influential in the historical sciences. This paradigm sheds light on the intricate intercon- nections between man and the environment. Global environmental history can explore the environmental implications of globalization processes and the transnational aspects of the construction of ecosystemic realities; or it can study national responses to globalization;

EDITORIAL / AGNOLETTI AND CORONA 6 or, vice versa, the eff ects of local phenomena on global ones. Th is last perspective also includes histories of the resistance of colonized populations and of how they reclaimed their cultural identities. But global environmental history can also be regarded merely as a specifi c methodological approach, employing comparative analyses of often very remote areas of the planet to provide broader global in- terpretations of all historical periods and the central role of issues of environmental sustainability within diff erent social organizations and at diff erent historical times.

Mauro Agnoletti and Gabriella Corona

GE7 Sustaining Soil fertility: Agricultural Practice in the Old and New Worlds

Geoff Cunfer and fridolin Krausmann igration

George Th ir had a busy year in 1884.1 Along with his parents, George and Th eresia Th ir, he emi- grated from the corner of central Europe where today Austria, Hun- gary, and Slovakia come together. MHe travelled to the United States, made his way to the far edge of agricultural settlement in western Kan- sas, and selected a farm that would become his home for the remain- der of his life. Kansas had organized its westernmost territory just six years earlier, including the Th irs’ new home of Decatur County. Th e last confl ict between Indians and encroaching white settlers in Kansas occurred there in 1878, when fl eeing Cheyennes attacked and killed dozens of recent settlers. By the time the Th irs arrived the gently undulating mixed-grass prairie of western Kansas was fi lling up with farmers. Most came from eastern parts of the United States, but a signifi cant number came directly from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, and other foreign countries. Th e Th irs most likely immigrated from Gols, in what is now Austria, where most of their Kansas neighbors origi- nated. Th ey certainly came from somewhere in the German-speaking portion of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Over the course of his life various offi cial documents identifi ed the younger George as German, Hungarian, Austro-Hungarian, and Austrian. Th e Austro-Hungarians who settled in the northwest corner of Decatur County, Kansas came from a cluster of farming villages within 25 km of one another, including Gols and Zurndorf in what is now Austria, and Ragendorf and Kaltenstein in present-day Hungary.2 Born in May, 1865, George Th ir was 19 when he traveled to Kansas. Within a few months of arrival he chose suitable farmland in Section 17 of Finley Township and, on Oc- tober 9, 1884, fi led a Homestead claim on 65 hectares of grass.3

1 Th is study is supported by U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Hu- man Development grants no. HD044889 and HD033554. Th e authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers who improved the article signifi cantly. 2 For details on the emigration from this region of the Austro-Hungarian Em- pire, see W. Dujmovits, Die Amerikawanderung der Burgenländer, Desch-Drexler, Pinkafeld 1990; M. Antoni, “Nach Amerika….”, Materialien zur Landesausstellung in Güssing, Pädagogisches Institut des Bundes für Burgenland, Eisenstadt 1992. 3 Decatur County Historical Book Committee, Decatur County, Kansas, Crafts- man Printers Inc., Lubbock, Texas 1983, pp. 25-31. Homestead records from Kansas GenWeb, http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/decatur/Land%20Records/fi n- ley_homesteading.htm (accessed February 16, 2009). Th e reconstruction of Th ir and Demmer family history comes from the following sources: U.S. Population Census manuscript schedules, Decatur County, Kansas, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930; Kansas State Board of Agriculture, population census manuscripts, Decatur GE9 Making raw prairie into a farm was slow, hard work. In March, 1885 the new homestead, valued at $50, had no cropland, no livestock, no fences, and no house. Thir worked as a blacksmith and boarded with neighbors—John and Gussie Adams, and Ray, their one-year-old son. Thir had not really started farming his new land yet when the census- taker recorded his presence in the spring of 1885, but the next ten years would see considerable progress on the Thir farm.4 In 1888 George married Elizabeth Demmer; he was 23 and she was 20. Born in Gols in 1868, at age 13 she and her family joined the chain migration to far western Kansas. Between the 1870s and 1890s dozens of families left Gols, Ragendorf, Zurndorf, and Kaltenstein for the United States, travelling by ship across the Atlantic, then by train to Nebraska. Many settled near Crete, Nebraska where a community of Austro-Hungarian immigrants welcomed new arrivals. The motivations for migration varied. Most sought free agricultural land and an opportunity for economic improvement. Some fled the military draft. In 1983, for example, Carl Resch recalled his grand- father’s reason for leaving: “In 1883 John Resch Sr. immigrated to America with his wife and children to escape conscription into the army of Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, and in search of good land and a better life—free from militarism that ravaged Europe periodically.” Another Gols native, Andreas Wurm, had already been drafted and discharged by the age of 17 when, in 1878, he joined two friends travelling to Nebraska. Like many others, they found Crete already full, and moved southwest to Decatur County, Kansas where free land was still available. Not yet old enough to file a homestead claim, Wurm brought his parents from Austria to Kan- sas so they could file a claim for him.5 George’s new wife, Elizabeth Demmer, was also part of a multi- generational migration. She was one of five children born to Math-

County, Kansas, 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1925, held at Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka (hereafter cited as KSHS). 4 Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Population and Agricultural Census Man- uscripts, Decatur County, Kansas, 1885, held at KSHS. 5 Decatur County, Kansas cit., pp. 152, 204, 333-334, 351-352, 374, 425, 428-433.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 10 ias and Maria Ecker Demmer. In 1881 the whole family moved to Crete, Nebraska, and then on to Decatur County, Kansas. Several other branches of the Demmer family made the move between the late 1870s and mid-1880s, fi nding (and often intermarrying with) former neighbors from Austria. Families from Gols, Ragendorf, and Kaltenstein selected homesteads all around Finley Township, where George and Elizabeth Th ir made their new farm (Fig. 1). Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Susie M. Th ir, in January 1889. A second daughter, born in May 1892, took her mother’s name. Th eir third and fi nal child, George, Jr., was born in May 1895. By that year the farm, now worth $800, was thriving. It boasted cropland planted to corn, spring wheat, sorghum, and potatoes, plus hay and grazing land for 3 horses, 1 milk cow, and 1 hog.6 Over the next several decades, as the Th ir children grew up, the farm expanded. By 1905 it had doubled in size to 130 hectares, with buildings, implements, a dozen milk cows, 10 beef cattle, 4 horses, 11 hogs, and a variety of cropland, hay land, and pasture, all worth $2,000. Ten years later the farm had doubled in size again, to 259 hectares—one square mile of fertile Kansas farmland. Th e daughters moved out of the family home in their early twenties to join new husbands. George, Jr., remained single, continued to live with his parents, and farmed in partnership with his father into the 1940s. George, Sr., died in 1949 and Elizabeth in 1953.7 George and Elizabeth Th ir did more than trade Alpine mountains for vast plains when they migrated across the ocean. Th ey left behind an agro-ecological system in Austria where farmland supported high populations on small holdings, where rainfall was reliable, where nu-

6 Decatur County, Kansas cit., pp. 152, 184, 374, 430. Standard Atlas of Decatur County, Kansas, G.A. Ogle & Co., Chicago 1905, held at KSHS. Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Population and Agricultural Census Manuscripts, Decatur County, Kansas, 1895. More detailed information on population, livestock and land use for Th ir farm and Finley Township is provided in Supporting Table S1 and S2. 7 Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Population and Agricultural Census Man- uscripts, Decatur County, Kansas, 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, 1940. U.S. Population Census Manuscript Schedules, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930. Hern- don Union Cemetery records, Rawlins County, Kansas. GE11 FIGURES

To manuscript:

Cunfer, G. and F.Krausmann, Sustaining Soil Fertility: Agricultural Practice in the Old and New Worlds, submitted to Global Environment, April 2009.

FigureF 1.igure Austro-Hungarian 1. Austro-Hungarian immigrant farms, including the Thir immigrant farm, situated within farms, Finley Township. including The small locator mapsthe show theThir location farm, of Kansas situated within the United within States and ofF inleyDecatur County Township. and Finley Township The within small the state of Kansas.locator maps show the location of Kansas within the United States and of Decatur County and Finley Township within the state of Kansas

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 12 trients and energy fl owed through tightly bound pathways linking soil, plants, animals, and people into a complex and highly evolved system. For centuries rural Austrians had pushed the land to produce as much food as possible to support growing populations, but in a way that could be sustained over many generations. In Austria, land was scarce, labor (and hungry mouths) abundant. Livestock were a crucial component of the system, providing food and clothing, but also physical labor and manure to fertilize cropland.8 Th ey arrived in an agro-ecological setting in Kansas that had im- mense potential but little existing structure. Th ere fertile soil was abundant and cheap, labor hard to come by, and rainfall uncertain. Population density was low, and even livestock were in short supply and expensive. George and Elizabeth spent their lives creating a new agro-ecological system where none had existed. Th ey brought labor to bear: their own strong backs plus three children and a barnyard full of animals. Th ey tapped into a rich stockpile of soil nutrients accumulated under native grassland over geological time. Th ey organized a new farm system alongside neighbors from home and from many diff erent parts of the world, one that meshed their cultural inheritance with a semi-arid plains environment. Th e result was very diff erent from the agricultural world they had left behind. Agricultural systems are coupled human-environment systems.9 Th is study takes a socio-ecological perspective on agriculture and focuses on biophysical relations between society and its natural en-

8 F. Krausmann, “Milk, Manure and Muscular Power: Livestock and the In- dustrialization of Agriculture”, in Human Ecology, 32, 6, 2004. 9 H. Haberl, V. Winiwarter, K. Andersson, R.U. Ayres, C.G. Boone, A. Castillio, G. Cunfer, M. Fischer-Kowalski, W.R. Freudenburg, E. Furman, R. Kaufmann, F. Krausmann, E. Langthaler, H. Lotze-Campen, M. Mirtl, C.A. Red- man, A. Reenberg, A.D. Wardell, B. Warr, and H. Zechmeister, “From LTER to LTSER: Conceptualizing the Socioeconomic Dimension of Long-term Socioeco- logical Research”, in Ecology and Society, 11, 2006, http://www.ecologyandsociety. org/vol11/iss2/art13/-. J.G. Liu, T. Dietz, S.R. Carpenter, C. Folke, M. Alberti, C.L. Redman, S.H. Schneider, E. Ostrom, A.N. Pell, J. Lubchenco, W.W. Taylor, Z.Y. Ouyang, P. Deadman, T. Kratz, and W. Provencher, “Coupled Human and Natural Systems”, in Ambio, 36, 2007. GE13 vironment, using a social metabolism approach to investigate the structure and functioning of agricultural production systems. The concept of social metabolism appears widely in sustainability science.10 Recognizing that all economic activity is based on a through- put of materials and energy, it links socioeconomic activity to ecosystem analysis. The corresponding set of methods – material and energy flow analysis, or MEFA – allows one to trace material and energy flows through socioeconomic systems and provides a quantitative picture of the physical exchange processes between societies and their environment. This approach has also been applied in historical studies and in particular to explore society-nature interactions in local rural systems and to investigate the relationship between land, humans, livestock, and the flows of materials and energy related to production and reproduction in agricultural systems.11

Old World and New World farm systems

How did the farm system that immigrants left behind compare with that which they found (and created) on the Great Plains frontier? This study uses a socio-ecological approach to explore similarities and differences in land use at either end of the migration chain.12 It employs

10 R.U. Ayres and U.E. Simonis, Industrial Metabolism: Restructuring for Sustainable Development, United Nations University Press, New York 1994. M. Fischer-Kowalski, “Society’s Metabolism. The Intellectual History of Material Flow Analysis, Part I: 1860-1970”, in Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2, 1998. 11 R.P. Sieferle, F. Krausmann, H. Schandl, and V. Winiwarter, Das Ende der Fläche. Zum Sozialen Metabolismus der Industrialisierung, Böhlau, Köln 2006. Kraus- mann, Milk, Manure cit.. X. Cusso, R. Garrabou, and E. Tello, “Social Metabolism in an Agrarian Region of Catalonia (Spain) in 1860 to 1870: Flows, Energy Bal- ance and Land Use”, in Ecological Economics, 58, 2006. G.I. Guzman Casado and M. Gonzalez de Molina, “Preindustrial Agriculture versus Organic Agriculture: The Land Cost of Sustainability”, in Land Use Policy, 26, 2009. G. Cunfer, “Manure Matters on the Great Plains Frontier”, in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 34, 2004. J. Marull, J. Pino, and E. Tello, “The Loss of Landscape Efficiency: An Eco- logical Analysis of Land Use Changes in Western Mediterranean Agriculture (Vallès County, Catalonia, 1853-2004)”, in Global Environment, 2, 2008.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 14 two community case studies, one in Austria and the other in Kansas, to compare the ways that people turned the raw materials of soil, climate, and biota into the fi nished products of food, fi eld, and culture. Th eyern, Austria, as it existed around 1830, serves as the fi rst case study. Th eyern is about 100 km northwest of Gols. A considerable pre- existing dataset makes it possible to model Th eyern’s land use history in great detail, and the agricultural system there matches, in broad outline, that of the Gols-Ragendorf-Kaltenstein region that fed Finley Town- ship’s nineteenth century population boom. Th eyern was a typical low- land farming system with an area of 2.3 km² and a population of 102 in 1829.13 Th e village lies in the low, rolling countryside of northeastern Austria. Here a loess soil over conglomerate rock with a high lime content provides good conditions for cultivation. With an average annual temperature of 10° C and 521 mm of precipitation, Th eyern has favor- able climatic conditions for cropland farming and cereal production. Th e village has been cultivated for many centuries; it is possible to trace individual farmsteads to the early 15th century.14 By the early nineteenth century more than half of Th eyern’s area was cropland (Fig. 2a). Despite a rather large livestock herd, only 3% of the village was grassland, but woodland commons provided additional grazing. Woodlands covered roughly one third of the territory, but only prevailed on soils unsuitable for cultivation. Th ey served not only as a source for fuel and timber but were also grazed and provided litter for animal bedding.15 Th eyern, like Gols, was on the edge of a wine-growing region and, although there

12 M. Fischer-Kowalski and H. Haberl (eds), Socioecological Transitions and Global Change: Trajectories of Social Metabolism and Land Use, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK 2007. For an early discussion of agroecology as a central subject for environmental history, see D. Worster, “Trans- formations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History”, in Journal of American History, 76, 4, 1990. 13 More detailed information on population, livestock and land use in Th eyern is provided in Supporting Table S5. 14 C. Sonnlechner, “Umweltgeschichte und Siedlungsgesc. Methodische An- merkungen zu Hans Krawariks ‘Frühe Siedlungsprozesse im Waldviertel’”, in Das Waldviertel, 50, 2001. 15 Krausmann, Milk, Manure cit. GE15 are no vineyards in Theyern itself, farmers had access to vineyards in neighboring villages. Population density was high: at 45 persons per km² it was somewhat above the Austrian average of 42 persons per km². In 1829 Theyern was home to 17 farm families who cultivated an average of 8 ha each. 16 However, 3 of the farms were larger (approximately 13-19 ha), while 4 had very small holdings of under 4 ha, probably producing barely enough for subsistence.17 Until the mid 19th century, land did not belong to the peasants but to the local manor, which assigned it to particular families. In the case of Theyern, the nearby Benedictine monastery of Göttweig served this function, and also collected tithes and taxes (in the form of money, compulsory human and animal labor, or a share of agricultural produce). Besides the peasant families and the manor, the village community itself was an important institution of land-use decision-making. The village managed its woodlands collectively as commons. Also, the village as a whole determined the temporal rhythm of cropland cultivation and crop choice. Each family tended numerous small plots of land scattered across the municipality. A three-field rotation system necessitated joint decisions and efforts regarding plowing and harvesting of crops (Fig. 2b).18 The main source for the reconstruction of Theyern’s land use and farming systems is the Franciscean Cadastre (Franziszeischer or Sta- biler Kataster). 19 This tax survey was conducted during the first half of the 19th century (1817-1856) and covered most of the territory

16 Cadstral Schätzungs Elaborat der Steuergemeinde Theyern, held at Lande- sarchiv St. Pölten. 17 The small size and low output of some of the farms is assumed to be one of the main reasons for the comparatively frequent turnover in farm holders observed in Theyern between 1500 and 1800 (see Projektgruppe Umweltgeschichte, Historische und ökologische Prozesse in einer Kulturlandschaft, Wien 1997). 18 Cadastral Schätzungs Elaborat der Steuergemeinde Theyern. 19 A. Moritsch, “Der Franziszeische Grundsteuerkataster. Quelle für die Wirt- schaftsgeschichte und historische Volkskunde”, in East European Quarterly, 3, 1972. R. Sandgruber, “Der Franziszeische Kataster und die dazugehörigen Steuer- schätzungsoperate als wirtschafts- und sozialhistorische Quellen”, in Mitteilungen aus dem niederösterreichischen Landesarchiv, 3, 1979.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 16 Figure 2. Theyern land management. (2a) Small meadows and orchards clustered closely around residential house lots, while Figure 2. Theyern land management. (2a) Small meadows and orchards clustered closely around residential house lots, while cropland surrounded the village. On the outskirts of the community, woodlands prevailed on poor soils not suitable for cropland surrounded the village. On the outskirts of the community, woodlands prevailed on poor soils not suitable for cropping. (2b) The cropland portion of the agroecosystem rotated annually through a three-field sequence. Family farms cropping. (2b) The cropland portion of the agroecosystem rotated annually through a three-field sequence. Family farms consisted of scattered plots distributed across all parts of the village, as illustrated here for the Gill family, one of the three consisted of scattered plots distributed across all parts of the village, as illustrated here for the Gill family, one of the three larger holdings (ca. 13 ha of farmland). larger holdings (ca. 13 ha of farmland). figure 2. Theyern land management

Land use, Theyern 1829 Land uPsaes,t uTrhee, ymerena d1o8w29s and fruit gardens CPraosptluarned, meadows and fruit gardens WCoroopdllaanndds AWll ooothdelarn ladnsd All other land N N

300 0 300 600 Meters 300 0 300 600 Meters (2a) Small meadows and orchards clustered closely around residential house lots, while cropland surrounded the village. On the outskirts of the

community, woodlands prevailed on poor soils not suitable for cropping. (2b) The cropland portion of the agroecosystem rotated annually through a three-field sequence. family farms consisted of scattered plots distributed

across all parts of the village, as illustrated here for the Gill family, one of the three larger holdings (ca. 13 ha of farmland)

Three field rotation system, Theyern 1829 Three Ffiieelldd rAo t(aHtiocnh sgyesit/eKmle, inTfheeldy/eOrnrt s1r8ie2d9) FFieieldld BA ((FHaohcrehgnefeitl/dK/Mleiitntefelfledl/dO)rtsried) FFieieldld CB ((BFoadherennfefeldld/T/Mauitbteelnfefeldld) ) Field C (Bodenfeld/Taubenfeld) Woodland Woodland Dispersed fields of Gill Farm N Dispersed fields of Gill Farm N

300 0 300 600 Meters 300 0 300 600 Meters

GE17 of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, some 300,000 km². It includes a geodetic land survey, estimations of crop yields for all land use classes, and a report of monetary outputs.20 The Franciscean Cadas- tre comprises several different types of documents: - A 1:2,880 scale cadastral map of each Cadastral Municipality (Katastral Gemeinde) with information on land use and cover for individual parcels. Up to 39 different land use classes plus up to 4 distinct quality designators appear on the maps. - Survey Protocols (Parzellen Protokoll) indicating ownership plus size and land use type for each parcel or building. - Cadastral Summaries (Catastral Schätzungs Elaborat), the main data source for the reconstruction of land use practice and biomass and nutrient flows. These are handwritten texts, one for each map, offering extensive descriptions of topography, demography, and the farming system. They contain detailed information on land use and land cover, yields, population, livestock, and farming practices, as well as production, livestock feeding practices, soil manuring standards, general information on the number of farms, community wealth, use of animals, and markets. - Estimates of Expenses and Monetary Yield (Darstellung des Kulturaufwandes und des Reinertrages), giving aggregate information on factor costs and estimated monetary gross and net yields based on local prices in 1824, for each land-use category in a cadastral unit. In combination with the Survey Protocol, this document was the basis for tax calculation. In addition to the data provided by the cadastre, we used a wide variety of sources and literature about local, regional, and general aspects of the structure and functioning of pre-industrial farming systems.21 Furthermore, published and unpublished data and analyses relating to the environmental history of the case study regions

20 K. Lego, “Geschichte des österreichischen Grundkatasters”, Bundesamt für Eich - und Vermessungswesen, Wien, 1968. K.K. Finanz-Ministerium (ed.), Tafeln zur Statistik des Steuerwesens im österreichischen Kaiserstaate mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der directen Steuern und des Grundsteuerkatasters, Wien, 1858. 21 See Krausmann, Milk, Manure cit. Id., “Land Use and Socio-economic Me-

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 18 were available from previous research projects.22 Th e Cadastral survey for Th eyern dates to 1829. Rather than refl ecting specifi c conditions during any single year, it reports long- term averages. A reconstruction of the agroecosystem on the basis of these data represents a valid average for much of the fi rst half of the 19th century. Only later in the 19th century did the farming system begin to change slowly as innovations associated with the fi rst agricultural revolution and the land reform of 1848 spread in Austria.23 At the other end of the migration lay Decatur County, Kansas. George and Elizabeth ended their separate travels in the grasslands of the Great Plains, a fl at to gently undulating steppe environment slowly rising in elevation from east to west. Recently buff alo range controlled by Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Arapaho horse cultures, De- catur County sat at the transition zone between dry mixed-grass prairie and very dry short-grass plains (Fig. 1). Rainfall averaged 475 mm, and the dominant native vegetation was little bluestem, grama, and buff alo grasses. Trees were very rare– less than 5 percent of ground cover – and appeared only in narrow bands along rivers and streams. Here soils were quite rich, but rainfall was unreliable, reeling between very wet years with 800 mm or more and severe

tabolism in Pre-industrial Agricultural Systems: Four Nineteenth-century Villages in Comparison”, in Social Ecology working paper n. 72, Institute of Social Ecology, Vienna 2008 for a detailed description. 22 Th is material includes digitised versions of the original cadastral maps of the villages, specifi c evaluations of parcel protocols (e.g., the quantifi cation of the extent of external land use, land use data, and factor costs at the farm level). See Projektgruppe Umweltgeschichte, Historische und ökologische Prozesse cit. Projekt- gruppe Umweltgeschichte, Kulturlandschaftsforschung: Historische Entwicklung von Wechselwirkungen zwischen Gesellschaft und Natur, CD-ROM, Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Verkehr, Wien 1999. V. Winiwarter and C. Sonnlechner, Der soziale Metabolismus der vorindustriellen Landwirtschaft in Europa, Breuninger Stiftung, Stuttgart 2001. 23 R. Sandgruber, “Die Agrarrevolution in Österreich. Ertragssteigerung und Kommerzialisierung der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion im 18. und 19. Jahr- hundert”, in Österreich-Ungarn als Agrarstaat. Wirtschaftliches Wachstum und Agrarverhältnisse in Österreich im 19. Jahrhundert, A. Hoff mann (ed.), Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Wien, 1978. GE19 droughts when less than 250 mm fell. To the Thirs and their neighbors the land promised a prosperous future.24 The reconstruction of Decatur County’s agro-ecosystem comes mainly from agricultural census data compiled periodically by the State of Kansas and by the U.S. federal government. Census descriptions for individual farms in this part of Kansas are available for 1885, 1895, 1905, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, and 1940. These 9 snapshots describe land use activity over a period of 55 years, from the beginning of frontier farm-making through the establishment of a fully developed, modern agricultural system. Censuses report the acreage and yields of various crops on each farm, the number of livestock, the amount of irrigation, fencing, and agricultural implements owned, and many other things. With these data we can follow the progress of the Thir homestead from raw prairie to integrated farm. Identical data exist for the same years for every farm in Finley Township, allowing a comparison between the Thir farm and the several dozen that surrounded it. Aggregated county level data are more readily available, existing for each year between 1880 and 1940. Thus it is possible to study the land use history of the region at nested scales, from the individual farm to the rural neighborhood of the township, to the entire 230,000-hectare county, and, indeed, for all 105 counties in the state of Kansas. But land, crops, and livestock are not all that make up a farm. Population censuses reveal the social side of farm systems. Manu-

24 Climate data come from two sources. The first is T.R. Karl, C.N. Williams, Jr., F. T. Quinlan, and T. A. Boden, United States Historical Climatology Network (HCN) Serial Temperature and Precipitation Data, Environmental Science Divi- sion, Publication n. 3404, Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (the historical climatology data are stored as point data for weather stations at monthly intervals for 1221 stations in the United States). The second source is National Climatic Data Center, Arizona State University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) (this data set includes comprehensive monthly global surface baseline climate data). The Great Plains Population and Environ- ment Project (www.icpsr.umich.edu/plains) interpolated data from 394 weather stations in the Great Plains to counties for each month between 1895 and 1993.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 20 script population schedules are available for 1885, 1895, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1915, 1920, 1925, and 1930. Th ese data reveal the life cycles of families, as couples married and had children, as children grew up and left home, as people aged and died. Again, we can observe these changes at various scales, from individual people and families to aggregated townships and counties. Together, the population and agricultural censuses provide basic data about the social metabolism of Kansas farmsteads.25

A socio-ecological approach to agricultural systems

Figure 3 presents a simple conceptual model of agriculture as a coupled socioeconomic and natural system. It builds on basic assumptions about the relation of population, land use, and agricultural production formulated by Ester Boserup, but extends this perspective by explicitly including fl ows of material and energy.26 It is specifi c about the interactions of socio-economic systems and ecosystems, allowing one to capture important technological developments related to the industrialization of agriculture. In its most general form, the model defi nes the main biophysical relations in terms of fl ows of energy and materials between (and within) a natural system (i.e. the agro-ecosystem, characterized by biogeographic conditions and land use types) and a socio-economic system, consisting of two subsystems, namely the population subsystem (characterized by demographic attributes) and the economic production subsystem (including all infrastructure, farming technology and

25 K.M. Sylvester, S. Hautaniemi Leonard, M.P. Gutmann, and G. Cunfer, “Demography and Environment in Grassland Settlement: Using Linked Longitu- dinal and Cross-Sectional Data to Explore Household and Agricultural Systems”, in History and Computing, 14, 2006. 26 E. Boserup, Th e Conditions of Agricultural Growth: Th e Economics of Agrarian Change Under Population Pressure, Aldine/Earthscan, Chicago 1965. E. Boserup, Population and Technological Change - A Study of Long-Term Trends, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1981. GE21 Figure 3. Conceptual model of material and energy flows in local agricultural production systems. See text for ex- planationFigure 3. Conceptual model of material and energy flows in local agricultural production systems. See text for explanation.

Local agricultural production system

Agro-ecosystem Physical compartment of society

Production Population Woodland Work Work Livestock Human population Draft power Grassland Farmsteads and infrastructure Biomass Food Age structure Fertility Machines and Mortality Cropland … Manure tools

Material and energy Import/Export Work and migration livestock).27 The model describes an agricultural production system (here a farm or a village) as an agro-ecosystem managed by a local population investing labor and energy, applying a certain mix of technology, and generating a certain return of agricultural produce. It maintains exchange processes with other demographic, socioeconomic, and ecological systems. On a more detailed level, the model specifies the relation of land use and land cover with the extraction of biomass, different types of conversion and consumption processes within the local production system, and land use practices and the flows into and out of the local system. Such a systemic perspective allows one to analyze all biomass and energy flows and their interre- lations within the agricultural production system, and to link them

27 This version of the model focuses on biophysical relations between society and nature and thus reduces the socio-economic system to its physical components, i.e., the population and the production subsystem. See M. Fischer-Kow- alski and H. Weisz, “Society as Hybrid Between Material and Symbolic Realms: Toward a Theoretical Framework of Society-Nature Interaction”, in Advances in Human Ecology, 8, 1999.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 22 to land use, ecosystem processes and the demographic system. Historical sources such as the Austrian cadastral records or the Kan- sas agricultural and population censuses provide a basic set of quantitative and qualitative data that can be used to quantify the fl ows of nutrients, materials, and energy into, within, and out of the various subsystems described in this model. Th is systemic perspective allows one to cross-check the validity of historical data and to fi ll gaps in the data consistently when omissions or fl aws occur in the original sources. For example, even though only fragmentary quantitative data on feed supply and livestock may be available from the cadastral record, knowledge about the reproductive patterns of livestock as well as species- and production-specifi c feed demand make it possible to generate a picture of feed demand in relation to available supply.28 Following the model presented in Figure 3, this study identifi es nine key socioecological indicators that describe the physical stocks and fl ows of the two agricultural production systems. Th ose indicators fi t into three categories: people and space, farm productivity and livestock, and nutrient management. Th is text includes graphic fi gures to represent the most important indicators; the complete data behind those fi gures are available in the Appendix as Support- ing Tables S1-S6.

People and Space population density: census population divided by land area (people/km2) average farm size: agricultural area29 divided by number of farms (ha/farm) land availability: agricultural area divided by number of farm laborers reported in the Kansas census or estimated based on Th eyern’s age structure (ha/person)

28 See for example H. Schüle, Raum-zeitliche Modelle - ein neuer methodischer Ansatz in der Agrargeschichte: Das Beispiel der bernischen Viehwirtschaft als Träger und Indikator der Agrarmodernisierung 1790 – 1915, Lizensiatsarbeit, Historisches Institut der Universität Bern, Bern 1989. 29 Th roughout the paper we defi ne “agricultural area” as not only cultivated and intensively used land such as cropland, meadows or fruit gardens, but also uncultivated prairie in farms (Kansas) and woodlands (Th eyern). Uncultivated prairie and woodlands have to be considered integral components of the agricultural production systems in Th eyern and Kansas as they are used to graze animals or to extract GE23 Farm Productivity grain yield: cereal production (including grain returned as seed) divided by total area planted, excluding fallow (kg/ha) area productivity: plant and animal produce for human nutrition, including edible produce for export, converted into food energy and divided by agricultural area (GJ/ha)30 labor productivity: plant and animal produce for human nutrition, including edible produce for export, converted into food energy and divided by number of farm laborers reported in the Kansas census or estimated based on Theyern’s age structure (GJ/person)31 marketable crop production: cereal production minus on-farm use of cereals (on-farm use includes the use of cereals as feed, seed, and for meeting subsistence needs (percentage of extracted biomass as tons of dry matter) Livestock and Nutrient Management livestock density: large animal units of 500 kg live weight divided by agricultural area (animals/km²)32 nitrogen return: N inputs from natural deposition, free fixation, manure, and leguminous crops divided by N contained in harvested biomass (percentage of extracted N returned to soil )33 bedding materials and served as sources for biomass and plant nutrients for more intensively used fields (Krausmann, Milk, Manure cit. Cunfer, Manure Matters cit.). 30 One Giga Joule (GJ) corresponds to 109 Joule or 239 Mega calories (Mcal). Food output is measured in Joules of nutritional value (according to standard nutrition tables). 31 We use “area productivity” and “labor productivity” in conformity with their usage in socio-ecological literature. Readers should be aware that economists have different definitions for these terms. 32 We converted livestock numbers into large animal units at 500 kg live weight by using species and region-specific data on average live weight in the observed period (Krausmann, Milk, Manure cit. Id., Land Use cit., p.56). 33 This estimate of nitrogen return to soils is only approximate. This analysis does not include a full soil nutrient balance. For one thing, it does not consider N losses due to volatilization and leaching. Furthermore, a comprehensive assessment of soil fertility would need to include phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter, plus the structural properties of soils. Given the limitations of historical data, this paper focuses on those N inputs and extractions that farmers control most directly. For further details concerning the procedure used to estimate nitrogen flows see id., Milk, Manure cit.; id., Land Use cit., pp. 17-20. Cunfer, Manure Matters cit. On soil nutrient balances more in general, see R.S. Loomis, “Ecological Dimensions of Medieval Agrarian Systems: An Ecologist Responds”, in Agricultural History, 52, 4, 1978. Id., “Traditional Agriculture in America,” in

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 24 People and Space

Th e village of Th eyern in Austria had a typically European agro-ecological system. Population expansion during the late Middle Ages led to a gradual colonization of new land for agriculture. By 1830 Th eyern had existed as a discrete community for several hundred years and its cropland, hay meadows, grazing commons, and surrounding forests had been producing food, feed, and shelter, year in and year out, for a very long time. Most members of the community lived little above subsistence level, producing as much food and supporting as many people as possible, given current cultivation practices, technology, and energy regimes. Th e fully populated land eventually achieved its peak productive potential. Th eyern’s population density in 1830 was 45 people per square kilometer. Th e average family farmed 13 hectares of land, and there were 2 hectare of agricultural land per person in the community (1 ha/cap if woodland is excluded). Over centuries, the people of Th eyern had learned how to use their land intensively, supporting the highest number of people possible, and sustaining those populations for multiple generations. Th e situation in Decatur County, Kansas, when Elizabeth Dem- mer, George Th ir, and their compatriots arrived, was just the opposite. Here was land that had never known widespread agricultural use. For 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age the Great Plains had been steppe grassland, home to wild grazers – bison – and browsers – pronghorn – but few other large animals. Th e indigenous people were mobile hunters and gatherers, traveling on foot over wide distances. Native agriculture expanded on the plains only after

Annual Review of Ecological Systems, 15, 1984. B.M.S. Campbell and M. Overton (eds), Land, Labour, and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Pro- ductivity, Manchester University Press, Manchester, NY, 1991. R.S. Loomis and D.J. Conner, Crop Ecology: Productivity and Management in Agricultural Systems, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1992. R. Shiel, “An Introduction to Soil Nutrient Flows”, in Soils and Societies: Perspectives from Environmental History, J.R. McNeill and V. Winiwarter (eds), White Horse Press, Isle of Harris, UK 2006. R. Shiel, “Nutrient Flows in Pre-Modern Agriculture in Europe,” in Mc- Neill and Winiwarter (eds), Soils and Societies cit. GE25 Figure 4. People and Space, Theyern, 1829; Finley Town- ship and Thir farm, 1895 to 1940: (4a) population density;

(4b)Figure 4 .average People and Space , farmTheyern, 1829 size;; Finley Township(4c) landand Thir farm availability, 1895 to 1940: (4a) population density; (4b) average farm size; (4c) land availability.

4a 4b

50 280 Finley Tow nship Thir farm 40 Theyern community 210

140

20 farmsize [ha/farm] 70 populationdensity [cap/km²] 10

0 0 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

100

50 [hafarmland/cap]

0 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

Sources: see text 1000 A.D. Occasional patches of maize, beans, and squash dotted the narrow river valleys winding through vast upland grasslands.34 At their greatest extent, Indian crop fields never reached even 1 percent of the area of the Great Plains. After the 17th century, many natives adopted horse-based hunting and gathering, and some moved in the direction of horse pastoralism.

34 Farming Indians maintained soil fertility by swidden, moving their villages wholesale every 5-10 years when soil nutrients failed and crop yields declined. The most notable difference between New World and Old World agriculture was the presence of domesticated animals in the latter. Livestock—oxen, milk cows, hogs and pigs, poultry, and dozens of other domesticated animals—were ubiquitous on

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 26 Th us European farmers who moved into the region in the late nineteenth century entered an agricultural vacuum. Importing their livestock with them, and thus increasing their ability to work the soil 100-fold, American, German, and Austro-Hungarian settlers began the enormous task of agricultural colonization, plowing sod that had lain intact for thousands of years. Th e contrast with European agricultural villages could not have been greater. Th e population density in Finley Township, where George and Elizabeth Th ir made their new farm, was only 2 people per square kilometer in 1895, about one order of magnitude lower than in Th eyern. Th e average farm size was an in- credible 92 hectares, so large that for the fi rst several decades few farmers could practically make use of all of their land and a considerable fraction of the available land was used for extensive grazing. Th ere were 17 hectares of land in the township for every man, woman, and child. Th e amount of land available to be worked per agricultural laborer was huge and increased from 36 ha in 1895 to almost 70 ha in 1925, when the fi rst tractors appeared in the township. Given the shortage of labor on this agricultural frontier, much of the land remained unused. On the Th ir homestead, 65 hectares supported and employed two adults and three children. Compared to the community as a whole, the Th ir farm was nearly representative, with a population density of 6 people per square kilometer and about 16 hectares of land per person. Th e pioneer era in Decatur County lasted about 50 years, from 1870 to 1920. During that time farmers fi lled the land, adjusted their farming practices to fi t local soils, climate, and topography, and slowly moved toward an agricultural equilibrium. Population density in Finley Township increased during the initial period of homesteading then stabilized at between 4 and 5 people per square kilometer. During the same period average farm sizes rose rapidly, from 92

European farms and crucial to their function and success. Indian farmers had no domesticated animals. Women tilled the soil entirely through human labor. Th us Indian agriculturalists never farmed the widespread uplands of the Great Plains. Both population densities and the area of arable land remained very low. See R.D. Hurt, Indian Agriculture in America: Prehistory to the Present, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence 1987, pp. 57-64; W.R. Wedel, “Th e Prehistoric Plains,” in Ancient Native Americans, J.D. Jennings (ed.), W.H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco 1978. GE27 hectares in 1895 to a peak at 154 hectares in 1920, then dropped slightly to settle at around 130 hectares for the next few decades. Land per person followed a similar curve, rising from 17 hectares in 1895 to 35 in 1920, and thereafter floating between about 30 and 40 through the early 20th century. On the Thir farm, rapid acquisi- tion of additional land pushed these numbers higher for the family. In 1915, 30 years after immigration from Austria, the Thirs owned 259 hectares of land, a whopping 65 hectares for each person in the family. While farmers on the Kansas frontier went through a period of adaptation and adjustment, they did not move toward an Old World style farm system of high population densities on intensely used land. If anything, they moved away from that model.

Farm productivity

Theyern farmers maximized their grain yields, but within the bounds of long-term sustainability. They grew as much food as possible without undermining the ability of the land to support people for indefinite generations into the future. In 1830 Theyern farms produced 819 kg of grain per hectare, which, together with animal products, were enough to provide 9 GJ of nutritional energy for every farm laborer. Area productivity was about 2.9 GJ of food per hectare. The highly integrated subsistence system supported a lot of people, but surplus above local demand was comparatively low and, particularly for the smaller farms, production accomplished bare survival only. Here farmers had been re-using soils over centuries for agricultural production. The population density matched agricultural production, given local climate and available technology. The largest share of farm output went toward local consumption. The community exported little of its farm produce; our data suggest that Theyern exported from the local system no more 25% of its agricultural produce through sales in nearby markets or rent paid to the landlord. While the Franciscean Cadastre dates to 1829 in Theyern, the land use information it provides does not represent only one year, but rather a long-term average for the community that fairly represents the village’s typical productivity throughout the first half of the 19th century.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 28 figure 5. farm Productivity, Theyern 1829; finley Town- ship and Thir farm, 1895 to 1940: (5a) grain yield; (5b) area productivity; (5c) labor productivity; (5d) marketa-

bleFigure crop 5. Farm P roductivityproduction, Theyern 1829; Finley Township and Thir farm, 1895 to 1940: (5a) grain yield; (5b) area productivity; (5c) labor productivity; (5d) marketable crop production.

5a 5b

1800 8 Finley Tow nship Thir farm Theyern community 6

1200

grain yield [kg/ha] grainyield 600 2

Foodoutput unit per of farmland [GJ food ha] / 0 0 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

5c 5d

400 100

300 75

200 50

100 25 [%of biomass (tons extracted matter)] dry

Foodoutput [GJ laborer agricultural food per cap] / 0 0 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

Sources: see text

In western Kansas, the freshly plowed grassland soils produced much higher grain yields in the fi rst couple of decades. Taking advantage of 10,000 years of stockpiled soil nutrients, the Th ir farm produced 1274 kg of grain per hectare in 1895, 56% higher than Th eyern’s yield, while Finley Township as a whole averaged 1141 kg, a 39% surplus over the Austrian case. Th e township’s area productivity in 1895 was signifi cantly higher than in Th eyern, at 4.6 GJ per hectare, and because there were many fewer people on the land in Kansas, nutritional energy production per farm laborer was 168 GJ in Finley Township. Such return on labor – nearly 20 times Th eyern’s rate– was GE29 stupendous. Whereas one Theyern farm laborer grew enough food to feed about 2.5 people, one agricultural laborer in Finley Township could feed nearly 50. No person could reasonably consume so much food. Rather, the excess production beyond subsistence needs went into market exports. Agriculture in the Great Plains was from the very beginning oriented towards commercial production and was heavily reliant on the expanding railroad network to transport grain to urban markets. Three quarters of the grain grown in Finley Township was in excess of local food and feed needs, and instead found national and international markets. At harvest farmers bagged their wheat, hauled it to nearby grain elevators on the railroad line, and shipped their produce east. American cities grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century as other immigrants poured in to take factory jobs in the United States’ rapidly industrializing economy. Kansas wheat farmers fed not only themselves but those distant urban workers too. The rapid exploitation of stockpiled soil nutrients could not continue indefinitely. Through the early twentieth century, cereal yields in western Kansas fell, plummeting to less than 1/4 their peak levels. As recently arrived farmers plowed up fresh Finley Township land in the first two decades of agricultural settlement, yields remained high, rising from 1141 kg per hectare in 1895 to 1687 ten years later. Then, once most of the new land was already in production, yields began to fall, down to 1244 kg in 1915 and 736 in 1925. By the 1920s, in the fourth decade of agricultural settlement, grain yields dropped to levels similar to those Theyern farmers had produced a century earlier. Still, yields continued to fall, to below 400 kg in the late 1930s. The Thir farm closely followed community-wide trends in its first 40 years. The decline in crop yields was unmistakably downward over half a century, but from year to year there were sharp ups and downs. For example, 1925 saw township-wide yields of only 736 kg per hectare, but 1930 produced a bumper crop at 1278 kg. Five years later, in 1935, production was down sharply again. Area productivity like- wise varied widely, fluctuating between 4 and 7 GJ per hectare, then dropping to less than 2 in 1925 and again in the 1930s. Crop yields in Kansas were determined not only by soil fertility, but also by soil moisture. The extreme annual variation in rainfall at the center of

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 30 the continent hovered just above or just below the minimum precipitation necessary to sustain wheat, corn, and other cereals. Unlike in Th eyern, rainfall controlled yields as much as soil quality did. Th us, the extremely low yields in 1935 and 1940 resulted more from the deep drought of those years than from depleted soils. Th e marketable production in excess of subsistence needs moved downward along with yields, from 74% in 1895 to just 26% in 1925. It bounced back with strong rainfall in 1930, to 72%, but then fell with the arrival of drought in the 1930s. By 1935, cereal production had actually fallen 14% below what was needed for bare subsistence, but was up above 40% just fi ve years later. Rainfall did not decline steadily between 1870 and 1940, but rather moved up and down around the average. Th e steep downward trend in yields over the long term reveals massive soil mining in western Kansas during the pioneer era. Newly arrived farmers produced stupendous food excesses and sold those crops into the cash market. In the process they rapidly exploited the stockpiled soil fertility that had accumulated century by century under native grass sod.

Livestock and nutrient management

In addition to high human population density, Old World farm systems had high densities of livestock. Th e menagerie of Europe- an agriculture included oxen, beef cattle, milk cows, draft horses, mules, donkeys, hogs and pigs, goats, and an array of birds, including chickens, ducks, and geese. Th eyern, for example, had 24 large animals (500 kg equivalent) per km² around 1830. Th e importance of livestock cannot be overstated. Most obviously, farm animals provided food (beef, pork, poultry, milk, eggs, lard, butter) and clothing (leather, wool). Also of crucial importance, they provided labor for plowing soil, cultivating weeds, harvesting crops, and transporting farm produce over short and long distances.35 A more subtle contri-

35 Th e most common draft animals used in Th eyern around 1830 were oxen. Only the larger farms kept horses, while in small holdings cows were also used for labor (working fi elds and fallow areas) and transport (moving harvest from GE31 bution, but no less significant, came from the manure produced by livestock. Rich in nitrogen, organic carbon, and other soil nutrients, livestock manure was a vector by which people could redirect nutrients from biomass that humans cannot digest (grass, brush, stubble, litter) to agricultural crops. Manure also functioned as a means to move fertility from place to place across the landscape. For example, cattle grazing grass or brush growing on steep hillsides, in forests, or over non-arable soils, accumulated nutrients that they brought back to the farm yard and deposited on the ground. When farmers applied that manure onto their crop fields they were essentially transporting soil nutrients from untillable land to arable land, subsi- dizing fertility in the infields with nutrients transported by livestock from the outfields. Theyern farmers maintained significantly more livestock than they needed for food and labor; they kept additional animals, we surmise, for their manure production.36 Every year, Theyern farmers returned to the soil more than 90% of the nitrogen they had extracted from it in crops. Much of that re- stored nitrogen flowed through livestock and their manure. Collect- ing, processing, and properly applying manure was labor-intensive work. The whole system was intricately interrelated: Feeding a dense population required maintaining animals that produced manure, dispersed fields, fuel wood from the community forests, and manure back to the fields). Krausmann estimates that installed power amounted to 0.17 kilo Watts (kW) per ha of cropland (Krausmann, Milk, Manure cit.). According to Schaschl, who has quantified the monthly supply of and demand for human and animal labor during the course of a year per individual farms in Theyern, the supply of animal labour exceeded demand even during peak seasons in March and April (E. Schaschl, Rekonstruktion der Arbeitszeit in der Landwirtschaft im 19. Jahrhundert am Beispiel von Theyern in Niederösterreich, Social Ecology working paper n. 96, Wien 2007). In Finley Township, horses were the only animals used to provide work until the first tractors appeared in the 1920s. According to our estimate, installed power per unit of cropland was about the same as in Theyern (see Sup- porting Table S3 and S6). 36 R.C. Allen, “The Nitrogen Hypothesis and the English Agricultural Revolu- tion. A Biological Analysis”, in Journal of Economic History, 68, 2008. M.J. Frissel (ed.), Cycling of Mineral Nutrients in Agricultural Ecosystems, Elsevier, Amsterdam 1978. Cusso et al., Social Metabolism cit.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 32 which in their turn required signifi cant labor input and hence a dense population. Domesticated animals enabled the soil restoration necessary for continuous cropping into the indefi nite future. Th e presence of these animals distinguished Old World farming from that of Native Americans. In the Americas, natives had no livestock, and managed soil fertility by moving to new farm fi elds every 5 to 20 years as soil fertility declined. Another mechanism for the maintenance of soil nitrogen in the European system was fallow rotation. In 1829, cropland in Th eyern was still cultivated in the traditional three-fi eld rotation. A crop of winter cereal in the fi rst year and one of summer cereal in the second year was followed by a year of fallow. During the fallow period, the land was manured and vegetation regrowth was plowed into the soil. Mineralized nutrients from organic matter accumulated for the benefi t of crops in subsequent years. Natural ecosystem processes also provided additions of soil nitrogen, including free fi xation by soil microorganisms and nitrogen deposited from the atmosphere in rain, snow, or dust. At the turn of the 19th century, Austrian farmers were only beginning to include nitrogen-fi xing legume fodder crops such as clover or alfalfa into their crop rotations, but in the coming decades legumes gradually replaced fallow in the crop rotation system, emerging as a crucial element in the management of soil fertility. In Th eyern in 1829, roughly one fi fth of the fallow fi eld was planted with clover, already providing a considerable contribution to soil nitrogen stocks. Th us, by a combination of means Th eyern farmers were essentially in balance, replacing about as much soil nitrogen as they extracted each year. Finley Township, for its part, was decidedly out of balance with the nitrogen system. Th e initial plow-up accelerated the decomposi- tion of accumulated organic matter and spiked nitrogen into the soil for the fi rst several years.37 But ongoing plowing and cultivation soon generated nitrogen declines through both chemical and

37 W.J. Parton, M.P. Gutmann, S.A. Williams, M. Easter, and D. Ojima, “Eco- logical Impact of Historical Land-Use Patterns in the Great Plains: A Methodo- logical Assessment”, in Ecological Applications, 15, 2005. GE33 Figure 6. Livestock and Nutrient Management, Theyern, 1829; Finley Township and Thir farm, 1895 to 1940: (6a) livestock density; (6b) nitrogen return Figure 6. Livestock and Nutrient Management, Theyern, 1829; Finley Township and Thir farm, 1895 to 1940: (6a) livestock density; (6b) nitrogen return. 6a 6b

30 100

10 25 Finley Tow nship

livestock density livestock [animal units/km²] Thir farm Theyern community

0 nitrogenreturn [% of returnedN extracted to soil] 0 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

Sources: see text biological processes.38 Exposure of soils to the atmosphere initiated ammonia volatilization by which stored nitrogen escaped into the air. Tillage also encouraged bacterial denitrification, in which soil bacteria converted nitrate to nitrogen gasses by means of digestion, returning soil nitrogen to the atmosphere. Plowing could accelerate leaching of nitrogen via rainwater deep into the soil, plus additional losses from water and wind erosion.39 Thus it is not surprising that crop yields began at remarkably high levels, then dropped throughout the next fifty years after settlement. In addition to these natural nitrogen losses, Kansas farmers extracted more nitrogen from their soils than they returned each year, largely because they put little manure back onto the fields. Finley Township had a low livestock density of only 4 large animals per

38 H.J. Hass, C.E. Evans, and E.F. Miles, Nitrogen and Carbon Changes in Great Plains Soils as Influenced by Cropping and Soil Treatments, U.S.D.A. Techni- cal Bulletin n. 1164, Government Printing Office, Washington 1957. 39 F.J. Stevenson (ed.), Nitrogen in Agricultural Soils, Agronomy Series n. 22, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of American, and Soil Science Society of America, Madison, Wisconsin 1982. Cunfer, Manure Matters cit.. I.C. Burke, W.K. Lauenroth, G. Cunfer, J.E. Barrett, A. Mosier, and P. Lowe, “Nitrogen in the Central Grasslands Region of the United States”, in BioScience, 52, 2002.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 34 hectare in 1895, far below Th eyern’s 24. Th at number rose to 23 animals per km² in 1905 (mostly beef cattle, horses, and milk cows), and then dropped steadily over the next forty years, down to just 5 again by 1940. Th e relative shortage of livestock on Kansas farms meant that farmers had correspondingly less manure with which to return nitrogen to cropland soils. Farmers there returned only 27% of the nitrogen they extracted in 1895, and the percentage remained below 40% through the 1920s. Th e 1930s saw an increase in nitrogen return to between 50 and 70 percent only because signifi cant crop failures during drought years prevented farmers from extract- ing much nitrogen from their land.40 With natural soil fertility that far exceeded subsistence needs and that produced large, exportable surpluses for two decades, farmers did not feel the need to husband large numbers of livestock for the purpose of manure accumulation. Th ey needed horses for labor, and used cattle and pigs for household food and to add value to yet uncultivated prairie or pasture; but, beyond that, they did not maintain additional animals simply for their soil fertility benefi ts, as appears to have been the case in Th eyern. As George and Elizabeth Th ir and their neighbors took more nitrogen than they returned every year, crop yields fell. It took a couple of generations before crisis loomed, and in the 1930s several regional problems converged. Low and declining soil fertility began to pressure farms just as a 9-year drought devastated the region and a world-wide economic depression further challenged farm sustainability in the Great Plains. Th e eventual solution came, not in adopt- ing Old World style farm management, but from the importation of fossil fuel energy from outside the system. Th e decline in livestock density in Finley Township after 1905 went hand-in-hand with the advent of fossil fuel energy deployment on farms. When farmers

40 While the peaks in the rate of nitrogen return in Finley Township and at the Th ir farm in the 1930s are due to harvest failures and consequent low nitrogen extraction rather than to increases in nitrogen input, leguminous crops contribute to the high return rate (above 50%) which can be observed for the George Th ir farm in 1915. Th is was the only year when George Th ir planted a considerable fraction of his cropland with alfalfa. GE35 adopted tractors, trucks, and other internal combustion engines in the early twentieth century they decreased their horse populations, simultaneously decreasing their manure supply. After World War II farmers addressed their soil fertility problem by increasing applications of synthetic fertilizer in place of the missing manure. Nitro- gen fertilizer also represents a fossil fuel import, since its production requires large amounts of natural gas. Thus, 20th century farmers substituted fossil-fuel driven tractors for the labor function of livestock, and fossil-fuel derived fertilizers for the manure function of livestock. In multiple ways, fossil fuels provided substitutes for the missing livestock in the Kansas farm system.

Old World and New World yields: a long-term comparison

By comparison to modern farm systems, the Old World agricultural system may appear “sustainable”, but it was by no means stable, permanent, or stagnant. Old World agriculture evolved steadily over centuries, responding to both natural and cultural change. One way to measure this change is through yields of cereal crops, the staple subsistence food in nearly all temperate agricultural regions on earth. Figure 7 puts this story in a broader context, presenting cereal yields in the Old and New Worlds between 1830 and 1940.41 The figure complements data for Kansas and Austria with cereal yields for the United Kingdom (UK), where agricultural innovations that increased European crop yields first emerged in the 19th century. At the beginning of the period under consideration here, Austrian farmers devoted 1/3 of their arable land to unproductive fallow every

41 Yield data in Figure 7 were derived from Sieferle, Das Ende cit., p. 259. R. Sandgruber, Österreichische Agrarstatistik 1750-1918, Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Wien 1978 (U.K. and Austria) and Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Annual and Biennial Reports, Topeka, Kansas, 1877-1940 (Kansas). See S.J. De- canio, W.N. Parker, and J. Trojanowski, Adjustments to Resource Depletion: The Case of American Agriculture. Kansas, 1874-1936, ICPSR data set n. 7594 for Kansas yield data before 1937.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 36 figure 7. Cereal yields in the Old World and the New World, 1830 to 1940: (7a)Austria and the united Kingdom;

(7b)Figure 7 . KansasCereal yields in the Old World and the New World, 1830 to 1940: (7a)Austria and the United Kingdom; (7b) Kansas.

7a 7b 3 3 Au s t r i a Kansas United Kingdom

2 2 [kg/ha/yr] [kg/ha/yr]

1 1

0 0 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940

year, and the average cereal yield was low at around 800 kilograms per hectare. Th rough the 19th century farmers optimized the traditional low input agricultural system, increasing yields and population in tan- dem. A variety of innovations boosted yields, including new crops, new rotations, and the incorporation of yet more livestock, which required more fodder and produced more manure.42 Cultural and institutional changes also supported slowly increasing productivity. Th ese changes included the abolition of serfdom, the development of agricultural cooperatives and integration with distant markets. Together, this century-long process represents Austria’s participation in what Eu- ropean scholars have designated as the “fi rst agricultural revolution.”43 Th is process should be considered an optimization of the traditional low-input agricultural system. It centered on biological innovations and did not depend on external, off -farm inputs (with the exception

42 Sieferle, Das Ende cit., p. 216. Krausmann, Milk, Manure cit. 43 M. Overton, Agricultural Revolution in England, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996. M. Mazoyer, L. Roudart, and J.H. Membrez, A History of World Agriculture: From the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis, Earthscan, London 2006. GE37 of coal-based iron manufacturing and the expanding railroad system). By 1914, Austrian yields had doubled from their 1830 levels. In the United Kingdom a similar optimization process had started much earlier. Significant yield increases were evident throughout the 18th century, moving from yields of about 1000 kilograms per hectare in 1700 to double that by the early 19th century, after which they remained stable for over 100 years. By 1830 the potential for further optimization of low input agriculture was largely exhausted in the UK, when it was just beginning to climb in Austria.44 Over the centuries, Old World farmers not only managed to stabilize agricultural yields, but to increase them steadily. The shift from production systems based on short fallow to livestock-intensive farming and crop rotation including leguminous crops led to increasing nitrogen stocks in the soil. This rise in soil nutrients contributed significantly to the rising yields observed first in England and a century later in continental Europe.45 In contrast to these two European examples, yields in Kansas started at the astonishingly high level of as much as 3000 kilograms per hectare when settlers began to plow the prairie in the 1870s. Kan- sas’s continental location is evident in the extreme annual variability of yields. At the center of North America, far from the ocean, and shielded from Pacific weather systems by the high Rocky Mountains to the west, variable annual rainfall drove annual yields more than did soil fertility. Wet years produced bumper crops, while droughts brought crop failure and low yields. Kansas yields were very high by any European standard—even the dry years doubled Austrian yields—but output was also erratic compared to Austria and the UK, where annual rainfall was relatively consistent. But despite annual variations caused by weather, a clear downward trend in yields is evident. By the end of the 19th century Kansas’ yields were below those of the UK, and by the early 20th they had dropped below the steadily increasing Austrian level. As late as the 1930s, Kansas’

44 F. Krausmann, H. Schandl, and R.P. Sieferle, “Socio-ecological Regime Tran- sitions in Austria and the United Kingdom”, in Ecological Economics, 65, 2008. 45 Allen, Nitrogen cit.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 38 agricultural production continued its decline as farmers took more nitrogen from the soil than they returned, year after year.

Conclusion

Th is study presents a detailed picture of the social ecology and metabolic characteristics of farming systems in Decatur County, Kansas, and their development over time. Th e Austrian case—that of the rural village of Th eyern—serves as a term of comparison, providing a contrast to the Kansas farming system and helping to highlight defi ning socio-ecological characteristics. Even though direct comparability may be hampered by diff erences in time period, environmental context, and institutional settings, some conclusions about the factors that determine the socio-ecological characteristics of farming systems and their development over time are possible. In some respects, the two farm systems were similar. Both were mixed farming communities that integrated cereal production with domesticated livestock. Area productivity - the amount of food produced per area of farmland - was similar. In 1830, one hectare of farmland in Th eyern produced about 2.9 GJ of food; in 1895, one hectare in Finley Township, Kansas produced 4.6 GJ. Area productivity fl uctuated with rainfall in Kansas, between highs of 7 GJ and lows of less than 1, but both farm systems were within the same order of magnitude. Th e same was not true for labor productivity. Austrian farmers produced about 9 GJ of food per farm laborer, while those in Kan- sas produced 200, 20 times their cross-Atlantic cousins. Here the contrast could not be greater. Th e Th eyern farm system coaxed food from the soil through intensive applications of labor, both human and animal. Maintaining area productivity meant high population densities of both people and livestock to sustain soil fertility. In Kan- sas, farmers needed (or invested) very little labor to produce large amounts of food. Consequently, population and livestock densities were lower, and declining between 1905 and 1940. Th e two farm systems had diff erent goals for optimization. Th e long history of subsistence farming, the tight social networks of vil- GE39 lage, manor, and church, and the structures of village agriculture in Theyern aimed not at peak production but at risk minimization and long-term sustainability.46 Theyern was not stagnant; during the nineteenth century the community aimed first of all at long-term food security and risk minimization, but nevertheless slowly intensified production and raised yields. Theyern’s greatest resource was a high labor supply, which it employed to maintain soil fertility. The tiny, scattered village fields, managed collectively, did not encourage peak production, but rather ensured that all families would have diversified holdings, reducing the risk of catastrophic failure. Finley Township, Kansas, followed a different strategy aimed at taking advantage of new commercial grain markets in the industrializing cities, new transportation opportunities as railroads spread across North America, and a rich endowment of fertile soils. Here economies of scale mattered, with large, consolidated farms. Kansas was short of labor, but instead exploited its chief resource: abundant soil nitrogen and organic carbon, accumulated through millennia and mined in the first 50 years after settlement. The two systems were both efficient in their own way. Theyern supported the most people possible over long periods of time, usually producing enough food to keep them alive but rarely enough to make them wealthy. Finley Township maximized productivity, dramatically raising the standard of living for immigrants and their descendents. The nine socio-ecological indicators discussed in this study define and frame the two strategies. But agricultural systems never remain static, and the social metabolic systems in both Theyern and Finley Township changed through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In some ways their trajectories crossed paths. Theyern moved steadily upward from relatively low yields and labor productivity in the early nineteenth century to higher production and increasing labor productivity by its end. Yields doubled over 75 years. Finley Township, for its part, began with high yields and labor productivity in 1895, and drifted

46 For a discussion of risk minimization strategies see D. McCloskey, “English Open Fields as Behavior Toward Risk,” in Research in Economic History, 1, 1976.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 40 downward over the decades, to a nadir in the 1930s. Variable rainfall in Kansas aff ected these results, but it is clear that the state had reached a crisis of soil fertility by World War II. Th us, through the nineteenth century and early twentieth the two farm systems di- verged, each moving in diff erent directions. After World War II the application of fossil fuels to agricultural systems transformed both locations, and started a convergence toward productivity levels never seen in the history of agriculture. Th e import of energy—diesel fuel for tractors, natural gas for nitrogen fertilizer, petroleum for pesticides, and gasoline and electricity for a multitude of farm machinery—solved the ancient problem of soil fertility. With fossil fuels, Th eyern farmers no longer needed to invest enormous amounts of labor in livestock to provide power and manure that could sustain soil fertility in their crop fi elds. With fossil fuels, Kansas farmers could continue farming their depleted prairie soils by simply applying synthetic nitrogen every year as they watched crop yields rebound, match pioneer-era levels, and then exceed any previous production levels. It was not clear at the time, but the solution to the age-old problem of agricultural sustainability—soil maintenance—created a diff erent one: unsustainable external energy inputs. But in the gap between the soil crisis and the oil crisis, Austrian and Kansas agricultural metabolism began to converge again, with each moving toward high output commercial farming. By the end of the 20th century, average cereal yields in the UK, Austria and Kansas were at a similar level, ranging between 6.5 and 7.5 t/ha. Pioneer farms are rarely in equilibrium with their environment. By defi nition settlers undertake the task of transforming their environment and inevitably undergo an adaptation process as they learn the limits of their new home, its climates, soils, plants, animals, and microorganisms. Th e Th ir family liberated themselves from conservative Old World institutions and constrained Old World agroecosystems. But the farm they built on the Kansas frontier was unsustainable. Th e soil mining enterprise played out over several generations, between 1880 and 1930, but by then a soil fertility crisis loomed. It is no coincidence that the 1930s stand out in American memory as a time of rural crisis, population turmoil, and transformation in gov- GE41 ernment agricultural policy. The drought, dust storms, and global economic depression certainly contributed, but frontier farming in the Great Plains would have faced a dramatic change even without those forces. It was the application of fossil fuel energy that saved the region for commercial agriculture, allowing farmers to sustain their land use practices for another 75 years. In a broader global context, the stories of Old World and New World agriculture are intimately connected. Even as nitrogen flowed through local human, livestock, and cropland systems, broader flows across the Atlantic tethered these places to one another. The New World agricultural frontier provided novel opportunities for Europe- an farmers escaping subsistence lifestyles, and millions followed the Thirs and Demmers across the ocean. The grain and beef they produced flowed the other way, flooding Europe with cheap American food that undermined farm villages across the continent. It was that economic pressure on traditional European agriculture that forced innovation and led to Austria’s steadily increasing yields in the late nineteenth century. Economists have argued that highly efficient New World farmers thus pressured backward and inefficient Old World people to improve agriculture (which some did) or to abandon it for industrializing cities (which most did).47 This study points out an ecological component to the story that economists have missed or downplayed. One of the key reasons New World farmers were so efficient and able to produce such stupendous crop surpluses for export between 1870 and 1930 was their endowment of stockpiled soil nutrients. For over half a century Great Plains farmers mined

47 Y. Hayami and V.W. Ruttan, Agricultural Development: An International Per- spective, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1985. K.G. Persson, Grain Markets in Europe, 1500-1900: Integration and Deregulation, CUP, Cambridge 1999. J.G. Williamson, Globalization and the Poor Periphery before 1950, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2006. J.L. Van Zanden, “The First Green Rev- olution: The Growth of Production and Productivity in European Agriculture, 1870-1914”, Economic History Review, 44, 2, 1991. N. Koning, The Failure of Agrarian Capitalism: Agrarian Politics in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, and the USA, 1846-1919, Routledge, New York 1994.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 42 their rich soils and dumped those nutrients on the world market, dis- rupting risk-averse, long-lasting agricultural systems across the ocean. New World farming could not be sustained over the long term yet it undermined Old World systems that had been in place for centuries. Th en, as the mid twentieth century soil depletion crisis loomed, fossil fuel fertilizers and other high energy inputs rescued farmers, as the developed world substituted oil for soil.

GE43 SUPPORTING TABLES * To manuscript:Appendix: Supporting Tables

Cunfer, G. and F.Krausmann, Sustaining Soil Fertility: Agricultural Practice in the Old and New Worlds, submitted to Global Environment, April 2009.

These Tables can appear as an Appendix to the text or as online supporting material to be downloaded from the data portal of ourTable web page (http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/1088.htm S1: Population, land) use, livestock and crop production in Finley Township, 1895 to 1940 Table S1: Population, land use, livestock and crop production in Finley Township, 1895 to 1940.

Variable Unit 1895 1905 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 Population persons 227 389 341 392 373 379 n,d, n,d, Agricultural population persons 169 332 260 286 230 255 287 259 Farms number 32 64 58 65 63 64 72 65

Total area (land in farms) ha 2,939 8,320 7,376 10,006 9,487 8,792 9,233 8,761 Cropland ha 1,341 3,545 5,048 4,643 5,344 4,780 4,938 5,142 Corn ha 830 1,095 1,079 783 1,778 1,571 1,784 1,383 Wheat ha 291 1,509 3,148 3,186 2,957 2,738 2,116 1,416 Barley ha - 373 177 212 128 181 219 639 All other crops ha 220 568 645 462 482 290 819 1,704

Grassland ha 1,598 4,775 2,328 5,364 4,142 4,012 4,295 3,619 All other land ha 44 125 111 150 142 132 139 131

Cattle head 161 1,541 557 1,035 1,244 432 1,548 701 Horses (and mules) head 136 435 497 656 556 299 257 - Pigs head 167 1,749 531 335 1,114 344 222 30

Corn (harvest) t 1,173 2,580 2,203 1,476 1,676 3,085 420 565 Wheat (harvest) t 117 1,825 2,961 3,853 1,788 2,392 995 447 Barley (harvest) t - 663 314 319 117 263 106 299

Sources: see text Table S2: Population, land use, livestock and crop pro- ductionTable S2: Population, on land Thiruse, livestock farm, and crop production 1895 on Thirto farm, 1940 1895 to 1940

Variable Unit 1895 1905 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 Population persons 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 Agricultural population persons 4 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 Farms number 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Total area ha 65 130 259 162 162 162 227 227 Cropland ha 25 52 118 59 75 80 88 134 Corn ha 20 8 8 12 16 26 24 28 Wheat ha 3 32 81 40 49 51 57 34 Barley ha 0 5 0 2 6 0 4 0 All other crops ha 1 7 29 4 4 3 3 71

Grassland ha 40 77 141 103 87 82 138 93 All other land ha 1 2 4 2 2 2 3 3

Cattle head 1 22 26 30 21 11 25 4 Horses (and mules) head 3 5 8 9 9 8 5 - Pigs head 1 11 5 7 10 3 1 9

Corn (harvest) t 29 19 17 23 15 52 6 12 Wheat (harvest) t 1 39 76 49 29 44 27 11 Barley (harvest) t 0 9 0 3 6 0 2 0

Sources: see text RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 44 Table S3: Socio-ecological characteristics, finley Town- ship, 1895 to 1940 Table S3: Socio-ecological characteristics, Finley Township, 1895 to 1940

Variable Unit 1895 1905 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940

Population density cap/km² 2.5 4.2 3.7 4.2 4.0 4.1 n.d. n.d. TableFarm S3:size Socio-ecological ha characteris of agriculturaltics, Finley area per Township, farm 1895 92to 1940 130 127 154 151 137 128 135 Land availability ha of agricultural area per capita 17 25 28 35 41 34 32 34 Variable haUnit of agricultural area per agric. 1895 1905 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 Land availability laborer 36 45 47 58 69 59 55 58 Population density cap/km² 2.5 4.2 3.7 4.2 4.0 4.1 n.d. n.d. FarmGrain sizeyield kg/ha/yrha of agricultural area per farm 1,141 921,687 130 1,244 127 1,351 154 736151 1,278 137 370128 378135 LandArea productivityavailability haGJ/ha/yr of agricultura l area per capita 4.6 17 4.9 25 7.0 28 5.1 35 1.7 41 6.5 34 0.4 32 1.6 34 Labor productivity ha GJ/laborer/yr of agricultural area per agric. 168 220 327 293 114 385 19 92 LandMarketable availability crop laborer 36 45 47 58 69 59 55 58 production % of total production 74% 53% 69% 66% 26% 72% -14% 43% Grain yield kg/ha/yr 1,141 1,687 1,244 1,351 736 1,278 370 378 Area productivity Large GJ/ha/yr animal units (500 kg live 4.6 4.9 7.0 5.1 1.7 6.5 0.4 1.6 Livestock density weight) per km² agric. area 4.2 22.9 13.2 14.5 17.8 7.5 14.9 4.9 Labor productivity GJ/laborer/yr 168 220 327 293 114 385 19 92 Nitrogen return on Marketable crop cropland % of total extraction 27% 30% 30% 22% 38% 21% 68% 51% production % of total production 74% 53% 69% 66% 26% 72% -14% 43% Installed power kW per ha of cropland 0.15 0.18 0.14 0.22 0.18 0.16 0.15 n.d.

Large animal units (500 kg live Sources: see text Livestock density weight) per km² agric. area 4.2 22.9 13.2 14.5 17.8 7.5 14.9 4.9 Nitrogen return on Table S4: Socio-ecological characteristics, Thir farm, 1895 to 1940 cropland % of total extraction 27% 30% 30% 22% 38% 21% 68% 51% Installed power kW per ha of cropland 0.15 0.18 0.14 0.22 0.18 0.16 0.15 n.d. TableVariable S4: Unit Socio-ecological 1895 characteristics, 1905 1915 1920 1925 Thir 1930 1935 farm, 1940 1895Sources:Population see densitytotext 1940 cap/km² 6.2 3.9 1.5 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.3 1.3 Farm size ha of agricultural area per farm 65 130 259 162 162 162 227 227 TableLand S4:availability Socio-ecological ha ofcharacte agriculturaristics,l area Thir per farm, capita 1895 to 1940 16 26 65 54 54 54 76 76 ha of agricultural area per agric. VariableLand availability laborerUnit 321895 43 1905 86 1915 54 1920 54 1925 1930 54 193576 76 1940 Population density cap/km² 6.2 3.9 1.5 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.3 1.3 FarmGrain sizeyield kg/ha/yrha of agricultural area per farm 1,274 65 1, 130427 1,041 259 1,371 162 709162 1,246 162 406227 369227 LandArea productivityavailability haGJ/ha/yr of agricultura l area per capita 4.9 16 4.8 26 3.1 65 3.7 54 1.3 54 5.4 54 0.5 76 0.7 76 Labor productivity ha GJ/laborer/yr of agricultural area per agric. 159 209 267 198 68 293 34 55 LandMarketable availability crop laborer 32 43 86 54 54 54 76 76 production % of total production 75% 59% 59% 54% 23% 65% 6% 33% Grain yield kg/ha/yr 1,274 1,427 1,041 1,371 709 1,246 406 369 Area productivity GJ/ha/yrLarge animal units (500 kg live 4.9 4.8 3.1 3.7 1.3 5.4 0.5 0.7 Livestock density weight) per km² agric. area 4.2 17.7 10.5 20.0 16.3 10.1 11.1 2.1 Labor productivity GJ/laborer/yr 159 209 267 198 68 293 34 55 Nitrogen return on Marketable crop cropland % of total extraction 20% 22% 58% 25% 39% 21% 58% 47% production % of total production 75% 59% 59% 54% 23% 65% 6% 33% Installed power kW per ha of cropland 0.18 0.14 0.10 0.22 0.18 0.15 0.30 n.d.

Large animal units (500 kg live Sources: see text Livestock density weight) per km² agric. area 4.2 17.7 10.5 20.0 16.3 10.1 11.1 2.1 Nitrogen return on cropland % of total extraction 20% 22% 58% 25% 39% 21% 58% 47% Installed power kW per ha of cropland 0.18 0.14 0.10 0.22 0.18 0.15 0.30 n.d.

Sources: see text

* Sources: see the text. Th ese tables can be downloaded from the data portal of the web page: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/socec/inhalt/1088.htm GE45 Table S5: Population, land use, livestock and crop production in Theyern municipality, 1829 Table S5: Population, land use, livestock and crop production in Theyern municipality, 1829

Variable Unit 1829 Population persons 102 Agricultural population persons 102 Farms number 17

Total area ha 225 Cropland ha 135 Rye ha 41 Cereal mix ha 41 All other crops ha 13 Fallow ha 28

Grassland ha 7 Woodland ha 79 All other land ha 4

Cattle head 85 Horses and mules head 5 Pigs head 42 Sheep head 77

Rye (harvest) t 35 Cereal mix (Linsgetreide) (harvest) t 32 Sources: see text

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Cunfer and Krausmann 46 Table S6: Socio-ecological characteristics, Theyern municipality, 1829 Table S6: Socio-ecological characteristics, Theyern municipality, 1829

Variable Unit 1829 Population density cap/km² 45.3 Farm size ha of agricultural area per farm 13 Land availability ha of agricultural area per capita 2 Land availability ha of agricultural area per agr. laborer 3

Grain yield kg/ha/yr 819 Area productivity GJ/ha/yr 4.4 Labor productivity GJ/laborer/yr 9 Marketable production % of total production 25%

Large animal units (500 kg live Livestock density weight) per km² agric. area 24 Nitrogen return on cropland % of total extraction 92% Installed power kW per ha of cropland 0.17 Sources: see text

GE47

Peasant Protest as Environmental Protest. Some Cases from the 18th to the 20th Century

Manuel González de Molina, Antonio Herrera, Antonio Ortega Santos, David Soto ntroduction

Social history has more often than not focused on the study of typical industrial class protests with urban roots and predictable behaviour patterns from a modern ration- alistic perspective. Th e current crisis of the discipline refl ects the crisis of industrial society itself, the emergence of new social movements, and the rise of new issues and I new means for the expression of protest. Furthermore, the growing importance of the struggle for natural resources and Green political movements has led to the emergence of environmental confl icts as a historiographical subject. Th is text aims to further explore this type of confl ict from a theoretical point of view, whilst at the same time researching its practical dimension. We will start by applying the conceptual outline below to the case of peasants. Our intention is to discover the underlying logic in this type of confl ict and to highlight its causes, its deepest roots. We reject any simplifi cation based on class background, economic decline or poverty, or the simple eff ects of environmental damage. To begin with, we will develop a theory on environmental confl icts from a historical perspective. Secondly, we will analyse the importance of environmental confl icts in a social context, placing particular emphasis on their impact on the relationship between man and nature. Th e practical cases covered in this article refer to peasants. Th e examples used are taken from a wide range of regions and time scales covering Africa, Asia, Latin America and Southern Europe during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century. Th is article does not seek to provide an exhaustive overview of environmental social unrest in the contemporary world; it endeavours, instead, to formulate a theoretical model for social protest and a proposal for interpretation. We conclude with a proposal allowing us to classify and, consequently, interpret the environmental confl icts staged by peasants, and their evolution, over the last two centuries.

The nature of environmental conflicts

In recent years, a trend has emerged in the fi elds of sociology, anthropology, ecological economics, and political ecology which has

* We are grateful to our three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Th is article has been made possible by the research project “Historia y sustentabilidad. Recuperación de los manejos tradicionales y su utilidad para el diseño de sistemas agrarios sustentables. La producción olivarera en Andalucía (siglos XVIII-XX)”, (HUM2006-04177/HIST), Spanish government, Ministry of Science and Innovation. GE49 highlighted the importance of environmental conflicts and social protest. This historical current strives to show how a considerable part of past conflicts had one or several natural resources at their core, even in those moments of industrial civilisation when class conflicts were apparently hegemonic. Environmental conflict cannot be relegated to a socially marginal role or be dismissed as a historiographical fad. It is a fundamental part of social conflict, for several reasons; including the fact that, in an active or passive way, it is rooted in the very conditions of human existence and reproduction and implicates every level of the social hierarchy. Environmental conflict must be positively or negatively evalu- ated according to whether it promotes or undermines sustainability. This is in contrast both with Marxism, which regards class conflict as always positive, and with liberal functionalism, which regards conflict as a negative expression of a society’s organisational imbalance. In this perspective, conflict becomes one of the determining factors - although not the only and not always the main one - in environmental evolutionary dynamics. Environmental conflict can even produce changes in the relationship between nature and society. It is true that some conflicts are more relevant than others in ecosocial dynamics, but this relation is not predetermined by a universal law; it derives from the specific organisation that each social metabolism establishes between its parts.1 Each social metabolism produces specific conflict types and, consequently, different types of environmental conflict. For instance, in current societies, where social metabolism has an industrial base and its dimension is increasingly more global, we often see conflicts over waste management. Other conflicts arise at a practically planetary scale, such as

1 On social metabolism, see M. Fischer-Kowalski, “Society´s Metabolism: The Intellectual History of Materials Flow Analysis, part I, 1860-1970”, in Jour- nal of Industrial Ecology, 2, 1998, pp. 61-77. M. Fischer Kowalsky, W. Hüttler, “Society´s Metabolism: The Intellectual History of Material Flow Analysis, part II, 1970-1998”, in Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2, 1999, pp. 107-129. On agrarian metabolism, see also M. González de Molina, G. Guzmán Casado, Tras los pasos de la insustentabilidad. Agricultura y Medio ambiente en perspectiva histórica (siglos XVIII-XX), Icaria, Barcelona 2006.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 50 those sparked by global warming. Environmental confl ict cannot be assigned an ontological dimension in socio-environmental change. It is not the only factor to be considered when analysing socio-environmental change; demographic, technological, economic or cultural changes play an important role.2 Still, environmental confl ict is one of the factors of socio-environmental change. In accordance with these premises, we can diff erentiate between environmental confl icts of a reproductive nature and those of a distributive nature. Th is distinction is based on diff erences in resource management and on whether they result in an improvement, a deterioration, or a conservation of ecosystem sustainability. From our point of view, this distinction is fundamental for a correct classifi - cation and understanding of environmental confl icts. Th e issue is actually controversial, as refl ected in the debate on the concept of “environmentalism of the poor”, introduced by Joan Martínez Alier and Ramachandra Guha.3 According to these authors, environmental struggles have occurred (as they still do today) in communities that did not necessarily possess an environmentalist ideology; however, these communities did in fact undertake defensive action regarding environmental conditions, access to natural resources, and their

2 V. Toledo, M. González de Molina, “El metabolismo social: las relaciones entre la sociedad y la naturaleza”, in El paradigma ecológico en las ciencias sociales, F. Garrido, M. González, J.L. Serrano, J.L. Solana (eds), Icaria, Barcelona 2006, pp. 85-112. 3 R. Guha, “Th e Enviromentalism of the Poor”, in Between Resistance and Revolution. Cultural Politics and Social Protest, R. Fox, O. Starn (eds), Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey 1997, pp. 17-40. R. Guha, “From Experience to Th eory. Traditions of Social-Ecological Research in Modern India”, in Sustainability and the Social Sciences. A Cross-disciplinary Approach to Integrat- ing Environmental Considerations in Th eoretical Reorientation, E. Becker, T. Jahn, (eds) UNESCO/ISOE/Zed Books, London 1999, pp. 96-112. R. Guha, and J. Martínez-Alier, Varieties of environmentalism. Essays North and South, Earthscan, London 1997. J. Martínez-Alier, “Justicia ambiental, sustentabilidad y valor- ación”, in Naturaleza Transformada, M. González de Molina, J. Martínez Alier (eds), Estudios de Historia Ambiental en España, Icaria, Barcelona 2001, pp. 289- 337. J. Martínez-Alier, El ecologismo de los pobres. Confl ictos ambientales y lenguajes de valoración, Icaria, Barcelona 1995. GE51 egalitarian distribution. This thesis contradicts Inglehart’s view that environmentalism is typically found in societies that have reached a certain level of social welfare and can hence concern themselves with “post-materialistic” issues such as environmental protection.4 Although there is considerable evidence that certain conflicts can be categorized as “environmentalism of the poor”, not all environmental conflicts are environmentalist in nature, nor, of course, are all environmentalist protests led by the poor. Our proposal is to reserve the concept of environmental conflict simply for all conflict over a resource. None of the actors involved need manifest an implicit intention of sustainability for the definition to apply, and the main issue does not necessarily have to be resource management. Only those environmental conflicts in which there is an explicit intention to conserve resources or to strive for a higher degree of environmental justice, however, can be classified asenvironmentalist , because in this case sustainability is the declared objective. Hence, under our definition environmentalist conflicts are a special case of environmental conflict where the intention of one of the parties to conserve resources in a sustainable direction is explicitly manifested. The question arises whether the definition “environmentalist” applies to struggles for the conservation of one or several resources carried on by social movements before Green movements appeared on the scene. Obviously the answer is yes. It would actually be a good idea to further distin- guish between environmentalist and Green conflicts. The latter term should be reserved for the current Green movement and only gained currency in the Sixties and Seventies. Such a distinction could help us to differentiate between movements animated by an explicitly Green ideology and those which, while not Green, may be still regarded as environmentalist, even though they have different ideological motivations (e.g., religious) or objectives (e.g., survival). We also need clear criteria to differentiate between environmental and environmentalist conflicts in the course of time. One way would be to take into account the protest’s objective and role as regards the

4 R. Inglehart, The Silent Revolution. Changing Values and Political Stiles among Western Publics, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1977.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 52 sustainable reproduction of socio-environmental conditions. To this eff ect, the distinction posed by Guha and Gadgil between intramodal and intermodal confl icts may be useful.5 Th e example of peasant protests may help clarify this distinction. When the peasant or agricultural use of resources comes into contact with the industrial use (based on very diff erent economic, ecological and social principles), anintermo- dal confl ict arises. Th e objective of the protest is to defend the peasants’ particular mode of use of natural resources against industrial society’s attempts to subjugate it or transform it. Th e defence of communal assets that played such a central part in the peasant protests of the 19th and 20th centuries are an ideal example of intermodal confl icts. On the other hand, when peasants dispute with other social groups, or among themselves, over the access and allocation of natural resources or the goods or services derived from them, within an already established pattern of resource use, the confl ict isintramodal. A typical example would be a dispute for access to water between farmers in irrigated areas. Other disputes that fi t in this category are those that arose between peasant communities in the 18th and 19th centuries over access to common land, boundaries, or exploitation quotas in communal pastures. We can regard intramodal confl icts as distributive and intermodal confl icts as reproductive. It is especially in the latter that sustainability may be at stake, and these are hence more easily categorised as environmentalist confl icts. In other terms, intermodal confl icts are more likely to provide favourable conditions for the rise of environmentalist and Green protests. Conversely, struggles for sustainability do not usually feature prominently in intramodal confl icts, even when the dispute is explicitly over resources or environmental damage. Th is leads to the connection between confl icts and socio-environmental dynamics. What criteria should we use to defi ne it? We should consider at least two: Th e objectives pursued by the parties involved in the confl ict, and the impact of the confl ict itself on the environment. First of all, we should look at the use of resources promoted by the

5 M. Gadhil, R. Guha, Th e Use and Abuse of Nature, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000, pp. 11-68. GE53 protesters: Is it a sustainable use? Is the promoted use more sustainable than the existing one, or than the one to be implemented? For example, the Green movement and an irrigation-dependent community will hold different views on the sustainability requirements of water management, with the latter usually demanding more water and reservoirs. These two different viewpoints reflect different, and often conflictive, intended uses of resources. Still, Mexican peasant communities’ efforts to keep resources out of the market, as part of their struggle to stop the drying out of the lakes along the upper course of the Lerma river, protect the lakeside ecosystem and can hence be regarded as Green, even though they are not framed in a “Western Green” discourse, as Martínez Alier argues.6 But what is sustainability? The definition given by the Brundt- land Report is well known: It consists of the capacity of a social ecosystem to meet the basic needs of the population without degrading the natural resource base. To evaluate sustainability we have to take into account basic criteria such as productivity, stability, resilience, autonomy, and equity in the distribution of goods and services produced. However, there are no single parameters for measuring the sustainability of a specific social metabolism. In fact, sustainability is an objective to be reached, and can be measured in degrees, being a theoretical concept that depends on the scale of time and space considered. What may be sustainable at one scale may not be considered sustainable at another. According to exponents of New Ecology,7 no ecosystemic equilibrium can be maintained over time; hence, the unsustainability of an agro-ecosystem cannot be measured in relation to a non-existent optimum state. Environmental history has demonstrated that in nature one does not find a single equilibrium, but a series of equilibriums, and that ecosystems shift from one equilibrium to another. In the dynamics of ecosystems, unexpected changes are often produced, which are the

6 J. Martínez Alier, “Temas de Historia Económico-Ecológica”, in Ayer, 11, 1993, pp. 19-48. 7 I. Scoones, “New Ecology and the Social Sciences: What Prospects for a Fruit- ful Engagement?”, in Annual Review of Anthropology, 28, 1999, pp. 479-507.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 54 result of many interacting factors. Th is is why resilience and stability have gained special signifi cance in the evaluation of sustainability. Diff erent resource management methods achieve the objective of sustainability at a higher or lower degree. What is sustainable today may be unsustainable tomorrow, not only because of scientifi c developments but due to the new equilibriums produced by ecosystem dynamics, which in their turn call for new resource management methods. It is not possible to abstractly pronounce an agroecosystem to be sustainable or not; it is useful, instead, to evaluate the degree of sustainability of the modes of use and organisation of a given agroecosystem compared to others over a long period of time.8 We think that social confl ict between diff erent resource uses is relevant to explain socio-environmental change in a historical context. Secondly, it seems appropriate to set a general criterion that could be applied to any type of confl ict, whether environmental or not, with or without an explicit intention of sustainability. Th is criterion should take into account the environmental impact that any protest has on the environment and on the relationship that society establishes with nature, i.e., on social metabolism. Any social practice has an impact on the environment, whether intentional or unwitting. For example, the defence of the communal forest that many communities have engaged in for a long time, keeping it out of the market and preventing it from being cut down, has had a positive impact from a sustainability point of view. Many examples could be cited. In the 1970s, indigenous Himalayans organized in a movement known as “Chipko” to prevent deforestation for the purpose of industrialisation of forests that were essential for the survival of indigenous communities.9 More than a century before, rural Galician (NW Spain) communities fought to preserve communal land from attempts at

8 Obviously the application of sustainability has many more implications that those mentioned here for the study of agrarian systems in present times and from a historical perspective. A more involved discussion applied to the study of agriculture can be found in González de Molina, Guzmán Casado, Tras los pasos, cit., pp. 16 ff . 9 R. Guha, Th e Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1989. GE55 privatisation and industrialisation by the conservative Spanish gover- ments. This had a decisive influence on the survival of an agriculture based on solar energy.10 On the other hand, other European farm workers’ struggles determined an increase in labour costs that led to the mechanisation of most agricultural tasks. The mechanisation process formed part of the technological package that came with the “green revolution”, bringing on the current rural environmental crisis.11 For example, in Andalusia (southern Spain), in the late 1970s land occupations by farm workers (Sindicato de Obreros del Campo [Trade Union of Rural Workers]) led to the conversion of pastureland into intensively exploited, mechanized farmland, causing a reduction in biodiversity.12 Elsewhere, similar protests carried out by farmers or local communities, demanding more reservoirs or the transfer of water from other basins, have often led to analogous results. Such demands determine an increase in the cost of energy and materials, and raise the degree of unsustainability. Finally, and with regard to these last examples, it is worth examining the relationship that environmental conflicts have maintained and continue to maintain with class conflicts. There are those who think, for instance, that the disputes between farmers in irrigated lands throughout contemporary history are just another form of class struggle. However, these two types of conflict are essentially different in nature; although, under certain circumstances and at specific moments in the past, many environmental and even environmentalist conflicts were, in fact, conflicts between classes as they are convention- ally understood. Indeed, in some societies conflicts over resources take

10 X. Balboa, O monte en Galicia, Xerais, Vigo 1990. 11 This is not to say that farmers’ pitiful conditions of life and work were not improved. 12 On the history of the Sindicato de Obreros del Campo [Trade Union of Rural Workers], see R. Morales Ruiz, “Aproximación a la historia del Sindicato de Obreros del Campo en Andalucía”, in La Historia de Andalucía a debate (T. I.): Campesinos y Jornaleros, M. González de Molina (ed.), Anthropos, Barcelona 2000, pp. 179-206. L. Ocaña, Los Orígenes del SOC (De las Comisiones de Jornal- eros al Primer Congreso, 1975-77), Atrapasueños, Madrid 2006.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 56 centre stage in a social confl ict situation and become the basic grounds for confrontation between the main social groups involved. Th e relevance of a confl ict over the use of public woodland in a society such as Spain in the later 19th or early 20th centuries is not the same as it was two centuries before. In earlier times, resources obtained from woodlands were essential for farming economies, and not only for their poorest sector. Spanish historiography has demonstrated that in the 18th century a large part of rural protests were centred on the defence of rural produce against attempts at usurpa- tion by the nobility. Th is type of protest took centre stage in antifeu- dal protest, and has hence received much attention from historians. While studies on this phenomenon tend to focus on class issues, the environmental component also played a role in them, if we consider that the communal lands off ered essential resources such as wood, pasture and nutrients for traditional organic agriculture.13 A more important social unrest developed throughout Spain in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, when the State attempted to privatise communal land to place it on the free market.14 Nevertheless, unlike the earlier protests to maintain organic agriculture in the 18th century, these later confl icts were overshadowed in histories of the period by the prominence of workers’ protests. Our thesis is that peasant confl icts frequently had a strong environmental component throughout history, and many of them have been environmental, and even environmentalist. To understand the

13 M. González de Molina, A. Ortega Santos, “Bienes comunes y confl ictos por los recursos en las sociedades rurales, siglos XIX y XX”, in Historia Social, 2000, 38, pp. 95- 116. A. Ortega Santos, La Tragedia de los cerramientos. La de- sarticulación de la comunalidad en la Provincia de Granada, Fundación de Historia Social, Valencia 2002. 14 F. Cobo, S. Cruz, M. González de Molina, “Privatización del monte y protesta campesina en Andalucía Oriental, 1836-1920”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 65, 1992, pp. 253-302. I. Iriarte Goñi, Bienes comunales y capitalismo agrario en Navarra, Serie Estudios M.A.P.A., Madrid 1997. A. Cabana, “La política forestal en la España con- temporánea”, in De la conservación a la ecología. Estudios históricos sobre el uso de los recursos naturales y la sostenibilidad, M.L. Allemeyer, M. Jakubowski-Tiessen, S. Rus Rufi no (eds), Klartext, Essen 2007, pp. 173-186. GE57 dynamics of peasant conflicts as environmental conflicts, one must start from an adequate understanding of the nature of peasantry. It is not possible to give a detailed presentation of the concept of peasantry from an environmental perspective, but some points need to be taken into consideration in our theory of conflict. From our point of view, peasants are a social group who in spite of their history and being subject to change are associated with economies based on organic energy, which are therefore negatively impacted by the industrial use of natural resources.15 As a number of studies explain, organic economies are dependent on solar energy and therefore subject to strong limitations:16 dependency on land for energy and material, the impossibility of sustained economic growth,17 and the need to maintain a rigid balance between land to be used to feed humans, pasture land, and forests. This need is also accentuated by difficulties in transporting energy and material over long distances. This explains the high degree of autonomy and self-sufficiency of peasant communities, as well as the fact that they produce low surpluses. These limitations can only be overcome by massive fossil fuel

15 An important development of this thesis can be found in M. González de Molina, E. Sevilla Guzmán, “Perspectivas socioambientales de la historia del movimiento campesino andaluz”, in La Historia de Andalucía a debate I: Campes- inos y Jornaleros, M. González de Molina (ed.), Anthropos, Barcelona 2000 pp. 239-288. In this article, the concept of “peasant” is mainly referred to family farmers, as distinct both from large-scale exploitations in general, and from industrial farms based on the exploitation of fossil fuels. 16 E. Wrigley, “Dos tipos de capitalismo, dos tipos de crecimiento”, in Es- tudis d`Història Econòmica, 1, 1989, pp. 89-109. E. Wrigley, Cambio, continui- dad y azar. Carácter de la Revolución Industrial Inglesa, Crítica, Barcelona, 1993. R.P. Sieferle, “The Energy System-A Basic Concept of Environmental History”, in The Silent Countdown. Essays in European Environmental History, P. Brimblecombe, C. Pfister (eds), Springer, Berlin 1990, pp. 9-20. R.P. Sieferle “¿Qué es la Historia Ecológica?”, in Naturaleza Transformada cit., pp. 31-55. 17 Daly has coined the concept of “stationary state economy”, i.e., one that is based on organic agriculture. This does not mean that such economies don’t go through changes, but that their dependency on solar energy does not allow major economic growth. H.E. Daly, Toward a Steady-State Economy, W.W. Freeman, San Francisco 1997.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 58 consumption, both in agriculture and in the industry.18 Peasant practices were, overall, sustainable because maintaining an adequate balance of resources was fundamental for the survival of families. Th e price of unsustainability in organic economies was hunger and illness. Th e realization of this, however, should not be confused with a utopian vision of peasants. Since the introduction of capital and external inputs in farming, peasant resource management and land use have progressively become less sustainable. We believe that in many places and moments in time it is hard to understand this process without paying due attention to confl ict. Confl ict takes on an environmentalist aspect when the confrontation is between diff erent modes of resource management. A specifi c example relevant to the comprehension of environmental peasant confl ict is that of communal property and communal use. Communal property was needed for production based on solar energy wherever there was little possibility to introduce large quantities of energy from outside. As long as the basic source of energy was the biomass harvested on the land, stability depended on the fl uctuating balance between the production of food, forage and fuel. Th e factors of production and consumption - land, water, animal power, manure, and human labour - were determined by the extension and availability of land in each community.19 However, the domestic farming group could only manage one part of the agroecosystem. Th e management and control of the agroecosystem as a whole was essential for its survival, and this task fell to the peasant community. Local communities had extensive com- petences over all production factors. Th ey owned or administered large extensions of land, the decisive production factor, and managed many other aspects of production. Th e maintenance of property and communal use was decisive to ensure survival of peasant use of natural resources; hence, a signifi cant part of peasant confl ict

18 F. Krausmann, H. Haberl, R.P. Sieferle, “Socio-ecological Regime Transi- tions in Austria and the United Kingdom”, in Ecological Economics, 65, 1, 2008, pp. 187-201. 19 González de Molina, Guzmán Casado, Tras los pasos cit. GE59 in the transition period from organic agriculture to industrialised agriculture was about the defence of these spaces against nation states’ attempts to privatise and marketer. This does not mean that communal property by definition was more sustainable than private property, nor that the latter was unsustainable. Today, it is common to find examples of communal land managed in an unsustainable way.20 But in the context of agriculture based on solar energy, the defence of communal spaces was essential for the maintaining of land equilibria and, hence, for the sustainability of the peasant economy

For a typology of peasant protest

In the first two sections of this paper, we have developed a general theory of environmental conflicts and their application to the peasant world. In this last section, we are going to propose a typology for environmental conflicts involving peasants from the 18th to the 20th century. We have not included in our analysis conflicts of a similar nature (e.g., over fishing resources), but involving different social groups. In our theoretical proposal we have proposed a basic criterion to differentiate environmental protest in terms of sustainability, i.e., the use or uses that are promoted in the conflict. This criterion is essential for our distinction between environmental and environmentalist conflicts. Reproductive intermodal conflicts have the most significant impact on sustainability, but this does not mean that purely environmentalist conflicts cannot have an impact on social metabolism. Now, we have also pointed out that an important element in the theorisation of environmental conflicts lies in the protest’s discourse type. Relevant bibliography reveals that it is not just environmental conflicts established around an explicitly Green ideology or discourse that promote more sustainable management methods.21 On the contrary, most peasant conflict throughout history has been

20 Grupo de Estudos da Propiedade Comunal, Os montes veciñais en man común: o patrimonio silente. Naturaleza, economía, identidade e democracia na Galicia rural, Vigo, Xerais 2006. 21 Guha, The Unquiet Woods cit. Martínez-Alier, El ecologismo de los pobres cit.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 60 expressed in other languages drawing on the peasants’ own historical experience. Th ese were often languages of a mythical-religious type, refl ecting ideas about property rights that diff er from the liberal view. Others were simply down-to-earth discourses in defence of customary rights of access to natural resources. In both cases, these protest languages are frequently linked to the defence of the peasant moral economy. From our perspective, it is of little importance that the language adopted is not linked to explicitly Green ideologies. We believe that it is more important to determine the material objectives of protest. As we shall see, confl icts have even developed between peasants’ management of resources and Green proposals, or proposals infl uenced by Green ideals. In practice, and until very recently, peasant protests have been informed by discourses of the types mentioned above. Scholars have highlighted a trend among peasants in diff erent parts of the world to frame their relationship with nature in religious terms. Th e most signifi cant example is that of the sacred character of certain forests in diff erent cultures in Asia and Africa, which has served the function of preserving large parts of the forest from economic exploitation.22 In the Kirinyaga district in Kenya, sacred forests were ceremonial places or inhabited by powerful spirits, which protected them from being converted into farmland.23 In Southern Africa, sacred forests also functioned as reserves in times of drought and famine. Th e colonial administration, and Christianisation, often came up against such religious forms of relationship with nature. Environmental protest is frequently framed in religious terms.24 Th is is the case, for

22 Gadhil, Guha, Th e Use and Abuse of Nature cit. B.A. Byers, R. Cunliff e, A.T. Hudak, “Linking the Conservation of Culture and Nature: A Case Study of Sacred Forest in Zimbabwe”, in Human Ecology, 29, 2, 2001, pp. 187-218. R. L. Wadley, C.J.P. Colfer, “Sacred Forest, Hunting and Conservation in West Kalima- tan, Indonesia”, in Human Ecology, 2004, 32, 3, pp. 313-338. 23 A.P. Castro, “Th e Political Economy of Colonial Farm Forestry in Kenya: Th e View from Kirinyaga”, in Tropical Deforestation. Th e Human Dimension, L. Sponsel, T.M. Headland, R.E. Bailey, (eds), Columbia University Press, New York 1996, pp. 122-143. 24 Martínez-Alier, El ecologismo de los pobres cit. GE61 example, with the Chipko movement in India, where Ramachandra Guha found a considerable influence of Gandhi’s thought.25 In other cases, and particularly that of peasant conflicts in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, protest discourses were centred on customary rights of use or property rights, and on the rejection of the no- tion of private property imposed after the liberal revolution. The lack of title deeds on common property was made up for by the claiming of possession from time immemorial of rights of use and property.26 In areas under colonial control we also find radically different conceptions of property rights at the centre of environmental protest discourses. In many cases, the frontiers set by the colonial powers at the end of the 19th century did not respect pre-existing situations. This was the case with the conflict described by Donald S. Moore in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which arose in 1902 between chief Tanwena, on one side, and the colonial administration and the new white landowners, on the other. The main argument of Tanwena’s claim was that the territory he controlled extended to both sides of the frontier between Rhodesia and Portuguese Africa (now Mozambique).27 Different conceptions of property rights were also to the fore in the conflict that broke out between the Maori and the British Crown as a result of the interpretation of a treaty signed in 1840.28 The English version of the treaty transferred the sovereignty of the Maori territories to Queen Victoria. This was used in the following century as a pretext to seize part of the territories and impose limits on the Maoris’ management of the local agroecosystems. The Maori version, instead, only granted the Queen a limited rule and guaranteed Maori ownership of the land, forests, fishing grounds and other natural resources. In Mangatu, between 1880 and 1920, the Maori

25 Guha, Martínez-Alier, Varieties of Environmentalism cit. 26 Balboa, O monte cit. 27 D.S. Moore, “Contesting Terrains in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands: Politi- cal Ecology, Ethnography and Peasant Resource Struggles”, in Economic Geogra- phy, 69, 4, 1993, pp. 380-401. 28 B. Coombes, “The Historicity of Institutional Trust and the Alienation of Maori Land for Catchment Control at Mangatu, New Zealand”, in Environment and History, 9, 2003, pp. 333-359.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 62 tribe lost much of their forest land, which were confi scated by the Crown and seized by white farmers, who deforested much of the land to convert it into pasture. However, the social and governmental concern over soil erosion that developed in the 1950s attributed the principal responsibility to the Maori’s ineffi cient land management. As a result, most of the areas subjected to forced reforestation were those that were still owned by the Maori. Th ese past problems still weigh negatively on the implementation of environmental policies to this day, as the Maori are of course wary. In this case, the confl ict arose between Maori traditional rights and liberal conceptions of property, ownership and sovereignty; but these were nevertheless, in their essence, environmentalist confl icts. Th us, throughout history, most peasant protests of an environmentalist nature were expressed in languages that were not explicitly Green. Joan Martínez Alier describes many environmentalist peasant protests that saw the participation of a whole range of local and international environmental organisations.29 It is diffi cult to clearly diff erentiate types of discourse, if we look at cases such as the destruction of mangroves in several parts of the world in order to set up shrimp farms, or protests against oilfi elds. Th e two most famous examples of peasant protest (which over time have incorporated elements of Green discourse, especially in the discourses of their lead- ers) are those that involved the Chipko movement and the Brazilian seringueiros.30 Such cases, however, are very recent and still rare. In the typology of environmental peasant confl icts we are proposing, we have preferred to diff erentiate exclusively between environmental and environmentalist confl icts. Th e main reason is that they are the two basic forms assumed in history by confl icts over resources involving peasant communities. Th us, the typology of contemporary environmental peasant confl icts that we propose is based on the sustainability of the management methods promoted by the diff erent parties in the confl ict, and allows us to diff erentiate between environmental and environmentalist confl icts.

29 Martínez-Alier, El ecologismo de los pobres cit. 30 Guha, Martínez-Alier, Varieties of Environmentalism cit. GE63 We have not assigned the same importance to the presence or not of an explicitly environmental ideology, having observed the rarity of its oc- currence in the history of peasant protest discourse. This does not imply, however, that all peasant conflicts are environmentalist conflicts. Our typology is illustrated in Figure 1. It aims to offer an interpretive framework that we believe is valid for peasant environmental conflicts, and possibly also for other types of environmental conflicts. The different types of peasant environmental conflict are described by two value axes, one indicating sustainability, the other the degree of peasanthood.

We believe that, as the market encroaches onto the rural world, the constituent elements of peasanthood, as defined in this article, gradual- Figure 1. Typology of environmental peasant conflicts

Intramodality Environmental (Distributive)

1 1

6 6 7

5 8 9

Environmentalist 3 Green 4 Movement

Intermodality (Reproductive) + Degree of Peasanthood - - Degree of Merchandisation +

Key. Typology of Environmental Conflicts 1/ Dispute over Access to Water 8/ Protest against mining impacts/pollution 2/ Defence of Traditional Water Management 9/ Conflicts against environmental policies Systems 3/ Defence of Common Property 10/ Defence of Indigenous Territories 4/ Defence of Common Uses 5/ Woodland Harvesting Practices 6/ Territorial Disputes 7/ Agricultural Reform Claims as Distribution

Figure 1. Typology of environmental peasant conflicts

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 64 ly decline. Exclusively distributive confl icts have been abundant in the agricultural social metabolism, even before the 18th century. When industrial metabolism takes over agricultural production, the probability of confl ict between diff erent forms of management increases. However, the stronger the involvement of the market, the less probability there is of environmentalist intermodal confl icts arising. Environmentalist confl icts may then acquire a Green slant, but in this case fall outside the scope of this article, which only deals with confl icts involving peasant communities. Our typology proposal does not aim to cover absolutely all forms of environmental peasant confl ict, but it does endeavour to off er a general interpretive framework that they can all fi t into. Conse- quently, this typology is open to subsequent inclusions. Th e fi rst two types of confl ict in our typology are those that arise around access to and management of water. We have distinguished it in two types, according to the previously established criteria. En- vironmental confl icts over water distribution are very common in the peasant mode of resource use; in these, what is at stake is not the management methods, only the distribution of the resource. An example of a confl ict over water, which has been going on in the Purepecha plateau in Michoacan over the last 40 years, was illustrated by Patricia Ávila.31 Anthropologists have described a number of such disputes between indigenous communities for access to and control of springs for human use, irrigation and farming activities. Th e settlement of the Purepecha plateau controversy was achieved through an intercommunity pact to fi nance all the work and canalisation needed to ensure a minimum water supply for all. Th is kind of confl ict is not unusual in present-day Mexico, where the expansion of capitalism is currently in full swing; a similar dispute over water, however, was recorded in the region of Toluca as early as the 18th century.32

31 P. Avila García, Escasez de Agua en una región indígena. El caso de la Meseta Purépecha, El Colegio de Michoacán, Morelia 1996. 32 M.P. Iracheta Cenecorta, “La disputa por los recursos acuíferos en la región circundante a la villa de Toluca, México, siglo XVIII”, in IX Simposio de Histo- ria Económica, Condiciones Medioambientales, Desarrollo Humano y Crecimiento Económico, Departamento de Historia Económica, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcellona 2002. GE65 Another, substantially different case is that of conflicts in which the objective of the protest is to defend traditional water management systems, which essentially means irrigation. Such conflicts are much more complex, as they involve water consumers, the State, industries, etc. In the case of Mexico, they generally involve the transfer of water as a common good to private subjects in the context of an overarching discourse preaching a development model where commonly held goods appear as hindrances from the past. In all cases, water is converted to industrial and energy producing uses. In Mexico, this situation led to a series of organised protests where a community discourse was formulated in defence of common ownership, and the protesters even took legal action to defend their water rights. There were also forms of violent direct action against installa- tions, constructions and infrastructure, and hydraulic works. Some cases are described by Castañeda González for the area of Toluca, and by Alejandro Tortolero for Chalco.33 Similar conflicts have also been documented in colonial and post-colonial India.34 A similar case, but made worst by the addition of a genocide angle, was the protest against the construction of hydroelectric facilities in Guatemala (the “Chixoy Case”).35 This conflict is an example of a confrontation between peasant uses and large state infrastructure projects, an intermodal protest aimed at defending people’s subsistence means. A similar case was that of Narmada Bachao Andolan in central India.

33 R. Castañeda González, “Los primeros pasos de la centralización del agua en México, El caso del río Nexapa, Puebla, México 1880-1910”, in IX Simposio de Historia Económica, Condiciones Medioambientales, Desarrollo Humano y Crecimiento Económico, Departamento de Historia Económica, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcellona 2002. A. Tortolero, “Tierra, agua y bosques en Chalco (1890-1925), la innovación tecnológica y sus repercusiones en un medio rural”, in Agricultura Mexicana, Crecimiento e Innovaciones, M. Menegus, V.A. Tortolero (eds), Instituto Mora, Colegio de Michoacán, Colegio de México, Insti- tuto de Investigaciones Históricas, México 1999, pp. 174-236. 34 V. Saravanan, “Technological Transformation and Water Conflicts in the Bhavani River Basin of Tamil Nadu, 1930-1970”, in Environment and History, 7, 3, 2001, pp. 289-334. 35 V. Shiva, Las guerras del agua. Contaminación, privatización y negocio, Icaria, Barcelona 2004.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 66 Th is protest against the construction of hydroelectric dams involving the displacement of several peasant communities attained emblematic status and global exposure.36 In Africa, the construction of the Cahora Bassa dam in Mozambique in the early 1970s also entailed peasant population displacement. Th is dispute generated a cycle of confl icts where environmentalist claims interwove with the armed confrontation that arose following the Portuguese colony’s decolonisation.37 Protests in defence of common property and communal uses have occurred extremely frequent ever since the 18th century in the context of the confrontation between peasant and industrial uses. Th is form of confl ict is the most historiographically interesting and relevant of all. Resources such as forests, pastures, hunting grounds, collective manure heaps, shifting cultivation, etc. are essential for agricultural societies to run properly. It is not surprising that privatisation and marketing from the 18th century onwards posed a threat to the functioning of agricultural social metabolism, and consequently gave rise to frequent confl icts. To better interpret this process, however, it is important to diff erentiate between confl icts in defence of ownership and confl icts in defence of communal uses. Intermodal confl ict is usually regarded as a defence of agricultural societies’ rights of use, but it occurs in the context of a wide range of ownership forms. Re- source ownership was not always strictly communal. Resources could be directly owned by peasant or indigenous communities, but there where often other owners; notably, common resources could be formally owned by the State, the local government, or the nobility, but still subjected to exploitation by peasant communities. Confl ict is sometimes characterized as a fi ght for property rights; for example, against the attempts of the liberal state to transfer peasant communities’ property rights to the State or town councils. Cases such as that of Galicia (northwestern Spain) and northern Portugal throughout the 19th and 20th centuries show how the State denied

36 Shiva Las guerras del agua cit 37 A. Isaacman, C. Sneddon, “Toward a Social and a Environmental History of the Building of the Cahora Bassa Dam”, in Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, 4, 2000, pp. 597-632. GE67 the existence of common property. Nation-states privatised or com- mercially exploited common forest resources. This form of conflict is clearly aimed at the defence of common property rights but also, and particularly, of peasant forms of management. This is proved by the fact that many communities opted for privatising the community lands themselves. Local authorities divided the land among neigh- bours in order to preserve the multifunctional management of the old communal areas. In these cases privatisation allowed peasant management to persist until the middle of the 20th century.38 These examples demonstrate that the degree of sustainability does not depend strictly on the form of land ownership, but rather on how the land is used. Conflicts against the privatisation of common property all over Europe were widespread throughout the 19th century. Spain provides a number of good case-studies.39 Here a large number of conflicts have been studied, including open and even violent disputes, as well as covert ones. All arose over the liberal state’s confiscation of common lands. In many cases, despite being officially owned by the town councils, in practice the land was used by the locals. Thus, throughout the 19th century communities reacted to confiscations by seizures and illegal occupations. The struggle for the returning of common assets lived on even after privatisation, and was reflected in left wing parties’ programs during the Second Republic. There were also conflicts in defence of common property in colonised countries, but in this case they were in defence of indigenous territories, as we shall see later. In many cases, peasants’ protests are exclusively aimed at defending rights of commons against their restriction or total cancelling by different liberal state bodies in Europe, or colonial administrations elsewhere, e.g. in Bengal.40 The commercial exploitation of common

38 Balboa, O monte cit. D. Soto, Historia dunha agricultura sustentable. Transfor- macións productivas na agricultura galega contemporánea, Xunta de Galicia, Santiago 2006. D. Freire, “Os baldios da discordia: as comunidades locais e o Estado”, in Mundo rural. Transformaçao e resistencia na Península Ibérica (século XX), D. Freire, I. Fonseca, P. Godinho (eds), Ediçoes Colibrí, Lisboa 2004, pp. 191-224. 39 González de Molina, Ortega Santos, Bienes comunes y conflictos cit 40 K. Sivaramakrishnan, “A Limited Forest Conservancy in Southwest Bengal, 1864-1912”, in The Journal of Asian Studies, 56,1, 1997, pp 75-112.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 68 spaces (mostly, but not exclusively, forest areas) clashed head on with peasant exploitation. Th is form of management, much more diversifi ed than, and considered to be incompatible with, scientifi c forest exploitation, developed in the 19th century. Th e peasant communities saw their basic resources put at risk: land for pasture, wood for construction or as a source of energy, products from the forests used as food supplements or as medicine, or the scrubs used as crop fertiliser.41 Th ese limitations to use gave rise to confl icts both in Europe and in the colonial territories.42 Th e anticolonial uprising against German occupation in Tanzania between 1905 and 1907 has been recently reinterpreted as having been sparked by the colonial administration’s imposing of limits on traditional uses of the forest. Th e uprising began in the exact places where the impact of the prohibition was strongest and commercial exploitation was being implemented. Th e German victory brought on even further restriction of indigenous forest use.43 Th e most evident example of the limitations imposed by liberal states on common usage of woods and forests is the restricting of shifting cultivation. Th e forestry services that were organised worldwide in the second half of the 19th century believed that this practice depleted the soil and provoked erosion. Limitations to shifting cultivation and confl icts around this restriction have been described with reference to India, Indonesia and Europe (notably Galicia in Spain).44 Th ese studies prove that shifting cultivation (as a complementary ac-

41 Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list. Th ere is abundant literature about the multifunctionality of common spaces. For example: Gadhil, Guha, Th e Use and Abuse of Nature cit. X. Balboa, “L´utilizzazione del monte nella Galizia del secolo XIX”, in Quaderni Storici, 81, 1982, pp. 883-872., N.L. Peluso, “Fruit Trees and Family Trees in an Anthropogenic Forest: Ethics of Access, Property Zones, and Environmental Change in Indonesia”, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 38, 3, 1996, pp. 510-548. Ortega Santos, La Tragedia de los cerramientos cit. T. Sunseri, “Reinterpret- ing a Colonial Rebellion: Forestry and Social Control in German East Africa, 1874- 1915”, in Environmental History, 8, 3, 2003, pp. 430-451. 42 Gadhil, Guha, Th e Use and Abuse of Nature cit. González de Molina, Ortega Santos, Bienes comunes y confl ictos cit 43 T. Sunseri, Reinterpreting a Colonial Rebellion cit 44 Gadhil, Guha, Th e Use and Abuse of Nature cit. Peluso, Fruit Trees and Fam- ily Trees cit. Balboa, O monte cit. GE69 tivity of sedentary peasant communities in Galicia and Indonesia or as a main activity in the case of India) was a perfectly regulated practice with set rotation shifts that were sufficiently distanced to ensure the regeneration of nutrients, in some cases through the reforesting of the land when the cultivation shift was over. Restriction of shifting cultivation may cause significant changes in the social metabolism of affected communities or even their complete sedentarisation.45 The heading “woodland harvesting practices” covers a type of conflict that is directly linked to conflict over common property and uses, but embraces a much more extensive reality. Protests against loss of ownership or against a prohibition to continue using a common asset frequently adopt the strategy of continuing, both individually and collectively, peasant uses that have been banned. Pasture, hunting, harvesting of various products, all these practices become criminal acts in the eyes of the administration. Under this regard, this type of conflict is not different from the environmentalist conflicts discussed above. It is, however, specifically characterized by the prohibition to exploit woodland. Furthermore, it remains within the boundaries of peasant uses of resources: management does not come into question, only access. Thus, such a conflict may arise between different communities, within the community itself, or between the community and the local authorities or nobility. In early to mid-19th century Spain, as pressure increased on resources, for demographic reasons or due to the opening of new commercial opportunities,46 conflicts over woodland pasture multiplied. Some were over access to pastureland that had been previously available to several communities, others broke out between peasants and local oligarchies. Conflicts over the ownership of private or community areas that

45 N.L. Peluso, Rich Foorest, Poor People. Resources Control and Resistance in Java, University of California Press, Los Angeles 1992. Gadhil, Guha, The Use and Abuse of Nature cit. 46 C.F. Velasco Souto, “Conflictos sobre montes en la Galicia de la primera mitad del siglo XIX; una etapa en la larga lucha contra la privatización”, in Historia y Economía del bosque en la Europa del Sur (siglos XVIII-XX), J.A. Sebastián Amarilla, R. Uriarte Ayo (eds), Monografías de Historia Rural 1, Sociedad Española de Historia Agraria, Zaragoza 2003, pp. 121-143. Ortega Santos, La tragedia de los cerramientos cit.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 70 do not call into question the mode of resource management are designated as “intramodal”, and frequently occur in the history of peasant confl icts. We have included this type under the heading “territorial disputes”, which covers confl icts over boundaries or disputes over the ownership of common spaces between communities or between a community and local authorities or nobility. Th ere were also struggles for the distribution of common property; in this case, not to protect multifunctional woodland practices, as in northwestern Spain and northern Portugal, but to meet the subsistence needs of the poorer peasants. Protests of this type were very common in Spain during the crisis of the Ancient Regime and the liberal revolution.47 In our typology, struggles for agricultural reform (exclusively understood as land distribution) are mainly distributive in nature. In this type of confl ict situation, one rarely sees a defence of the peasants’ methods of managing the land.48 Th is is not surprising if we consider the two approaches that have historically played an important part in reforms. According to liberal theories of the modernisation of the countryside, the aim of agricultural reform is to transform the land organization of a State in order to improve techniques and increase production. Th e objective here is basically technical, although it does not rule out the improvement of social conditions. For agrarian Marxism, instead, the main objective is social, viz., the transfer of ownership from one class to another, although this does not rule out improvements in production resulting from this transfer. In production terms, the objective of both of these visions is to industrialise agriculture. Th e example of the Spanish agricultural reform in the Second Republic (1932) allows us to appreciate this dimension more clearly. Until the years 1918-20, during which there were signifi cant confl icts, peasant demands focused on the return of common property. However, with the landless peasants receiving a salary, the ideology of agrarian Marxism (which directly linked the large estate system with productive ineffi ciency and ques- tioned the ownership of the land) quickly penetrated this sector of the

47 González de Molina, Ortega Santos, Bienes comunes y confl ictos cit. 48 J.M. Naredo, M. González de Molina, “Reforma agraria y desarrollo económico en la Andalucía del siglo XX”, in González de Molina (ed.), La Histo- ria de Andalucía a debate I cit., pp. 88-116. GE71 peasant community, although they understood the reform as a division of land into individual plots and not as collective farming. The 1932 law led to greater dependence on the market and an intensification of the industrialisation of agriculture, as peasants no longer had common resources allowing them to keep up their traditional sustainable agricultural practices, since by then they had all been privatised. The dependence on chemical fertilisers began to increase. Many of the environmental and environmentalist conflicts that we have mentioned are directly related to class conflicts. Many examples show that conflicts associated with the management of, or access to, natural resources frequently oppose different sectors within the same society. On the other hand, in conflicts linked to the defence of indigenous territories the class aspect disappears. In these cases, the intermodal nature of the conflict can be appreciated much more clearly. The indigenous society as a whole participates in the protest, regardless of the social or gender differences that may exist within this society. Obviously acknowledging this does not imply an idealised vision of non-egalitarian indigenous societies. Often the rallying of a whole community to face an external threat does not mean that environmental conflicts at the heart of that community cease to exist, as Moore has shown in his discussion of gender-differentiated strategies for the access to natural resources in a community in Zimbabwe at the same time as a conflict linked to the restriction of access to a nature reserve was in course.49 Conflicts of this type arose in connection with the extension of European colonial control from the second half of the 19th century onward, and particularly with the development of plantation agriculture. In the case of North Borneo, Cleary (1992) has shown how the development of European-style land ownership legislation since 1883 was linked to the wish to promote the cultivation of tobacco and then rubber. Paradoxically, the legislation aimed to differentiate between areas available for commercial exploitation and others subject to customary native rights. However, the legislation, which was implemented with considerable indigenous opposition, led to the commercialisation of the land. While the English colonial authorities

49 Moore, Contesting terrains cit.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 72 banned the sale of native land to foreign immigrants (Chinese), they aided and encouraged its sale to European investors. In the same way, both modern science’s hostility towards shifting cultivation (examples of which we have mentioned earlier) and the claims of forestry departments restricted natives’ access to forests.50 In the district of Ki- rinyaga (Kenya), the Kikuyu natives did not lose their ownership of the cultivated land under the colonial government, although they did lose it in other parts of the country. However, the British administration took over the forests of Mount Kenya in 1910 in a controversial process that had a signifi cant impact on the sustainability of the local crop systems, which were highly dependent on forest resources.51 Th e environmental impact of the industry and mining also gave rise to disputes with peasant communities, particularly since the end of the 19th century. In the early 20th century, copper mining in the “El Teniente” mine, fi nanced by transnational capital (Braden Copper Co.), accumulated copper tailing deposits that were highly contami- nant not only for humans but also for agriculture. Th is case realigned the aff ected social classes, farmers and citizens, against the mining multinational and the country’s native owner oligarchies. Th e long legal and political dispute was eventually concluded by the implementing of Act 4/9/1916, which determined the causes of environmental impact and prescribed safety conditions to be met by companies operating the production plants. On a legal plane, this was a clear victory of the anti-contamination discourse, and it raised citizens’ awareness about the danger of certain processes. However, by the time the legislation was enforced, the damage was already done.52 Other well-known protests against the impact of contamination in agriculture occurred in Río Tinto (Spain) in 1888 and in Ashio (Japan) in 1907.53

50 M.C. Cleary, “Plantation Agriculture and the Formulation of Native Land Rights in British North Borneo c. 1880-1930”, in Geographical Journal, 158, 2, 1992, pp. 170-181. 51 Castro, Th e political Economy cit. 52 M. Folchi Donoso, “Confl ictos de contenido ambiental y ecologismo de los pobres: no siempre pobres, ni siempre ecologistas”, in Ecología Política, 22, 2001, pp. 79-100. 53 Martínez-Alier, El ecologismo de los pobres cit. GE73 Struggles against contamination in recent decades also provide good examples of how a protest based on environmentalist principles can lead to explicitly Green positions. Moguel describes a union-coordinated social mobilisation in North Mexico.54 Ejido unions and popular defence committees mobilised against the company Celulosa Centauro’s contamination of rivers and lakes in the area. They denounced the practice of using second-hand imported technology that did not have built- in sewage treatment mechanisms, which caused massive emigration among the local population. The heterogeneous nature of the political groups involved in the protest (grouped around the Comité Duraguense de Defensa y Preservación Ecológica [Durango Committee for the Pres- ervation and Defence of the Environment]) was the cause of its failure, despite the fact that the Committee was relatively autonomous on a political and legal level compared to the Comité de Defensa Popular Gen- eral Pancho Villa. The demands of the Durango Committee’s ecological programme included the industry’s compliance with water treatment standards and the reclamation of springs to supply water to humans and livestock. This was a typical 1980s environmental struggle, aimed at adding a social dimension to environmentalist discourses and organis- ing people to carry on a multi-sector ecological struggle. The confrontation between the agricultural and the industrial use of resources was not the only source of environmentalist peasant conflict in history. As the visibility of the environmental impact and costs for industrial society increased, individual voices and social movements sprang up to demand that modern States implement environmental policies. As demonstrated by Grove and Jepson & Whittaker, the influence of certain scientists and the socio-political elite from the 19th century onwards led to the adoption of policies with an environmental content,55 even before the rise of the Green movement as far as the creation of protected natural spaces is con-

54 J.E. Moguel, E. Velásquez, “Organización rural y lucha ecológica en una región del norte de México”, in Sociedad y Medio Ambiente en Mexico, G. López Castro (ed.), El Colegio de Michoacán, México 1997, pp. 135-161. 55 R. Grove, “Conserving the Eden: The (European) East Indian Companies and their Environmental Policies on St. Helena, Mauritius and in Western India, 1660 to 1854”, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1993, 35, 2, pp.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 74 cerned, and before conservationist attitudes made their appearance in forest science. Th ere was also considerable concern for the impact of soil erosion in a number of countries in the early 20th century.56 However, these environmental management policies sometimes met with considerable opposition from peasant communities. Th ese communities were often considered responsible for environmental decline, or not taken into account when measures that were not socially sustainable were implemented. Th is question has recently stirred an important debate between representatives of North American Deep Ecology and Environmentalism of the Poor,57 although examples of this type of confl ict situation began to manifest themselves a lot earlier. Th ese are confl icts between diff erent views of sustainability, that of the conservationist or forest scientist, on the one hand, and that of peasants, on the other. Peasants’ resistance to environmental policies should not be read as an ignorant reaction against attempts to implement conservation or sustainable management, when they are really confl icts in defence of peasant rights of use. In many cases the sustainable nature of peasant management has been misunderstood by the promoters of environmental policies, as the following examples will show.

318-351. P. Jepson, R.J. Whitaker, “Histories of Protected Areas: Internation- alisation of Conservationist Values and their Adoption in the Netherlands Indies (Indonesia)”, in Environment and History, 8, 2002, pp. 129-172. 56 W. Beinart, “Soil Erosion, Conservationism and Ideas about Development. A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960”, in Journal of Southern African Studies, 11, 1, 1984, pp. 52-83. K.W. Showers, “Soil erosion in the Kingdom of Lesotho: Origins and Colonial Response, 1830-1950s”, in Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 2, 1989, pp. 263-283. F. Khan, “Rewriting South Africa’s Conservation History. Th e Role of the Native Farmers Association”, in Journal of Southern African Stud- ies, 20, 4, 1994, pp. 499-516. I. Scoones, “Th e Dynamics of Soil Fertility Change: Historical Perspectives on Environmental Transformation on Zimbabwe”, in Geo- graphical Journal, 163, 2, 1997, pp. 161-169. M. Singh, “Basutoland: A Historical Journey into the Environment”, in Environment and History, 61, 2000, pp. 31-70. P. Delius, S. Schirmer, “Soil Conservation in a Racially Ordered Society: South Af- rica 1930-1970”, in Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, 4, 2000, pp. 719-742. Coombes, Th e Historicity of Institutional Trust cit. 57 J.B. Callicott, M.P. Nelson (eds), Th e Great New Wilderness Debate, Univer- sity of Georgia Press, Athens 1998. Guha, Martínez-Alier, Varieties of Environ- mentalism cit. GE75 The creation of protected natural spaces in the Third World throughout the 20th century has generated significant conflict due to the restriction of peasant use that it entails. Jepson & Whittaker have argued that it would be unfair to criticise the creation of natural parks, and have been convincing in their demonstration that the elites who promoted it ever since the late 19th century were defending a noble ideal of preservation. Their initiatives helped to spread the idea that the human race’s increasing capacity to manipulate nature also implies a high degree of moral responsibility.58 However, this is obviously not the critical point. Nature reserves have frequently been established in areas previously used by indigenous communities (and which therefore were not “virgin” nature). These communities maintained a sustainable relationship with their agroecosystem. Such is the case of the Bagak community in Indo- nesia, studied by Peluso, which lost part of its lands and forests to a nature reserve established in 1932. In spite of local resistance, in 1940, after several of their people had been imprisoned, they were forced to relocate and transform their production relationships with the environment.59 The Nyanga national park in Zimbabwe was created in 1947 from an extensive property bought by Cecil Rhodes in 1896, and is one of the country’s main tourist attractions (for West- ern tourists). In the adjacent lands, a considerable conflict developed from the early 20th century onward between white farmers and the natives. The local inhabitants, including the tribal chief, were forced to emigrate to Mozambique after 1972, only recovering their land after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. An attempt to extend the park’s protection barriers in the early 1990s into the Tangwena tribe’s resettlement area has resulted in constant tension between different branches of the State administration, the natives, and a white fishing club.60 Regardless of how good the natural park system is, it is evident

58 Jepson, Whitaker, Histories of Protected areas cit. 59 Peluso, Foorest, Poor People cit. 60 Moore, Contesting Terrains cit. D. S. Moore, “Clear Waters, and Muddied His- tories: Environmental History and the Politics of Community in Zimbabwe’s East- ern Highlands”, in Journal of Southern African Studies, 24, 2, 1998, pp. 377-403.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / GONZÁLEZ, HERRERA, ORTEGA, SOTO 76 that excluding the local communities from resource management generates confl ict and puts the projects’ social sustainability at risk. In the same way, confl icts have arisen around the adoption of conservationist forest policies aimed at fi ghting erosion, sometimes supported by racist ideologies. In South Africa, policies aimed at solving the problem of soil erosion were also specifi cally aimed at the black population, as the erosion was blamed on their lack of knowledge about modern agricultural techniques. Th e political consequence was the application of coercive measures, particularly after the establishment of Apartheid.61 However, in the 1920s the Native Farmers Association had already placed special attention on the problem of soil erosion in its programmes and political action, which refutes the idea that concern for environmental decline was exclusively a white political objective.62 Conclusion Th e examples summarised in this article demonstrate how on many occasions peasant protest has had an environmental dimension that we should take account of if we wish to adequately understand the phenomenon. We have also argued – and believe that the analysed cases justify this assertion – that many of the said confl icts arose from struggles for a more sustainable use of resources. Moving from this consideration, we have developed a theory whose objective is to establish the role of protest in the dynamics of change in the metabolism of social organisation. Environmental protest is not the only or most important factor in these dynamics, but often does play a relevant role. Th e confl icts we have designated as “environmentalist” are those involving a confrontation between two approaches to agroecosystem management based on diff erent visions. Such confl icts have a higher impact on socioenviromental change. Th is is not to deny the importance of identity and ideology in confl ict analysis (indeed, these criteria provide the basis for our distinction between environmentalist and Green protest), but they should not be the only criteria for the historical categorization of confl ict.

61 Delius, Schirmer, Soil Conservation cit. 62 Khan, Rewriting South Africa’s cit. GE77 Histoy and Governance in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, 1959-1966

Peter J. Rogers* nternational Conservation Governance and the Early History of the Ngorngoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

In recent years, two major concerns of the international conservation community have been the governance of protected areas and the need to balance biodiversity conservation with the rights and liveli- I hood needs of local communities living in and around protected areas. Th ese concerns were prominently displayed at the 2003 World Parks Congress (WPC) held in Durban, South Africa, and the smaller follow-up Durban+5 meeting held in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2008. Th e Durban WPC’s overall theme was “Ben- efi ts beyond Boundaries,” and the Durban Action Plan produced at the Congress declared, “governance is central to the conservation of protected areas throughout the world.” 1 A search for “new paradigms” in governance was a topic at the Durban+5 meeting.2 Th ese statements and much other activity at the WPC and afterward clearly illustrate a global conservation concern about how and for whom protected areas are governed. Th e Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) in northern Tanzania off ers an excellent opportunity for a historical analysis of both protected area governance and the balance of biodiversity and local people’s interests. Th e Ngorongoro Crater Highlands are well known for the 18 km-diameter main caldera with its tremendous density and variety of wildlife. Th e western plains of Ngorongoro are an important rainy season grazing area for the migratory wildlife of the Serengeti. Ngorongoro is also home to around 62,000 people, the vast majority of whom are members of the Maasai ethnic group.3 Th e NCA was carved out of the Serengeti National Park (SNP) in 1959 after a decade of controversy over the rights of Maasai pastoralists in the previously established SNP.4 Th is debate reached far beyond the then

* Although tracing the author for proof correction proved impossible, the editors decided nevertheless to publish this article. For the same reason, the article appears without the map that was to accompany it. 1 See G. Wandesforde-Smith, “Th e Future of Wildlife and the World Parks Congress”, Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy, 7, 2004; Vth World Parks Congress, World Commission on Protected Areas, IUCN, 2003, http:// www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/wpc2003/index.htm. 2 See A. Kothari, “Protected Area and People: Th e Future of the Past”, Parks, 17, 2, 2008. 3 UNESCO-WHC, Ngorongoro Conservation Area (United Republic of Tanza- nia) Report of the Reactive Monitoring Mission, 29 April to 5 May 2007, UNESCO WHC 2007, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/39/documents/, p. 5. 4 “Maasai” is now the recognized spelling of this pastoralist ethnic group that straddles the Tanzania-Kenya border, and it is the spelling that will generally be used in this article. GE79 British colony of Tanganyika with organizations such as the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire and personalities such as the German zoologist Bernard Grzimek weighing in.5 After great controversy, the NCA was created as a “multiple land use” area with the goal of balancing the interests of conservation and pastoralist development, and with the hope of “maintain[ing] the coexistence of pastoralists and wildlife in a natural traditional setting.”6 The origins of the NCA invite the exploration of several questions. One, what sort of governance institutions were created to ful- fill the NCA’s original mandate? Two, how have these institutions changed over time? Three, what have been the forces and processes that have shaped the governance of the NCA from 1959 onward? Four, have these patterns of governance served the interests of biodiversity conservation and pastoralist development in the NCA? Answers to these questions require a close examination of the period going from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, which was a particularly critical time for the NCA. During these years, the basic governance framework of the area was established, guided by various international conservation organizations and actors, a framework that continues to this day. While ostensibly created to equally serve both Maasai pastoralist and wildlife conservation interests, conservation quickly dominated the governance of the NCA. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a strong national park governance model already existed in Tanzania and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, and this model was easily applied to the NCA. No similarly powerful governance model existed in colonial Africa for the management of a “multiple land use” area where both social and conservation values were to receive equal attention. As a result of this imbalance in the existing pool of available ideas and practices, the approaches to gov-

“Masai” and “Masailand” were both used during the colonial and early post-colonial period, and they will only be used as part of direct quotes of material from that era. 5 B. Grzimek and M. Grizmek, Serengeti Shall Not Die, Ballantine Books, New York 1959; R. P. Neumann, Imposing Wilderness, University of California Press, Berkeley 1998. 6 Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, Ngorongoro Conservation Area General Management Plan, Ngorongoro, Tanzania 1996.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 80 ernance adopted in the NCA were nearly identical to those found in conventional protected areas, African national parks and game reserves, and the NCA came to be managed primarily as a wildlife conservation park rather than a multiple land use area. Th is important historical period is often overlooked in legal and management histories of the NCA, where the usual format is to discuss the formal creation of the NCA in 1959 and then skip ahead to 1975, when the legislation governing the NCA was amended. While the legal review of the NCA undertaken as part of the IUCN-sponsored Ngorongoro Conservation and Development Project and a later study of the same topic by the Tanzanian Land Rights Research and Resource Institute reach very diff erent conclusions, they both see the 1975 legislation as the major turning point in the governance of the NCA.7 However, the present article argues that the 1975 legislation only slightly altered the ways in which the NCA was actually managed, and that the really signifi cant changes took place long before that, during the fi rst few years of the NCA’s existence. Th is argument draws upon an important source of documents, which has been little used in studies of the NCA: the archives of Hen- ry Fosbrooke, the fi rst Conservator of the NCA. During 1993 and 1996, research was conducted in the archives located at his home in Lake Daluti near Arusha, Tanzania. After his death in 1996, these archives were moved to the University of Dar es Salaam Library. In addition to the Fosbrooke archives, extensive work was conducted in the archives of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA). Th is archival work was complemented by interviews with individuals having contemporary and historical connections to the NCA.8 Th e conclusion elaborates on the durability of the patterns of governance that were established early in the history of the NCA. Maa-

7 M. Forster and E.M. Malecela, “Legislation”, in D.M. Th ompson (ed.), Multiple Land-Use:Th e Experience of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland 1997; I.G. Shivji and W.B. Kapinga, Maasai Rights in Ngorongoro, Tanzania, IIED, London 1998. 8 Interview respondents were granted anonymity because of the continuing controversy over many aspects of the NCA’s management and the political sensitivity of these issues in Tanzania. GE81 sai residents of the NCA continue to be marginalized in the NCA’s management system. The Tanzanian government and international conservation interests still dominate the decision-making process, and power remains centralized in the person of the Conservator and the NCA Board of Directors. Wildlife conservation and tourism remain as more important objectives than pastoralist development or any other multiple use possibilities, and history continues to wield a heavy influence over the people and non-human nature of the NCA. The case of the NCA should encourage contemporary advocates of protected area governance reform to seriously explore the complex governance processes and histories of such areas as guides for policy development and implementation. It is possible that adaptive management models of protected governance will provide a means for addressing the issues generated by governance and historical complexity.

Governance and Protected Areas

In the 21st century, the international conservation community has become interested in the concept of governance as a way of improv- ing the management of protected areas around the world. In the conservation world, governance has been defined in a number of ways. Often there is a relatively simplistic focus on the “principles of good governance,” problems of corruption and/or a conflation of governance with ownership.9 Other authors pursue a more sophisticated vision of governance as the “interactions among structures, processes, and traditions that determine direction, how power is exercised, and how the views of citizens or stakeholders are incorporated into decision-making.”10 For better or worse, the idea of governance has a hold on the imagination of many national and international policy

9 See, e.g., A. Phillips, “The Durban Action Plan, revised version, March 2004”, WCPA News, 91, 2004, pp. 23-24; R.J. Smith, R.D.J. Muir, M.J. Walpole, A. Balmford, and N. Leader-Williams, “Governance and the Loss of Biodiversity”, Nature, 426, 6, 2003. 10 P. Dearden, M. Bennett, and J. Johnston, “Trends in Global Protected Area Governance, 1992-2002”, Environmental Management, 36, 1, p. 89.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 82 makers in the fi eld of conservation, much as it earlier attracted the attention of development organizations and agencies. Th us, it is the responsibility of historians and social scientists to critically engage governance, if only to provide illumination for contemporary policy debates, and the NCA provides a particularly useful case study for an examination of governance in the context of protected areas and international conservation. In order to be a useful theoretical tool, governance needs to be seen as having four major dimensions. First, governance includes the formal and informal rules that guide action. National legislation, protected area management plans and regulations, international con- ventions, and elements of institutional culture all fall into this category. Second, governance extends beyond the actions of any particular state and involves private business, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international actors. Th is is particularly important in the case of Africa, where biodiversity initiatives have often come from abroad, and where post-colonial states have been, and continue to be, weak relative to other political, social, and economic actors. Th ird, governance contains a discursive dimension, and governance processes rest upon shared senses of meaning and knowledge. Protected area governance requires an agreed-upon understanding of the social and ecological role of such areas, what they are meant to protect, and how such protection should be accomplished. Fourth, governance systems are expressions of power relationships and sites of contesta- tion. Th e existence of protected areas as a land use choice indicates that certain interests have triumphed at the expense of other interests, which would prefer alternate land use options.11

11 For discussions of these various dimensions of governance, see M. Dean, Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society, SAGE Publications, Th ousand Oaks, CA 1999; G. Hyden, “Governance and the Reconstitution of Political Or- der”, in R. Joseph (ed.), State, Confl ict, and Democracy in Africa, Lynne Reinner, Boulder, CO 1999, pp. 179-195; G. B. Peters, Th e Future of Governing, University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2001; J. Rosenau, Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1997; O.S. Stokke, “Regimes as Governance Systems”, in O. Young (ed.), Global Governance: Drawing Insights from the Environmental Experience, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1997, pp. 28-63. GE83 All four of these dimensions of governance are evident and important in the case of the NCA during the late 1950s and early to mid-1960s, when important rules involving land use and management as well as broader institutional arrangements concerning the place of the NCA in the overall state structure of Tanganyika/ Tanzania were established.12 Non-state actors, such as international conservation organizations and western scientists, played a significant role in the development of the NCA’s governance system. West- ern science and conservation values became the authoritative lenses for the knowing and understanding of the NCA, its people, and its non-human nature. Finally, the governance system established in the NCA reflected and reinforced patterns of power and interest current at the time; the newly independent Tanganyikan state and international conservation actors secured their interests and a role in management decisions, while the Maasai and other residents of the NCA found themselves excluded.

The NCA’s Creation

The creation of the NCA as a protected area distinct from Ser- engeti National Park and as a “multiple land use area” rather than a more conventional national park was an extremely contentious process. The NCA’s creation took place in the context of an existing international framework for the governance of protected areas and wildlife conservation in Africa. At the same time, it involved elements specific to colonial East Africa. Multiple actors with varying degrees of power relative to each other played a role in the period from 1914, when the German colonial government created the first formal protected area on the forested slopes of Ngorongoro, to the NCA’s creation in 1959. International conservationists, colonial administrators,

12 Tanganyika gained independence in 1961. The United Republic of Tanza- nia, the current name of the country, was adopted in 1964 when Zanzibar was joined with mainland Tanganyika. This article uses whichever name, Tanzania or Tanganyika, is accurate for the period being considered. If no specific period is being referred to, then Tanzania is used.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 84 local peoples, and African nationalists all contended with each other in debates and confl icts about how best to govern the non-human nature and people of the Serengeti-Ngorongoro area. In 1914, German authorities established what is now the North- ern Highland Forest Reserve of the NCA for the purpose of watershed protection, but their control of the area was short-lived. Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, the British governed Tanganyika as a League of Nations Mandate and designated the Ser- engeti as a Game Reserve where controlled hunting was allowed and the Ngorongoro Crater as a Complete Game Reserve where hunting was prohibited. Th e 1940 Game Ordinance formally created the Serengeti National Park (SNP), which included most of what is now the NCA. However, there were few resources for enforcement of these conservation regulations either before or during World War II, and their overall impact was limited.13 Th ese Tanganyika-specifi c developments were part of a broader international governance system for the conservation of wildlife in colonial Africa which came into being during the fi rst half of the twentieth century. One of the fi rst steps in the process of creating this system was the 1900 London Convention for the Preservation of Wild Animals, Birds, and Fish in Africa. Th ough this treaty did not enter into force due to insuffi cient signatories, it was the fi rst attempt to craft an international wildlife conservation convention. Shortly afterwards, in 1903, the Society for the Protection of the Fauna of the Empire (SPFE), one of the world’s fi rst international conservation NGOs, was created in Great Britain. During the interwar period, the 1933 Convention for the Protection of the Flora and Fauna of Africa was negotiated and did enter into force. National parks as the primary mechanism of wildlife conservation were the central feature of

13 H. Fosbrooke, Ngorongoro. Th e Eighth Wonder, Andre Deutsch, London 1972; H. R. Herring, Report on Oldonyo Olmoti with Special Reference to Protec- tion of Forests and Water Catchment, October 1930, Fosbrooke Archives 574.5 Herr [hereafter, FA]; K. M. Homewood and W. A. Rodgers, Maasailand Ecology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1991; Neumann, Imposing Wilder- ness cit. GE85 the 1933 Convention. These had already started to appear, beginning with the Albert National Park in the Belgian Congo in 1925 and the Kruger National Park in South Africa in 1926.14 During this time, the Maasai and other Africans living in and around the Serengeti-Ngorongoro area were minimally affected by these conservation initiatives and far more concerned with land alienation driven by cash crop production. This was also a period of recovery for African peoples who had been devastated by the ecological catastrophes of the late nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. The arrival of rinderpest from Eurasia destroyed East Africa’s livestock economy. Smallpox, colonial warfare, famine, and the resulting spread of tsetse-fly habitat all contributed to a decrease in the region’s human population, particularly amongst the cattle- dependent Maasai.15 The Maasai refer to this time as the Emutai (complete destruction), and estimates of population loss run as high as two-thirds.16 Ironically, one effect of these human and livestock population declines was to strengthen European perceptions of East Africa as a wilderness dominated by wildlife.17 After the World War II, a new National Parks Ordinance was enacted by the Tanganyikan colonial government in 1948. This created a Na- tional Parks Board of Trustees separate from the existing Game Depart- ment and provided the basis for the 1951 (re)creation of the SNP. Seri- ous enforcement of the SNP’s status as a national park began in the early

14 For more detail on these international developments, see J.M. Macken- zie, The Empire of Nature, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1988, pp. 200-224; J. McCormick, Reclaiming Paradise: The Global Environmental Move- ment, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IA 1989. 15 H. Kjekshsus, Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History, second edition, University of California Press, Berkeley 1977; K. Juhani, “Population: A Dependent Variable”, in G. Maddox, J. Giblin, and I. Kimambo (eds), Custodians of the Land, James Currey, London 1996, pp. 19-42. 16 A. Kaj, Pastoral Man in the Garden of Eden: The Maasai of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Uppsala Research Reports in Cultural Anthropology, 1985, pp. 19-22, 28-29; R.D. Waller, “Emutai: Crisis and Response in Maasailand 1883-1902”, in D. Johnson and D. Anderson (eds), The Ecology of Survival, West- view Press, Boulder, CO 1988, pp. 73-114. 17 Kjekshsus, Ecology Control cit.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 86 1950s. Numerous confl icts and controversies soon developed, and the National Parks Board found itself beset on all sides. Initially, the Board had thought that existing, “traditional” African peoples could continue to inhabit the SNP. However, the Maasai and other residents of the SNP objected to restrictions on livestock grazing, agriculture, and homestead construction, which accompanied national park status. On the other hand, international conservationists thought that any human habitation or use of the SNP’s land and resources violated the primary principle of the national park idea.18 Events elsewhere in East Africa contributed to a sense of crisis in and around the new SNP. Th e so-called “Mau Mau” uprising began in Kenya in 1951 with land as the most important concern of the Land and Freedom Army in its fi ght against British colonialism. In Tanganyika itself, the Meru Land Case made its way to the United Na- tions in 1951, and though this appeal was unsuccessful, it contributed to a growing sense of anti-colonial nationalism in Tanganyika.19 Pressured by both international conservation interests and East African nationalists, colonial authorities in Tanganyika moved quickly from one option to the next in search of a stable governance framework that would be agreeable to all sides. Th e government’s fi rst proposal, the1956 Sessional Paper from the Legislative Coun- cil, called for a drastic reduction in the size of the SNP from 4,460 square miles to 1,860 square miles, and this was to be accompanied by the exclusion of human habitation and use from the remaining area of the park.20 International conservationists quickly assailed this proposal, and the Fauna Preservation Society – the recently renamed former Society for the Protection of the Fauna of Empire – sponsored an ecological survey of the SNP to refute the Tanganyikan

18 Tanganyika Committee of Enquiry into the Serengeti National Park, Report of the Serengeti Committee of Enquiry, 1957, Government Printer, Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika 1957; McCormick, Reclaiming Paradise cit.; J.S. Adams and T.O. Mc- Shane, Th e Myth of Wild Africa, W.W. Norton, New York 1992, pp. 46-48. 19 J. Iliff e, A Modern History of Tanganyika, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1979, pp. 499-503; Neumann, Imposing Wilderness cit., pp. 129-134. 20 Legislative Council of Tanganyika, Th e Serengeti National Park, Sessional Paper n. 1, Government Printer, Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika 1956, p. 3. GE87 government’s proposal. This survey, the Pearsall Report, came out in 1957 and recommended the creation of a larger SNP than had been proposed in the 1956 Seasonal Paper. However, more of the Ngorongoro Highlands was made available for the Maasai in the Pearsall proposal than in the earlier government plans.21 The Tanganyikan government’s next move was a special Committee of Enquiry in 1957, which outlined the basic administrative geography that continues to govern conservation in the Serengeti-Ngorongoro region to the present. The Committee of Enquiry recommended the separation of the SNP into two parts, each with its own distinct governance approach. To the west and centered on the grassland plains of the Serengeti would be a classic, Yellowstone-style national park, free of all human habitation and consumptive use. To the east and including the Ngorongoro highlands would be a “Conservation Area” managed by a “Conservation Unit,” where human habitation would be allowed and the primary focus would be the conservation of natural resources for human use. These proposals were accepted in a 1958 Government Paper with only minor modifications.22 For this plan to work, the Tanganyikan colonial government knew that it needed the support of the Maasai residents of the Serengeti- Ngorongoro region. Evidence of the colonial administration’s fear of Maasai violence can be seen in references to the “1959 Leopoldville riots” and similar incidents in then Northern Rhodesia (now Zam- bia) when discussing possible Maasai reactions to various management options.23 The government obtained Maasai support through

21 Legislative Council of Tanganyika, The Serengeti National Park cit.; Tan- ganyika Committee of Enquiry into the Serengeti National Park, Report of the Serengeti Committee cit.; W.H. Pearsall, Report on an Ecological Survey of the Ser- engeti National Park Tanganyika, The Fauna Preservation Society, London 1957. 22 Tanganyika Committee of Enquiry into the Serengeti National Park, Report of the Serengeti Committee cit.; Legislative Council of Tanganyika, Proposals for Reconstituting the Serengeti National Park, Government Paper n. 5, Government Printer, Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika 1958. 23 H.A. Fosbrooke, Comments on the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Author- ity Draft Management Plan, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority Archives, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania 1961 [hereafter NCAAA].

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 88 promises of material resources and opportunities for participation in the new Conservation Unit, as well as assurances of water and range development in the new NCA and a portion of the tourist revenue generated by visitors to Ngorongoro. A committee-like Conserva- tion Authority was created to govern the Conservation Unit, and three Ngorongoro Maasai were part of this committee.24 In return for these assurances, twelve Maasai elders signed a document on April 21, 1958 where they “renounce[d]” all claims to and rights of residence inside the SNP. 25 However, the Tangan- yikan government’s promises to the Maasai were not contained in a similar legal document. Instead, they were made in a speech by the colonial Governor of Tanganyika, Richard Turnbull, on August, 21 1959. Not only did this speech lack the legal weight of the agreement signed by the Maasai, the Governor’s promises to the Maasai were conditional on the “Ngorongoro Masai behaving themselves and not needlessly interfering with the game.”26 In stark contrast, the Maasai’s renunciation of rights to the Serengeti was uncondi- tional and not contingent on the fulfi llment of the promises that had been made to them.

Early Troubles at the NCA

Problems started to manifest themselves soon after the NCA’s creation. Th e Ngorongoro Conservation Authority committee’s governance model attempted to combine Maasai participation and a more conventional colonial approach to district administration. Th e Authority had nine members – the District Offi cer who was the Chairman, four other colonial offi cials, three Maasai residents of the NCA, and one non-resident Maasai. Th is committee was supposed

24 Foosbrooke, Ngorongoro cit., pp. 198-199. Th is Ngorongoro Conservation Authority of the late 1950s should not be confused with the Ngorongoro Conser- vation Area Authority created in 1975, which currently manages the NCA. 25 Agreement by the Maasai to Vacate the Western Serengeti, 21 April 1958, NCAAA. 26 Extract from H. E.’s Speech to the Olkiama on 27/8/59 relating to Ngorongoro Crater, NCAAA. GE89 to be the central decision-making institution for the newly created NCA. However, it began to break down shortly after its creation. Only five meetings of the full Authority committee were held between July 1959 and May 1960. Records of the four meetings for which minutes are available show that the Maasai representatives pushed strongly for the water supply improvement and grazing access that they felt had been promised them in return for their depar- ture from the Serengeti.27 During this period, two different colonial officials served as District Officer for the Ngorongoro District and thus as chairs of the Authority. In their reports, these two officials expressed frustration with the demands of the Maasai, and after 9 May 1960 no further meetings of the Authority were held.28 From a governance perspective, the comments of P. N. Doole, the second chair, were particularly interesting. After he decided to stop holding meetings of the Authority with its Maasai members, he wrote that management of the NCA “continued to function more after the pattern of a district team.” 29 By this, he meant a colonial top-down, expert-led administration without opportunities for significant local participation. Less than a year after the creation of the NCA, existing patterns of the colonial governance of African peoples and landscapes had reasserted themselves. With their representatives removed from the Authority committee and denied access to the management of the NCA, one Maasai reaction was a series of attacks against the rhinos of the NCA. During 1959 and 1960, thirty rhinos were killed or wounded by the Maasai. These were clearly the attacks of aggrieved Maasai rather than poach-

27 Minutes of a Meeting of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority held at Ngorongoro on 3rd November, 1959, NCAAA; Minutes of a Meeting of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority held at Ngorongoro on 3rd December, 1959, NCAAA; Minutes of a Meeting of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority held at Ngorongoro on 5th January, 1960, NCAAA; Minutes of a Meeting of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority held at Ngorongoro on 9th May, 1960, NCAAA. 28 P.N. Doole, Ngorongoro Conservation Authority Report, NCAAA, 1960; J. Fehrsen, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority Report for the Period 1st July-31st December, 1959, NCAAA. 29 Ibid.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 90 ers, as the horns were not removed, and Maasai spears were found in the animals. Doole was concerned that “the rhino killing may be a de- liberate defying and annoying of authority and an attempt to rid the Area of the chief tourist attraction.”30 To add to the diffi culties of the NCA administration, these attacks were publicized, and in the process exaggerated, by Bernhard Grzimek of the Frankfurt Zoological Soci- ety, author of Serengeti Shall Not Die.31 Grzimek explicitly criticized the governing structure of the NCA and the “primitive” nature of the Maasai. He proposed that a Game Warden be given full control over the NCA as the District Offi cer for the area, and argued that law enforcement, stricter policing, and “collective punishment” were the only solutions to prevent Maasai attacks against rhinos.32 Th e fi rst Draft Management Plan for the NCA, drawn up in 1960 by the Authority after the exclusion of local Maasai from its operations, was as interesting for what it did not cover as for what it did. Th e bulk of this document was an extensive description of the natural environment of the NCA, forty-one out of a total of seventy-two pages. In those sections that did address social issues, Maasai attitudes were described as “conservative in the extreme,” 33 with their elders in particular being not “enlightened” but instead “bigoted and con- ceited.” Th e Maasai were said to “regard any conservation measures adopted which prevent them from doing as they themselves wish as

30 Doole, Ngorongoro Conservation Authority Report cit.; Fosbrooke, Ngorongoro cit. 31 Grzimek, Grzimek, Serengeti Shall Not Die cit. Th is book is an essential guide for understanding the attitudes of early conservationists towards the Maasai and the relationship between pastoralism and conservation. Among other things, the Grzimeks repeat the myth that the Maasai were originally “light-skinned” and came from Egypt, and then moved south to the Rift Valley “interbreed[ing] with the darker people of the Upper Nile” along the way, pp. 194-195. Th ey also forcefully claim that “Pastoral people, whether black or white, never consider the soil and its vegetation, they never think of the future”, p. 192. 32 B. Grzimek, Report on a Visit to the Ngorongoro Crater in January, 1961, NCAAA, pp. 2-3; B. Grzimek, Rhinos Belong to Everybody, Hill and Wang, New York 1962, p.188. 33 Ngorongoro Conservation Authority, Draft Management Plan Ngorongoro Conservation Authority, 1960, NCAAA, p. 49; a handwritten note on the plan indicates the author was the fi rst District Offi cer for the NCA, J. Fehrsen. GE91 a nefarious scheme to deprive them of their country.”34 Not surprisingly, the 1960 management plan had no provisions for including the Maasai residents in the management and governance of the NCA. On the subject of Maasai development, the plan’s major goal was the control of livestock numbers inside the NCA and the introduction of “scientifically planned [range] management,” which was explicitly contrasted with Maasai practices. Additionally, the plan called for the exclusion of “stock and uncontrolled persons” from the Crater and the Northern Highlands Forests.35 Both of these were, and are, important dry season grazing areas for Maasai livestock, and Maasai demands for access to forest grazing had been a major factor in the breakdown of the initial Ngorongoro Conservation Authority committee.36 The 1960 plan and Grzimek’s vision for the NCA shared many discursive features and thus promoted similar ideas for the governance of the area. Both took a negative view of the Maasai and their range and livestock management practices. Grzimek and the 1960 plan essentially subscribed to the “cattle complex” view, that is, that from an environmental and ecological perspective pastoralists such as the Maasai irrationally accumulate cattle, and this irrational accumulation eventually leads to ecological disaster.37 Both regarded more effective law enforcement and police action as the only solution to the control of this “Maasai problem.” Neither saw any possibility for the integration of the Maasai into the management of the NCA as a way of ensuring Maasai cooperation. In contrast to the Governor’s speech of 1959, both also saw wildlife conservation as the primary goal of the NCA. They accepted that political factors made it impossible to remove the Maasai from the NCA. However, both saw the Maasai as

34 Ibid., p. 50. 35 Ibid., pp. 59, 61 36 For a general discussion of Ngorongoro Maasai livestock and range management practices, and also on the specific importance of forests to the Maasai, see Homewood, Rodgers, Maasailand Ecology cit; T. Potkanski, Pastoral Economy, Property Rights and Traditional Mutual Assistance Mechanisms among the Ngorongoro and Salei Maasai of Tanzania, IIED, London 1997. 37 M. Herskovits, “The Cattle Complex in East Africa”, American Anthropolo- gist, 28, 1926, pp. 230-272, 361-388, 494-528, 633-664.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 92 an impediment to conservation of wildlife and habitat, and, in the case of the Authority, Maasai cultural attitudes were seen as an obsta- cle to livestock development. Th ey did diff er in one area, as Grzimek thought the Maasai could “develop more as [a] tourist attraction” due to their “picturesque” qualities, and they could be used to prevent an infl ux of farming communities into the NCA.38 With independence for Tanganyika looming, the colonial government recognized that its initial governance model for the multiple land use management of the NCA was not working. Th ere was increasing international pressure to emphasize the wildlife conservation values of the NCA. Th e area’s own administrators acknowledged that the NCA’s original management system had failed. Th e residents were alienated from the management, killing the NCA’s most valuable wildlife, and ignoring restrictions on livestock grazing and cultivation.39

Enter fosbrooke

In response to these problems, the colonial government reacted by securing the services of Henry A. Fosbrooke to be Chairman of the NCA Authority in 1961. Fosbrooke was allowed to concentrate exclusively on the NCA as he was not also required to serve as the District Offi cer for all of the Ngorongoro District. Th e colonial government hoped that he would make the NCA work and reconcile the increasingly divergent offi cial goals of wildlife conservation and Maasai development. Fosbrooke had extensive experience as a colonial administrator and anthropologist amongst the Maasai of Tan- ganyika. At the time of his appointment, Fosbrooke had been the Director of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute for Social Research in Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and he was a respected authority on colonial administration.40

38 H.F. Fosbrooke, Comments on the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority Draft Management Plan, NCAAA, 1961, p.13; Grzimek, Report on a Visit cit., p. 3. 39 Fosbrooke, Ngorongoro cit., p. 199. 40 L. Schumaker, “Constructing Racial Landscapes: Africans, Administrators, and Anthropologists in Late Colonial Northern Rhodesia”, in P. Pels and O. Sale- GE93 One of Fosbrooke’s first governance innovations was the creation of the position of Conservator of the NCA. Instead of governing through the original Ngorongoro Conservation Authority committee chaired by the District Officer, Fosbrooke as the first Conservator unified the authority of the NCA’s chief executive in a single person. From this point onward, Fosbrooke demonstrated a skillful understanding and use of prevailing discourses about conservation and pastoralism to craft a governance system for the NCA that appealed to the interests of international conservation organizations and the recently independent Tan- ganyikan state. As such, he did not so much create new ideas, but wove existing ones into a broadly acceptable governance structure. However, the resulting governance system still substantially excluded Maasai participation and Maasai perceptions of their own self-interest. The NCA was explicitly recognized as an international environmental resource, thus opening the door to increased involvement by international conservation organizations. Parallel to this internationalization, he also stressed “National Control of a National Asset” (emphasis in the original) as opposed to the previous vision of the NCA as subordinate to the more local, provincial administration.41 This, of course, greatly appealed to the newly independent government of Tanganyika, which was seeking to establish its national authority. While partly recognizing the ecological value of Maasai range and livestock management practices, Fosbrooke nonetheless insisted that these must be modernized along the lines of European livestock production systems. He distinguished between educated and enlightened Maasai, and their more backward counterparts. When he proposed a reorganization of the NCA Authority, he thought that local Maasai of “the younger age sets [would be] desirable” as Authority members. 42 These younger individuals were to replace the “three ‘official’ elders” mink (eds), Colonial Subjects: Essays on the Practical History of Anthropology, Uni- versity of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI 2000, pp. 346-347. 41 H.A. Fosbrooke, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Advisory Board: Interim Re- port by the Conservator, NCAAA, 1962, p. 1; H.A. Fosbrooke, Ngorongoro Conser- vation Area Management Plan Revised, April 1962, NCAAA, p. 12. 42 Fosbrooke, Comments on the Ngorongoro cit., p. 14.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 94 who had originally held these positions.43 Fosbrooke called for an increased “territorial government” police presence in the NCA to combat “forest trespass” and “rhino killing,” though he did want to keep the NCA administration out of direct involvement in law enforcement.44 In order to fund the operation of the NCA, Fosbrooke emphasized the importance of tourism and good public relations. Fos- brooke realized his plans for greater control over the NCA and exter- nally directed development of the Maasai would require resources, which might not always be available from the national government. However, tourist revenue alone was insuffi cient for his ambitious plans, so the NCA became dependent on outside grants for capital improvements and other major projects. Fosbrooke’s governance vision required an increased internationalization of the NCA. During the period of 1961 to 1963, the NCA received £ 273, 485 (US $ 765,758) from international sources. An additional £ 191, 485 (US $ 536,158) came from the British Colonial Development and Aid Scheme, and a Pasture Research and Range Management Scheme funded by the Nuffi eld Foundation.45 Fosbrooke pushed hard for an administrative reorganization of the NCA’s governance structure and the statutory amendments necessary to carry out his proposals. Th e general thrust of this reorganization was to centralize authority with the NCA as a branch of central government, concentrate power in the hands of one person at the NCA, and limit opportunities for participation. Fosbrooke wanted to make the Chairmanship of the NCA Authority a full-time position, not something held by the Ngorongoro District Offi cer. As noted above, he wanted new, younger Maasai to replace those who were on the Authority. Fosbrooke also proposed the creation of a new Advisory Board that would “assist” the Minister responsible for the NCA.46 Th e Northern Province Provincial Commissioner, B.J.J.

43 Ibid., p. 15. 44 Ibid., p. 3. 45 Th e Conservator of Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Re- port, Ministry of Lands, Forests, and Wildlife, Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika 1963. 46 Fosbrooke, Comments on the Ngorongoro cit., p. 3. GE95 Stubbings, took Fosbrooke’s ideas even further. Stubbings agreed with Fosbrooke that the NCA should be run as a “project of central government,” but argued that best way to exercise this sort of “control” would be to discard the committee-like authority and replace it with “one person specifically appointed by the Minister” (emphasis in original).47 During the first meeting of the Ngorongoro Area Ad- visory Board, discussed in greater detail below, it was decided that this person should be known as the “conservator.” This position an- swered directly to the Minister of Lands, Forests, and Wildlife, with supporting contributions from an outside Advisory Board contain- ing a very strong international conservation presence. Originally it was intended that the Conservator would chair a new and more effective committee-like Authority.48 However, by 1962 virtually nothing had been heard of this Authority, while the membership of the mostly non-Tanzanian and almost exclusively non-Maasai Advisory Board was prominently displayed in that year’s annual report.49 The 1961 CCTA/IUCN Arusha Conference and the First Meeting of the NCA Advisory Board

A key event in the development of the NCA’s system of governance under Fosbrooke was the 1961 Symposium on the Conserva- tion of Nature and Natural Resources in Modern African States50 held in Arusha and organized by the Commission for Technical Co- operation in Africa (CCTA) and the International Union for the

47 B.J.J. Stubbings, Notes on the Administrative Aspects of the Comments of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority Draft Management Plan by H.A. Fosbrooke Esq., Chairman-Designate, NCAAA 1961, pp. 1-2. 48 H.A. Fosbrooke, Appendix III to a Summary of a Series of Meetings of the Ngonrognoro Conservation Area Advisory Board held in the Provincial Of- fices, Aursha, on the 6th, 7th, and 11th September, 1961, NCAAA, pp.2-3; Ngorongoro Conservation Area Advisory Board, Summary of a Series of Meetings of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Advisory Board held in the Provincial Of- fices, Arusha, on the 6th, 7th, and 11th September, 1961, NCAAA, p. 4. 49 The Conservator of Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Re- port, Ministry of Lands, Forests, and Wildlife, Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika 1962, p. 1. 50 “Modern” being a euphemism for newly independent.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 96 Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Th e primary reason for the Arusha Conference was concern in international conservation circles that African independence threatened the project of wildlife conservation in Africa because Africans were seen as either incapable of or unwilling to continue the colonial conservation project.51 Th e IUCN, in a General Statement on its African Special Project begun in 1960, stated that the “accelerated rate of destruction of wild fauna, fl ora and habitat in Africa … is the most urgent international conservation problem of the present time.”52 It went on to state, “Th e peoples of Africa and their administrations should be induced to look favo- rably upon their unique inheritance of faunal resources.”53 Th ere was particular concern over the limited number of Africans trained or interested in wildlife conservation. Th is was implicitly recognized in one statement from the IUCN, which said: “Few educated people have failed to be moved by it [the spectacle of an array of African animals in its natural setting].” Great emphasis was placed on establishing institutions for the training of African conservation professionals, and out of this conference arose the College of African Wildlife Management in Mweka, Tanzania, funded by the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation.54 While mention was made of wildlife outside of protected areas and the potential economic rewards from “game cropping,” the main emphasis of the Arusha Conference was on the creation and operation of “Strict Nature Reserves” as defi ned by the 1933 London Convention on the Conservation of Fauna and Flora. Th e governance-related ele-

51 For a broader and more general discussion of this period of the IUCN’s history, see M. Holdgate, Th e Green Web: A Union for World Conservation, Earthscan Publica- tions, London 1999, pp. 71-74; McCormick, Reclaiming Paradise cit., pp. 43-46. 52 E.B. Worthington and G. Treichel, General Statement IUCN’s African Spe- cial Project (ASP) 1960-63 and Second Progress Report on the African Special Project from the Advisory Committee, February 1961 (revised March), paper presented at CCTA/IUCN Symposium on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Modern African States, September 5-12, Arusha, Tanzania 1961, p. 1. 53 Ibid., p. 2. 54 Th e AWLF changed its name to the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) in 1983, see Bonner, At the Hand of Man cit., p. 59. GE97 ments of this idea of a “Strict Nature Reserve” are worthy of additional consideration. There was the critical role to be played by “a qualified scientific body” in selecting the sites for such reserves and assisting in their management. 55 Also, such areas should be, to as great a degree as possible, free of “human interventions.”56 Perhaps most importantly from a governance perspective, they were seen as having both national and “international value,” thus creating a discursive space for the continued involvement of non-African conservationists.57 However, a means was needed to “induce” Africans to “look fa- vorably upon” conservation and to get “Modern African States” to “RECOGNIZE their responsibilities” (emphasis in original) towards wildlife. The solution was in essence an implicit contract. Interna- tional organizations would provide technical expertise and material resources to enable newly independent African states to expand their control to include natural resources located in existing or prospec- tive protected areas.58 In return, African states would allow outside experts a great degree of latitude in determining which sites should be protected and how the process of protection should be carried out.59 This bargain was sealed by the “Arusha Manifesto” which was publicly presented by Tanganyika’s Minister for Legal Affairs, A S. Fundikira, and signed by Julius Nyerere, then Prime Minister of Tanganyika, Fundikira himself, and T. S. Tewa, Minister for Lands and Surveys. While the document was presented as a product of its African signatories, it was actually written by non-African representatives of the recently formed World Wildlife Fund. In the Manifes- to, the Tanganyikan state accepted “trusteeship” of its wildlife as an African and global resource, and in turn called upon “other nations”

55 CCTA/CSA, IUCN, Draft Recommendations, paper presented at CCTA/ IUCN Symposium on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Modern African States. September 5-12, Arusha, Tanzania 1961, p. 3. 56 Ibid, p. 4. 57 Worthington, Treichel, General Statement cit., p. 1. 58 For a discussion of rural resource and population control as major element of state-building in Africa from the precolonial period to the present day, see J. Herbst, States and Power in Africa, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2000. 59 CCTA/CSA, IUCN, Draft Recommendations cit., p. 2.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 98 to provide “specialist knowledge, trained manpower, and money.”60 Th e Arusha Manifesto is regularly cited by international and Tan- zanian conservation agencies to this day, and it can be found at the very start of the NCA General Management Plan of 1996.61 Not only did the Arusha Conference reinforce all the discursive themes and ideas that Fosbrooke was utilizing in developing a governance structure for the NCA, it also gave him an excellent opportunity to mobilize specifi c international support for his vision of the NCA. Fosbrooke convened the fi rst meeting of the NCA Advisory Board in Arusha at the same time as the Conference. Th is board was not a statutory part of the initial Ngorongoro legislation. However, one of Fosbrooke’s fi rst desires upon arriving in the NCA had been the creation of such a body to “assist” the Minister responsible for the NCA.62 Th e fi rst meeting of the Advisory Board contained only one Tanganyikan, a non-NCA Maasai who was Chairman of the Maasai Federal Council. Taking advantage of the international conservation experts present in Arusha for the Conference, Fosbrooke essentially packed the Board. Th e fi rst Board meeting consisted of Fosbrooke, fi ve colonial offi cials, the one non-NCA Maasai, a European representative of the local tourist industry, and ten representatives of wildlife research or international conservation organizations.63 Not surprisingly, this Board generally recommended the approval of Fosbrooke’s modifi cations to the existing 1960 Draft Management Plan. A number of other important ideas, suggestions, and comments came out of this meeting. Th e Board agreed, “Th at the Authority should be transformed into a ‘projection’ of Central Government.”64

60 J.K. Nyerere, A. S. Fundikira, and T.S. Tewa, Arusha Manifesto, paper presented at CCTA/IUCN Symposium on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Modern African States, September 5-12, Arusha, Tanzania 1961. 61 Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, Ngorongoro Conservation Area General cit., p. ii. 62 Fosbrooke, Appendix III cit., p. 2. 63 Ngorongoro Conservation Area Advisory Board, Summary of a Series of Meetings of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Advisory Board held in the Pro- vincial Offi ces, Arusha, on the 6th, 7th, and 11th September, 1961, NCAAA, p. 1. 64 Ibid., p. 3. GE99 Also, as was noted above, it stated, “That this ‘projection’ should com- prise a single individual, to be known as the ‘Conservator,’ who should discharge the function of the present Authority,” and “That the ‘Con- servator’ should be directly responsible to the Minister.”65 The Board revealed its attitudes toward the Maasai and their future development with the following, “A comprehensive survey of Masailand should be undertaken with long-term objective of load- ing (sic) the Maasai towards settled ranching.”66 This objective had its origins in a linear, “progressive” view of human development whereby the Maasai would move “through a phase of transhumance to that of ranchers” (emphasis in original).67 In addition to serving the Maasai “local man” in this “process of advancement,” the NCA was also supposed to serve the Tanganyikan “national man” and “the world.”68 The Board also took the view that “the crater isgrossly over- stocked” (emphasis in original) and agreed with Fosbrooke that it should ultimately be turned into a “wildlife park.” 69 The Board nominated itself to be the NCA’s chief policymak- ing body and made clear its support for a natural science-based, conservation-focused governance system for the NCA by stating, “The Advisory Board, including the best technical and scientific ad- visers available, should be charged with the formulation of general policy.”70 Also, it called for the primary technical consultant working in the NCA to be an ecologist.71 Finally, setting precedent for similar documents in the future, the minutes of this first Advisory

65 Ibid., p. 4. 66 Ibid., p. 2. 67 Fosbrooke, Comments on the Ngorongoro cit., pp. 2-3. 68 H.A. Fosbrooke, Pastoralists: Pre-Industrial Man in the Tropical Environment, paper presented at IUCN Ninth Technical Meeting, September 17-20, Nairobi, Kenya 1963. 69 W. Payne, “Notes on the Stocking of Ngorongoro”, in Appendix III cit. 70 W.H. Pearsall and P. Scott, Appendix VI to a Summary of a Series of Meet- ings of the Ngonrognoro Conservation Area Advisory Board held in the Pro- vincial Offices, Aursha, on the 6th, 7th, and 11th September, 1961. NCAAA; Ngorongoro Conservation Area Advisory Board, Summary of a Series cit., p. 3. 71 Ibid.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 100 Board meeting and its reports were to be kept confi dential.72 One of the most interesting elements of the fi rst Advisory Board meeting was the visit to the NCA that Fosbrooke organized for a majority of the Board’s members on September 9, 1961. While at the NCA, the visiting Board members met none of the local Maasai. Th ey did however observe “serious over-grazing all over the Crater fl oor,” “that the Lerai spring [on the crater fl oor] was being wastefully used,” and “that the forests were being heavily grazed.”73 Based on this brief one-day trip, a number of “immediate recommendations” were decided upon to “restore order, both (i) ecologically and (ii) legally.” Th ese recommendations centered on increased control over Maasai movements of livestock and an increased police presence in NCA.74 Th e report of this visit makes no mention that it took place in the midst of a drought. Th ere is no thought that poor range conditions and the Maasai’s use of the forest for grazing might be related to the inter-year variability of the NCA’s climate. Later, Fosbrooke acknowledged the “extraordinary recuperative power” of the NCA’s vegetation following the end of this drought.75 Th is awareness of the area’s variability and dynamic nature had no eff ect on the livestock development plans laid out in the same document. Th e Tanganyikan government generally accepted the Advisory Board’s recommendations, except that the government thought it best to go slowly on “freeing the Crater from human occupation.”76 Th e government did not formally respond to the idea of a permanent, statutory Advisory Board, but granted implied permission for it to continue operating. Th e result was a formal amendment of the Ngorongoro Conservation Ordinance in 1963, which gave legal standing to almost all of the reforms that Fosbrooke set in motion. Only the Advisory Board failed to receive statutory status, but from

72 C. Mace, Letter to Members of the Advisory Board, 18 December 1961, NCAAA. 73 Fosbrooke, Appendix III cit., p. 1. 74 Ibid., p. 2. 75 Fosbrooke, Appendix III cit.; Annual Report of the Ngorongoro Conservation Unit cit., pp. 5, 31-35. 76 Mace, Letter to Members of the Advisory Board cit. GE101 a practical point of view this mattered little as it continued to oper- ate as though it had through the 1960s and early 1970s.77 The basic forms of the present NCA were essentially set down in 1963 and only superficially modified in 1975. The 1975 legislation’s two major changes were the replacement of the non-statutory Advi- sory Board with a formal Board of Directors and the prohibition of cultivation anywhere in the NCA.78 This last point is less important than it might first appear, as one of Fosbrooke’s first acts after being armed with his new authority in 1963 was an official rule prohibit- ing cultivation in ninety percent of the NCA, limiting it to land near the village of Endulen in the west of the NCA.79 The 1975 legislation essentially gave domestic legal standing to patterns of governance that were already formally and informally part of the NCA.80 It should by now be clear that Fosbrooke’s ideas and efforts were a critical part of the development of governance forms at the NCA. Even after retiring from the post of Conservator in 1965, his involvement with the NCA and Maasai issues continued up until his death in 1996. A number of factors relating to Fosbrooke need to be taken into account when assessing his legacy. In some circles, especially international “indigenous peoples” advocates campaign- ing on behalf of the Maasai of the NCA and elsewhere in Tanzania, Fosbrooke is seen as an almost saintly figure whose time as Conser- vator of the NCA was a “golden” age for its residents.81 What this article has aimed to make clear is that while Fosbrooke was perhaps

77 Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Report, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1967; S.A. Ole-Saibull, “The Policy Process: The Case of Conservation in the Ngorongoro Highlands”, Tanzania Notes and Records, 83, 1978. 78 Games Parks Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act (No. 14 of 1975 ), Tanzania. 79 Ngorongoro’s Annual Report 1963 cit., p. 15 80 For an alternative discussion which emphasizes the formal legal importance of the 1975 legislation, see Shivji, Kapinga, Maasai Rights cit.. 81 International non-governmental organization activist, interview with author, 5 March 1996, Arusha, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of author); M. Loft, Conservation of Nature, Common Sense and Fair Play for the Underdog: An Obituary for the Late Henry Fosbrooke, CBE, 10.10.1998 - 25.4.1996, unpublished.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 102 TableTable 1. 1:Composition Composition of NCA of Advisory NCA Board Advisory and Senior StaffBoard and Senior Staff

Advisory Advisory NCAA Senior NCAA Senior Board, Board, non- Staff, Staff, non- Tanzanian Tanzanian Tanzanian Tanzanian 1964 7 9 5 6 1965 9 10 6 5 1966 8 11 4 5 1967 8 11 3 4

Sources: Tanzania, Annual Report of the Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Minis- trySources of Agriculture,: Tanzania, Forests,Annual and Report Wildlife, of the Dar Ngorongoro es Salaam, Conservation Tanzania Unit1964;, Ministry Tanzania, of AnnualAgriculture, Report Forests, of theand NgorongoroWildlife, Dar esConservation Salaam, Tanzania Unit, 1964; Ministry Tanzania, of AnnualAgriculture, Report ofFor- the ests,Ngorongoro and Wildlife, Conservation Dar Unites Salaam,, Ministry Tanzania of Agriculture, 1965. Forests, Tanzania, and Wildlife, Annual Dar Report es Salaam, of the NgorongoroTanzania 1965. Conservation Tanzania, Annual Unit, ReportMinistry of theof Agriculture, Ngorongoro Conservation Forests, and Unit Wildlife,, Ministry Dar of Agriculture, Forests, and Wildlife, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1966; Tanzania, Annual Report of the esNgorongoro Salaam, Tanzania Conservation 1966; Unit Tanzania,, Ministry Annual of Agriculture Report andof the Cooperatives, Ngorongoro Dar Conservation es Salaam, Unit,Tanzania Ministry 1967. of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1967

somewhat more sympathetic to and knowledgeable about the Maa- sai than other Europeans and non-Maasai Tanzanians involved with the management of the NCA, he was nonetheless a creature of his time and both a product of and an eff ective agent for the then prevailing discourses on conservation and pastoralist development. Th is is not to demonize Fosbrooke, but instead to draw a more nuanced and accurate picture of his tenure at the NCA and the ideas that informed the governance system which he helped to put in place. The Dirschl Management Plan Salomon ole Saibull became the fi rst Tanzanian Conservator of the NCA when he replaced Henry Fosbrooke in February 1965. Th is was part of a general trend towards Africanization of the Tanzanian civil service which had been called for in the 1963 report of the Africaniza- tion Commission. However, the Commission also noted a temporary need for expatriate technical staff 82. Few Africans had experience with

82 R. Yeager, Tanzania: An African Experiment, Westview Press, Boulder, CO 1989, pp. 36-37. 1 GE103 Table 2. Interests Represented on the NCA Advisory Bo- ardTable 2: Interests Represented on the NCA Advisory Board

NCA Tanzani Tanzani Tourist “Masai” Research Inter- Conserv. an an Local Interests Interests national Central Govt. (a) (b) Interests Govt. 1964 1 3 2 2 1 3 4 1965 1 3 2 2 2 3 6 1966 1 3 2 1 2 3 6 1967 (c) 1 3 2 2 2 3 6

(a) Tourist interests were also represented by the Principal Secretary of the Sources: Tanzania, Annual Report of the Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ministry of Agriculture, MinistryForests, and of Information Wildlife, Dar and es Salaam,Tourism Tanzania and some 1964; tourism Tanzania, sector Annual representatives Report of are the listedNgorongoro as representing Conservation “local Unit, interests”; Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, and Wildlife, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania(b) The 1965. representatives Tanzania, Annual of Report“Maasai of theinterests” Ngorongoro were Conservation not residents Unit of, Ministrythe NCA; of (c)Agriculture, Not included Forests, inand this Wildlife, row isDar the es Salaam,Director Tanzania of Tanzania 1966; Tanzania, National Annual Parks Report who ofrep the- Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Dar es Salaam, resentsTanzania “local 1967. interests” on the 1967 Advisory Board Sources: Tanzania, Annual Report of the Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Minis- try of Agriculture, Forests, and Wildlife, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1964; Tanzania, AnnualNotes: (a) Report Tourist of interests the Ngorongoro were also representedConservation by theUnit, Principal Ministry Secretary of Agriculture, of the Ministry For of- ests,Information and Wildlife, and Tourism Dar and es some Salaam, tourism Tanzania sector representatives 1965. Tanzania, are listed Annual as representing Report of “local the interests”; (b) The representatives of “Maasai interests” were not residents of the NCA; (c) Not Ngorongoroincluded in this Conservation row is the Director Unit, ofMinistry Tanzania of National Agriculture, Parks who Forests, represents and Wildlife,“local interests” Dar eson Salaam,the 1967 AdvisoryTanzania Board. 1966; Tanzania, Annual Report of the Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1967 or an interest in wildlife conservation, so the conservation sector was one of the areas most in need of non-African personnel in order to carry out the vision advanced at the 1961 Arusha Conference. This dependence on Americans and Europeans can be seen by looking at the composition of the NCA’s Advisory Board and senior staff during the mid-1960s (Table 1). During the mid-1960s, non-Tanzanians almost always outnumbered Tanzanians on the Board and in senior staff positions. The influence of the 1961 Arusha Bargain is also illustrated by the “interests” represented by the various members of the Advisory Board during this same period (Table 2), “international interests” being the largest category of members.83

83 Tables 1-2 only cover the years of 1964 to 1967 because comprehensive data for the post-1967 period is unavailable. The unpublished report for the period 1968

2 RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 104 Canada provided and funded a signifi cant number of the NCA’s non-Tanzanian senior staff during the second part of the 1960s. Th e nature of the jobs performed by these Canadian staff and their positions in the NCA’s hierarchy illustrate the NCA’s reliance upon international knowledge and discourses. In 1966, both the NCA’s Conservation Ecologist and Game Biologist were Canadians, as was the NCA’s Ecologist in 1967. Tellingly, the positions of Conservation Ecologist and Ecologist were listed second in the “Staff ” sections of the 1966 and 1967 Annual Reports respectively, just underneath the position of Conservator and above that of Senior Assistant Conser- vator. 84 In addition to the Canadian aid, the NCA was also receiving assistance from the U.S. Peace Corps and various British sources. In 1965, an unrelated rift between the British and Tanzanian governments in 1965 terminated British aid.85 Th e U.S. Peace Corps aid went toward fi lling an important senior staff position, fi rst known as “Assist. Conservator (Technical)” and later as “Assist. Conservator (Forests),” during this period.86 Th e most important product of this period of intensive Canadian involvement in the NCA was H. J. Dirschl’s Management and Develop- ment Plan for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area from 1966. Th is plan illustrates how the ideas developed during the Fosbrooke period had become deeply entrenched in the NCA’s governance system. Dirschl explicitly described his plan as building on and “shar[ing] the objectives” of the fi rst 1960 plan, Fosbrooke’s 1962 revised management plan, and W. J. Eggeling’s 1962 report to the Tanganyikan government on Fosbrooke’s proposals.87 Dirschl adopted Eggeling’s proposed

to 1982 blames this breakdown in record keeping in part on the “conservation controversy” and then the transfer of the NCA to the “newly created Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism,” see NCAA, Annual Reports 1968-1982, NCAAA, p. 9. 84 Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Report 1966 cit., pp. 11, 18-19; Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Report 1967 cit., p. 6. 85 Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Report 1965 cit., pp. iv, 6-7. 86 Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Report 1964 cit., pp. v, 7. 87 H.J. Dirschl, Management and Development Plan for the Ngorongoro Conser- GE105 “governmental directive” word for word as a strategic guide for the elements of his 1966 plan, writing, “The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is not only the home of resident Maasai and of their stock, and an important source of water for adjoining lands, it is also world-famous for the abundance and variety of its wildlife in a unique scenic setting. For these reasons it is an asset both of national importance and of international significance.”88 Dirschl, Eggeling, and the Tanganyikan government, which supported this directive, thus applied the core concept of the Arusha Bargain to the specific case of the NCA. Later in his proposed directive, Eggeling stated that a “stable [natural] environment ... is essential for the achievement of ... conservation and rational development of the long-term objectives of the Area.” 89 There are two major features of interest in this portion of the directive. First, there is the assumption that environmental stability is not only desirable, but also possible in the Ngorongoro area. In fact, the opposite is true; variability and heterogeneity characterize the climate and landscape of northern Tanzania. When he reviewed previous research in the NCA, Dirschl did acknowledge that “few studies of vegetation- al aspects have been carried out in the Conservation Area.”90 It seems clear that Eggeling’s vision, and Dirschl’s acceptance of this vision, was based more on a broader quasi-ecological discourse of stability and equilibrium than on empirical knowledge of the NCA. 91 A second element of Dirschl’s proposed directive, which requires comment, is its call for “rational development.”92 Implicit in this phrase was a criticism of the “irrational” nature of pastoralist natural vation Area, Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, and Wildlife, Dar es Salaam, Tanza- nia 1966, p. 1. 88 Ibid., pp. 2-3. 89 Ibid., p. 4. 90 Ibid., p. 52. 91 For discussions of the highly variable nature of the NCA’s ecology and pastoralist adaptations to this variability, see Homewood, Rodgers, Maasailand Ecol- ogy cit.; J.T. McCabe, “Disequilibrial Ecosystems and Livelihood Diversification among the Maasai of Northern Tanzania: Implications for Conservation Policy in Eastern Africa”, Nomadic Peoples, 7, 2003. 92 Dirschl, Management and Development Plan cit., p. 44.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 106 resource use and management, a discourse with a long history and considerable staying power amongst some conservation and development experts. Th is critique of pastoralism was made more explicit when Dirschl stated, “It is well agreed that lasting economic progress for the Maasai has to be based on the acceptance of modern range management and farming methods which are incompatible with no- madism.”93 However, Dirschl did not say exactly who had “agreed” to this proposition, and in the section of the plan which reviewed previous research in the NCA, there was no mention of any studies that supported this position.94 Like the emphasis on the importance of environmental stability, this characterization of pastoralism was based primarily on existing discourses rather than fi eld research. When looking at Dirschl’s specifi c proposals for the governance of the NCA, two more elements illustrate how it reinforced and elaborat- ed on the previously established pattern of top-down, expert-led governance. Th e fi rst element of the plan to be considered is more process- oriented: how decisions should be made, who should be consulted, and in what forums. Th e second element focuses on Dirschl’s elaborate proposal to divide the NCA into seventeen “land-use zones.”95 In terms of process and administrative organization, Dirschl argued that the Advisory Board needed additional scientifi c and technical expertise in the form of more “ex offi cio” scientifi c members and also a “scientifi c sub-committee.” 96 As a result of Dirschl’s advice, the Director of Tanzania National Parks and later the Director of the Ser- engeti Wildlife Research Institute were added to the Advisory Board.97 Dirschl did acknowledge “misunderstandings” between the area’s residents and the NCA’s management.98 However, he supported the earlier exclusion of local “Maasai elders” from the original committee-like Ngorongoro Conservation Authority because their “mistrust” of the

93 Ibid., p. 52. 94 Ibid., pp. 52-60. 95 Ibid., pp. 84-108. 96 Ibid., pp. 75-76. 97 Ngorongoro Conservation Unit, Ngorongoro’s Annual Report 1967 cit., p. 6 98 Dirschl, Management and Development Plan cit., p. 77 GE107 government had made this situation “unworkable.” 99 Dirschl’s solution was the creation of a “permanent forum” consisting of “an informal group of local residents ... in order to keep the resident human population informed regarding the operation of the Conservation Unit, and conversely to inform the Unit staff of the wishes and problems of the people.”100 However, this “informal group” was to have no real power to make or change management decisions. In general, zonation schemes are an important way of “seeing” and controlling non-human nature and social relationships with this nature.101 Dirschl’s land use plan is a clear example of this phenomenon. He stated that the NCA “falls quite logically into 17 separate units” and that following his proposals “will result in a sound and natural development of the natural resources of the Ngorongoro Conserva- tion Area.”102 As with his use of the word “rational” to position indigenous pastoralist practices as “irrational,” Dirschl was deploying “logical” in this section of the plan to implicitly argue that other, non-scientific ways of knowing and describing the NCA’s landscape would be “illogical.” Dirschl aimed to eliminate all Maasai use of four of the seventeen zones, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Northern Highland Forest Reserve, Olaoti Forest, and Empakaai Crater, and to remove Maasai settlements from another two zones, the Western Escarpment Highlands and South Oldupai-Doloinya.103 Over time, a number of these removals have indeed taken place. Today, Maasai settlements are not allowed in either of the Craters nor in the Forests, and access to these resources is restricted.104 In nine of the remaining eleven zones, Dirschl wanted to concentrate and to some degree sedentarize the resident Maasai through the provision of water and

99 Ibid. 100 Ibid., p. 78. 101 For a discussion of these processes of “seeing,” see J.C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 1998. 102 Dirschl, Management and Development Plan cit., p. 73. 103 Ibid., pp. 84-85. 104 Homewood, Rogers, Maasailand Ecology cit.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 108 improved pasture, as well as the introduction of “sound range management involving fenced pastures and rotational grazing.”105

Links Between the Past and Present in the NCA

Of what importance are the events and ideas of thirty years ago to the more recent management of the NCA? Th e argument here is that the legacy of this period still has a powerful eff ect on the contemporary governance of the NCA and continuing attempts to make it live up to its promise of “multiple use.” A set of discourses about conservation and pastoralism took root in the NCA soon after its creation, and the governance structures of the NCA remain little changed despite the passage of time and seeming impact of new ideas and even “paradigms.” Th e longevity of the NCA’s governance framework illustrates the need for a multi-dimensional vision of governance, as in this case where power and interest have been critical elements in the long-term maintenance of governance patterns in the NCA. Recent developments have left the basic governance relationships between international actors, the Tanzanian state, and local Maasai basically unchanged even if some of the details and some specifi c actor interests are altered. Ultimate authority in the NCA still rests with the Conservator who is responsible only to the NCA’s Board of Directors and the central government, not to the residents of the NCA. Th e Tanzanian legal analysts Issa Shivji and Wilbert Kapinga argue that this arrange- ment is “in breach of the constitutional rights of the Maasai.”106 Res- ident Maasai participation in the management of the NCA is virtually non-existent. Th e Board of Directors generally has two Maasai members: the Chair of the Ngorongoro District Council and the MP for Ngorongoro District. However, when the Board met to approve the NCA General Management Plan in March 1996, none of

105 Ibid., p. 85. 106 Shivji, Kapinga, Maasai Rights cit., p. 44. GE109 the Board members were actual residents of the NCA.107 Attempts by residents to develop or empower themselves, often with the support of international NGOs and donors, have generally been met with resistance by the NCA Authority. In fact, a recent Conservator attempted to reserve to himself the right to approve or disapprove the operation of any NGOs inside the NCA.108 There has been NCAA support for a Pastoral Council which would advise the Conservator. However, like the “informal group” proposed by Dirschl in 1966, this Council has no formal legal standing or authority.109 The NCA Authority continues to insist that it should have a virtual monopoly over all development efforts aimed at the residents of the NCA. NCAA officials cite the powers and responsibilities granted to them by the 1975 legislation, but the roots of this claim can be traced back to the Fosbrooke era and the 1962 Management Plan for the NCA.110 The primary focus and successes of the NCA have been in the area of wildlife conservation rather than the development of the Maasai, or in even helping them to maintain their pre-NCA standard of living.111 This point was even acknowledged by the 1990 report of the Ad Hoc Ministerial Commission on Ngorongoro commissioned by the Tan- zanian government.112 There is unfortunately significant evidence that the Maasai residents of the NCA are not benefiting from wildlife conservation and tourism in the area. In 2004, the Ngorongoro District, of which the NCA compromises about half of the district, led Tan-

107 NCAA, General Management Plan cit. 108 E.B. Chausi, Re: NGOs Operating in the NCA, 1995, NCAAA. 109 Shivji, Kapinga, Maasai Rights cit., p. 61. 110 NCAA senior staff, interview with author, 30 May 1997, Ngorongoro Cra- ter, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of author). NCAA Board member, interview with author, 6 June 1997, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of author). 111 However, even the conservation effectiveness of the NCA is coming under scrutiny. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee (WHC) dispatched a Reactive Monitoring Mission to the NCA in 2007 because of concerns about the area. See UNESCO WHC, Ngorongoro Conservation Area cit. 112 A Conservation and Development Strategy for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area: Report of the Ad Hoc Ministerial Committee on Ngorongoro, NCAA, Tanzania 1990.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 110 zania in maternal deaths, at a rate of 15.6 per 1,000 pregnancies.113 Evidence of the partial demise of the very livestock economy that the NCA was supposed to promote comes from increasing importance of small-scale subsistence agriculture to Maasai residents. Despite research that indicates that this extremely limited cultivation of maize and other food crops is having and will likely have no eff ect on the NCA’s conservation values, the NCAA is opposed to any agriculture in the NCA. Agriculture was specifi cally forbidden in the current General Management Plan, and it continues today only because of the direct intervention of the President of Tanzania.114 Secrecy is still a major feature of the governance of the NCA. In 1997, it was discovered that the NCAA intended to try and gain formal, legal title to the land of the NCA. Th is would essentially remove all Maasai claims to village land ownership and control. Th is was not publicly revealed by the NCAA or its Board, but came out through the MP for Ngorongoro who was an ex offi cio member of the Board.115 Since then, the NCAA has been prevented from securing full and formal de jure title to the land. However, it receives all the lease revenue from tourist lodges located inside the NCA and thus has de facto ownership in this important economic sphere.116 International conservation organizations and donors still play a large, if not the leading, role in the NCA. Th e IUCN organized the Ngorongoro Conservation and Development Project in the late 1980s

113 B. Abdul-Aziz, “Ngorongoro Leads in Maternal Deaths,” Guardian, 26 April 2004. 114 R.B. Boone, M.B. Coughenour, K.A. Galvin, and J.E. Ellis, “Addressing Management Questions for Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, Using the SAVANNA Modeling System”, African Journal of Ecology, 40, 2002; J. T. McCabe, “Sustainability and Livelihood Diversifi cation among the Maasai of Northern Tan- zania”, Human Organization, 62, 2003; NCAA, General Management Plan cit. 115 M. Olle Timan, Th e Future is Uncertain for the Maasai Residence of NCA, paper presented at Community Donor/Supporter Meeting on Multiple Land Use in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, London, 27-29 August 1997. 116 N. Kipuri and C. Sorensen, Poverty, Pastoralism and Policy in Ngorongoro, ERETO/IIED 2008, p. 12; PINGOs Forum, Ngorongoro Issues Task Force: Report Held at the Lutheran Hostels, Karatu, April 6th – 7th 2006, PINGOs Forum, http:// www.pingosforum.net/reports/advocacy/TaskforceMeetingKaratu_.pdf GE111 and provided extensive technical and material assistance with the most recent General Management Plan.117 While the process of writing the plan did see a fair degree of local involvement, the plan was changed afterwards in a number of important areas by the Board of Directors, and its final approval was resisted by many residents of the NCA.118, 119 The Frankfurt Zoological Society, brought to the NCA by the Grzimeks, is responsible for rhino conservation in the Crater and has been a major supporter of the NCA Authority in its current form.120 The African Wildlife Fund, successor to the African Wildlife Leadership Fund, helped to organize and facilitate a number of workshops between local residents and the NCA Authority. However, like the Pastoral Council, these workshops and the residents participating in them had no formal authority or role in management and policy decisions.121 The Arusha Bargain of 1961 was most recently reaffirmed when a UNESCO-

117 D.M. Thompson (ed.),Multiple Land-Use: The Experience of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland 1997. 118 The extent of these changes can be seen by comparing NCAA, Board of Directors Review Draft General Management Plan, 1995, NCAAA; NCAA, Pub- lic Review Draft General Management Plan, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1995; NCAA, General Management Plan cit. The two most important changes made by the Board were its deciding against allowing cultivation in the NCA and its decision to not seek a formal legal opinion on the land tenure status of the NCA. 119 Enkigwana Ee Ramat, video, Forest Trees and People Programme, Uppsala, Sweden 1996; C.R. Rugumayo, The Politics of Conservation Area Management: On Actors, Interface, and Participation. The Case of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tan- zania, Ph.D. diss., Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 1997; International Resources Group, The Case of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region Tanzania. Appendix 4 of the EPIQ Assessment of Lessons Learned from Community Conservation in Tanzania, http//www.frameweb. org/CtrRegHome/tanzania.html, 2000; Endulen village government official, interview with author, 10 September 1996, Endulen, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of the author); Ngorongoro Maasai non-governmental organization leader, interview with author, 11 September 1996, Olbalbal, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of the author). 120 FZS senior staff, interview with author, 12 September 1996, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of the author). 121 AWF senior staff, interview with author, 8 April 1997, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of the author).

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 112 sponsored “Reactive Monitoring Mission” to the NCA consulted only with Tanzanian state offi cials and whose closest contact with the NCA’s residents appear to have been while fl ying over the area.122 Quite often, conservation organizations working in the NCA follow a pattern of secrecy similar to that of the NCA Authority and are unwilling to discuss in any detail their projects inside the NCA.123 DANIDA, the Danish development organization, has been attempting to organize and fund a Maasai development project separate from the NCA Authority. Th e reasons for this initiative lie in a complex history of Danish involvement in the NCA and Dan- ish domestic politics.124 On one side, DANIDA has met considerable resistance from the NCAA and its parent ministry, while it has been criticized from the other by advocates for indigenous peoples in Denmark.125 Originally, DANIDA’s planning documents called for development of an alternative system of pastoral development governance outside the NCAA’s control. Th is generally proved to be impossible as the NCAA has been unwilling to relinquish any control over development projects inside the NCA. As a result, the Ereto Ngorongoro Pastoralist Project has been primarily focused on technical restocking, veterinary medicine, and water development exercises rather than pushing for major governance changes.126

122 UNESCO, Ngorongoro Conservation Area cit., p. 22. 123 IUCN-East Africa senior staff , interview with author, 22 May 1997, Nai- robi, Kenya (handwritten notes in possession of the author). 124 DANIDA, A Broad Outline on Previous and Planned Danish Assistance to the Pastoralists of the NCA, paper presented at Community Donor/Supporter Meet- ing on Multiple Land Use in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, London, 27-29 August 1997. 125 Natural Peoples World, Phase I of Economic Recovery Programme for NCA Pastoral- ists, Project Proposal Document, 1994, provided to author by NPW staff ; NCAA senior staff , interview with the author, 7 March 1996, Arusha, Tanzania (handwritten notes in possession of author); DANIDA offi cial, interview with the author, 25 September 1996, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (handwritten notes in the possession of author). 126 D. Bourn, An Appraisal of Pastoral Production Potential in Relation to the Continued Intervention by the ERETO Ngorongoro Pastoralist Project, Environmen- tal Research Group, Oxford 2002; N. Kipuri and C. Sorensen, Poverty, Pastoralism and Policy in Ngorongoro, Ereto NPP, Tanzania 2008. GE113 Implications for Contemporary Protected Area Governance Two major lessons emerge from this study of governance in the NCA. First, governance is a complicated and multi-dimensional concept where power, forms of knowledge, and actor interests need to be considered. Reducing it to idealistic notions of “good governance” is insufficient and likely to be counterproductive. Second, it is clear that contemporary governance processes often have deep historical roots. Those interested in more effective protected area governance should pay greater attention to the histories of the sites where they work. One major factor linking these two lessons is complexity. Neither governance nor history is simple and straightfor- ward. Effective governance that serves both conservation values and human needs must be based on vision that recognizes and appreci- ates the role of complexity. Adaptive management with its emphasis on participation and open decision-making provides one pathway to incorporate complexity in protected area governance. The basic parameters of the NCA’s governance system are by no means unique in sub-Saharan Africa. As with almost all protected areas, there are a wide variety of actors, state and non-state, domestic and international. These various actors have an equally diverse and often conflicting collection of discursive visions about the forms, functions, and role of the protected area and its resources. As in the Ngorongoro case, power can take a number of forms, and it is unevenly distributed amongst the various actors. Out of such complex stews of actors, discourses, and power emerge the formal and informal rules that govern protected areas. The South Africa National Parks experience in the wake of the end of apartheid in 1994 has been very similar to the NCA case in a number of ways. In both cases, there was a convergence of interests and visions between state and international actors, and generally the exclusion or minimal involvement of local peoples in the process of transforming South Africa’s national parks system.127

127 P. Rogers, Taming the South African Wildlife Sector: International Conservation and the Kruger National Park Region of Southern Africa, paper presented at 2001

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 114 One failing of many contemporary conservation projects is their inability or unwillingness to come to terms with the complex histories of the lands and peoples aff ected by their initiatives. Th e recently completed UNESCO-sponsored Reactive Monitoring Mission to Ngorongoro contains no information on, or consideration of, the history of the NCA, apparently assuming technical solutions to contemporary problems can be created in a state of historical ignorance.128 When conservationists acknowledge history, it can be a simplifi ed and romanticized history that celebrates the conservation project and great fi gures, usually non- Africans. One classic case was Dian Fossey of Gorillas in the Mist fame, who become an international icon for her work with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda even though her actual behavior in the fi eld was deeply problematic and in many ways counterproductive to her stated goal.129 In his book, Wildlife Wars, Richard Leakey devotes approximately two pages to the creation of Kenya’s national park system in his ‘good guy/ bad guy’ story of conservation in that country.130 It should be noted that simplifying and romanticizing history is not a monopoly of conservationists. Th e Maasai have been one of a number of African pastoralist communities that have taken up the banner of “indigenousness” as a strategy of political empower- ment.131 However, the histories promoted by such indigenous peoples and their advocates can be as one-dimensional and self-serving as those told by some conservationists.132 Numerous empirical and theoretical studies have demonstrated

International Studies Association Convention, Chicago, IL, February 21-24 2001. 128 UNESCO WHC, Ngorongoro Conservation Area cit. 129 D. Fossey, Gorillas in the Mist, Houghton Miﬄ in, Boston 1983; H. Hayes, Th e Dark Romance of Dian Fossey, Simon & Schuster, New York 1990. 130 R. Leakey and V. Morell, Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa’s Natural Treasures, St. Martin’s Press, New York 2001, pp. 29-30. 131 See D. Hodgson, “Introduction: Comparative on Perspectives on the In- digenous Rights Movement in Africa and the Americas”, American Anthropologist, 104, 4, 2002. 132 Author’s own observations doing fi eldwork in Tanzania in 1996-97; J. Igoe, “Becoming Indigenous Peoples: Diff erence, Inequality, and the Globalization of East African Identity Politics”, Africa Aff airs, 105, 420, 2006. GE115 that even when complexity has been acknowledged, top-down au- thoritarian governance systems face extreme difficulties trying to manage situations of social and natural complexity effectively.133 At- tempts at the intensive management of a protected area by a techno- cratic elite with significant resources still create significant social and ecological problems such as in South Africa’s Kruger National Park during the heyday of the apartheid period.134 Dryzek’s theoretical analysis of the weakness of “administered hierarchies” highlights their inability to handle situations with “high degrees of uncertainty, variability, and complexity.”135 Unfortunately for the peoples and lands of the Ngorongoro region, historical processes have resulted in just such an administered hierarchy governance model for the NCA. By way of a concluding thought, this article suggests adaptive management as a means for overcoming the governance challenges posed by complexity. While originally promoted as a way to better manage variable and heterogeneous natural landscapes, adaptive management also provides a governance model for enhancing social outcomes.136 Open and participatory governance systems result in better quality decisions and higher levels of social support for such decisions.137 As this model of protected area governance is adopted

133 See, e.g., W. Adams, “When Nature Won’t Stay Still: Conservation, Equi- librium, and Control”, in W. Adams and M. Mulligan (eds), Decolonizing Na- ture, Earthscan, London 2003, pp. 220-246; A. Chase, Playing God in Yellowstone, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego 1987; P. Pavlinek and J. Pickles, Environ- mental Transitions: Transformation and Ecological Defence in Central and Eastern Europe, Routledge, London 2000. 134 D. Mabunda, D. Pienaar, and J. Verhoef, “The Kruger National Park: A Century of Management and Research”, in J.T. du Toit, K.H. Rogers, and H.C. Biggs (eds), The Kruger Experience. Ecology and Management of Savanna Heteroge- neity, Island Press, Washington 2003, pp. 3-21. 135 R. Dryzek, Rational Ecology: Environment and Political Economy, Basil Blackwell, New York, 1987, pp. 107-109. 136 H. Biggs and K. Rogers, “An Adaptive System to Link Science, Monitoring, and Management in Practice,” in Rogers, Biggs (eds), The Kruger Experience cit., pp. 59-80. 137 Dryzek, Rational Ecology cit, pp. 216-229.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / ROGERS 116 elsewhere in the world, it is to be hoped that the weight of history can be overcome, and this governance model fi nds its way to the NCA.

GE117 Macroeconomic and Environmental History: The Impact of Currency Depreciation on forests in British India, 1873-1893*

Sashi Sivramkrishna wish the Committee to bear this fact prominently in mind, that right throughout the statement I have to make, the one diﬃ culty with which the Indian Government have to contend is the fall in exchange—it has a blighting and withering infl uence in every direction. I Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of State for (British) India.1 Introduction

Th e impact of macroeconomic variables on the environment has been widely explored by economists and policy analysts. Th ese studies have, however, by and large dealt with contemporary concerns. Since the 1980s many developing countries facing severe macroeconomic imbalances have been forced to adopt structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). Such programmes, it is argued, have had an adverse impact on their environment, particularly under the form of increased rates of deforestation. In this paper, I attempt to study something similar, though not quite the same. In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, India went through a distinctive phase in terms of the value and stability of its currency, the rupee. Th is is evident in Graph 1, which shows the exchange rate of the rupee between 1835 and 1914.2 Th e periods 1835 to 1873 and 1893 to 1914 were clearly ones of relative stability in the rupee-sterling exchange rate as compared to the period 1873-1893, over which the rupee depreciated by almost 50 per cent. Th is exogenously induced disturbance in currency value aff ected several other macroeconomic elements, including the quantum of home charges that had to be remitted annually to Brit- ain, government revenues and expenditure, debt and investment, and foreign trade. Did these macroeconomic changes, which are akin to certain eff ects of SAPs, have an impact on India’s environment? Find- ing an answer to this question defi nes the objective of this paper. Th e issue is hitherto unexplored in Indian environmental history. I begin with a search through some recent studies on SAPs and the environment for possible linkages between macroeconomic and

* Th e author gratefully acknowledges the criticisms and suggestions of the editor and referees. However, responsibility for fi nal contents of this article is solely the author’s 1 UK Parliament Proceedings, 4 September 1895, http://hansard.millbanksystems. com/commons/1895/sep/04/east-india-revenue-accounts#S4V0036P0_18950904_ HOC_44. 2 £-s-d or pounds-shillings-pence was the pre-decimal coinage of Britain in which 12 pence (12d.) = 1 shilling and 20 shillings (20s.) = £1. Th is made 240d. = £1. GE119 GraphGraph 1. Sterling-Rupee 1. Sterling-Rupee exchange rate exchange rate

10 Pence per rupee per Pence 5

0 1835-6 1841-2 1847-8 1853-4 1860-1 1866-7 1872-3 1878-9 1884-5 1890-1 1896-7 1902-3 1908-9 1914-5 Year

Source: B.R. Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency & Banking, Second Impression, ThackerSource: and B.R. Company Ambedkar, Limited, History Bombay, of Indian 1947, pp.66-67 Currency and & 174. Banking , Second Impres- sion, Thacker and Company Limited, Bombay, 1947, pp.66-67 and 174.

environmental variables. Having done so, I present an abridged account of India’s currency history from 1835 to 1917 followed by a qualitative evaluation of the discourses during and of that period on how this currency depreciation had a “blighting and withering” - though sometimes quite the opposite - influence on various macroeconomic elements. If indeed the macroeconomic impact of a falling rupee was as significant as it was made out to be by commentators of that time, then it is my contention that the ensuing effect on the environment could also have been important. The environment-sensitive variables I have chosen to investigate are restricted to those related, directly or indirectly, to forests, such

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 120 as revenues from forests and forestry, timber exports, increased area under cultivation of food and commercial crops, expansion of plantations, a slowing down or increased investment in sectors like the railways and public works, and forest policy.3 Given that we fi nd only sparse mention of specifi c and direct linkages between the rupee-sterling exchange rate and the environment, I will attempt to deduce possible connections in two stages: fi rst, between currency depreciation and various macroeconomic phenomena; second, between these macroeconomic phenomena and environmentally sensitive variables. Moreover, since currency depreciation could have aff ected environmentally sensitive variables in contradictory directions, and many of the eff ects are not discretely observable in quantitative data, the nature of my analysis will be more exploratory than computational. Th e fi nal section will summarize the justifi cation for and fi ndings of my study, and in doing so will also critique Indian environmental historical research, which I believe has either failed to recognize or not given adequate importance to the environmental impact of macroeconomic disturbances.

The Contemporary Discourse on SAPs and the Environment

As mentioned in the Introduction above, this paper perceives an analogy between the impact of the World Bank’s SAPs on the environment and the depreciation of the rupee in the nineteenth century. It is important for me to make clear that my brief review of contemporary discourse on SAPs is not intended to be an evaluation of empirical results or methodologies adopted by these studies; rather, its purpose is specifi cally to cull out articulated theoretical linkages between macroeconomic and environmental variables. I will then attempt to make a case of their relevance and importance in the context of Indian history. Th e oil shock of the 1970s, growing foreign debt, mismanagement of domestic economies, and the tightening of interest rates

3 Other variables pertaining to the environment like soil erosion, wildlife, biodiversity and water resources have been left out of our study. GE121 on foreign borrowings led to a financial crisis in many developing countries in the 1980s. As growth rates plummeted and unemploy- ment soared in these countries, their governments turned to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for bail-out packages to service their debt and allow them continued access to foreign loans. However, these packages came with a set of terms and conditions widely referred to as “structural adjustment programs”, or SAPs, which aimed at comprehensive economic reform of their financially unsound domestic economies and unsustainable policies and programs. It is not the objectives of SAPs, namely growth, efficiency, alleviation of poverty and sustainable development, that are per se controversial. Rather, opponents to these market-oriented reforms contend that the various instruments of SAPs lead to outcomes that are in fact contrary to the stated objectives, amongst which is their negative impact on environment and sustainability. Broadly speaking, SAPs have promoted the removal of all kinds of distortions in the internal and external tax structure, price controls, subsidies, fiscal policies and asset ownership to allow economies to become more competitive and their production more in line with resource endowments and comparative advantage. Among the instruments and policies implemented under SAPs, of specific interest to us are: • Devaluation of domestic currency4 • Reduction of fiscal deficits • Increased inflow of foreign investment One way that crisis-ridden countries can alleviate their difficulties in servicing foreign debt is by letting the market determine exchange rates between domestic and foreign currencies, and then opening their economies to foreign trade. Exchange rates are essentially the price of home currency vis-à-vis foreign currencies and should reflect market demand for and supply of currencies. An overvalued currency, i.e., an excessively high price of domestic currency encourages imports but makes exports uncompetitive, thereby putting a country’s trade ac-

4 Devaluation is a planned and purposefully executed correction in exchange rates, whereas depreciation in currency value is an outcome of market forces.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 122 count in perpetual defi cit. If countries are to be in a position to service their debts by having a trade account surplus, a devaluation of their home currency is essential, so that exports become more competitive and imports costlier. For many underdeveloped countries, given their comparative advantage in primary products like minerals and metal ores, agricultural commodities and forest produce, currency devaluation and the consequent increased exportation of these products are expected to adversely impact the environment. An example is Mali, where SAPs led to an increase in the area under cotton cultivation from 14,000 acres in 1960 to 63,000 in 1993.5 However, many studies have found no overriding empirical evidence to wholly support the claim of pessimists who reject SAPs in toto. Countries which do not have a comparative advantage in these environmentally sensitive goods would actually not see any increase in their rates of deforestation. On the other hand, those countries which do have a comparative advantage in such products, and are forest-rich, may experience an increase in exports with “a negative impact on the forest and biodiversity sectors, although they would contribute to the overall economic restructuring”.6 Nonetheless, I will attempt to study the relevance of this linkage between exchange rate changes and environmental variables in Indian history. Another important policy in SAPs is the control and correction of domestic fi scal or budgetary imbalances. Many developing countries were spending in excess of their revenue earning capacities because of internal mismanagement and external shocks. Th e consequences of budgetary defi cits were many and serious: high infl ation rates, high interest rates to enable government borrowing, high exchange rates of domestic currency, trade account defi cits, crowding out of private investment, and poor credit worthiness. Th e overall result of all these effects was, however, one: a lower long-term economic growth rate of the

5 J. Winpenny, “Case Study for Mali”, in Structural Adjustment, the Environ- ment, and Sustainable Development, D. Reed (ed.), Earthscan Publications Lim- ited, London 1996, p. 96. 6 R.A. Sedjo, Macroeconomics and Forest Sustainability in the Developing World, Resources for the Future, Discussion Paper, DP 05-47, 2005, p. 9. GE123 economy. Under SAPs it was, therefore, considered of utmost priority to pressurize countries to correct their budgetary imbalances, which essentially translates into reducing expenditure and increasing revenues. Efforts to increase government revenues usually focus on widening the tax base and more efficient administration of tax collection. Govern- ment revenue can also be enhanced by generating higher returns on the government’s investments, including those in public sector enterprises or other commercial activities. Generating resources from privatization of state-owned enterprises to repay debt and thereby lower annual interest outgoings has also been considered an important policy option. On the expenditure side, governments may resort to cuts in the recruitment of new employees, subsidies and credit facilities, poverty alleviation programmes, health and education spending, and so on. In many cases, such expenditure-reducing policies could directly affect forestry and environment protection programmes. There could also be indirect impacts of expenditure cuts on deforestation; for instance, a reduction in agricultural subsidies and credit could force small and marginal farmers to expand cultivation into marginal lands, especially forests, to maintain crop yields.7 Once again, the currency regime in Indian history led to a situation wherein budgetary control became crucial; the then Govern- ment of India had to look at ways and means to increase revenues and, at the same time, curtail its expenditure. If correction of fiscal imbalances can be hypothesized as affecting the environment in contemporary economies, there is no reason why this may not have been so a century and half ago, especially in a situation where “the rural sector, comprising agriculture, and ancillary activities such as animal husbandry, forestry and fishing, was the foundation of the colonial economy”.8 A key component of SAPs has been the removal of barriers inhib- iting the free flow of capital across nations. The increased inflow of foreign capital is seen as unfavourable to the environment because

7 J.M. Shandra, E. Shor, G. Maynard, and B. London, “Debt, Structural Ad- justment, and Deforestation: A Cross-National Study”, in Journal of World-Systems Research, XIV, 1, 2008, p. 3. 8 B.R. Tomlinson, The Economy of Modern India, 1860-1970, Cambridge Uni- versity Press, New Delhi 1998, p. 30.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 124 of increased activity in sectors in which developing countries have a comparative advantage, such as mining, logging, ranching and agriculture. Although hypothetically convincing, the empirical validity of these claims has not been established. Th is link between foreign investment and the environment may, however, have been very important in Indian environmental history given the importance of foreign investment fl ows into the construction of the railways, public works and agriculture-plantation based industries. As mentioned above, the question of the existence of a link between SAPs and the environment, which many studies have sought to establish or reject, is beyond the scope of this paper. For the sake of completeness it is only necessary to mention that the general conclusion that emerges from these studies is the diffi culty “to demonstrate empirically a connection between structural adjustment programs and deterioration of forests”.9 Th is is because the perceived theoretical linkage between SAPs and forest cover outcomes assumes a homogenous context; in reality this is not so. Variations across countries and local situations – including the ways in which governments may react, in regulatory terms, to changes in economic trends – make the prediction of cause and eff ect in this area extremely diffi cult. Perhaps the directional impact of SAPs or development policy lending (DPL) is best summarized in a World Bank report: Th is document … asserts that it is clear that relatively large-scale economic changes can have signifi cant impacts upon forests. However, there is great variability in outcomes in forests from such changes across the many diff erent countries and situations covered in the studies reviewed. … It also is clear that the generic model referred to above cannot be built at this point. Further information on what is driving the observed changes locally … is necessary.10

India’s Currency History, 1835-1914 India’s colonial currency history from the beginning of the nineteenth century till its independence from British rule can be divided into several

9 Sedjo, Macroeconomics and Forest Sustainability cit., p. 12. Emphasis my own. 10 World Bank, Development Policy Lending and Forest Outcomes Infl uences, Interactions, and Due Diligence, Report n. 33537-GLB, 2005. Emphasis original. GE125 more or less well defined periods.11 I focus here on the 1835-1914 period, which includes the phase of currency depreciation, 1873 to 1893. Before analyzing the linkages between currency depreciation and macroeconomic and environment-sensitive variables, I will briefly describe the underlying currency regime and the basis for stability and causes of instability in rupee-sterling rates over the period under investigation. 1835-1873 The starting point chosen for this study is 1835, the year when British India went on to a monometallic silver currency. By Act XVII of 1835, the silver rupee was made the standard coin of India. With the transfer of rule from the British East India Company to the Crown in 1858, India was no longer under the control of just one company; it became accessible to all of Britain’s industrialists and financial capitalists. With this, India’s exports grew and so did investments in the country. In spite of an inflow of gold into the country, this was not usable for currency. Therefore, a large amount of silver had to be imported into India, but, given the country’s craving for precious metals, the amount of silver available for trade and commerce remained deficient. Although this phase (1835 to 1873) within the 1835 to 1893 period witnessed a failed effort at putting India on a gold standard, the one thing that distinguished it from the next phase (1873 to 1893) was stability in the gold/silver ratio. Over the previous two hundred and fifty years, the gold/silver price ratio had fluctuated only slightly, within a range of 1:13.75 to 1:15.25. In 1870-71, with the gold price of silver at about 60d. per ounce, the Indian rupee was worth fractionally less than 2s. By 1893, the gold price of silver had gone down to just 39d. per ounce, so that the Indian rupee became equivalent to just 1s.3d.12 1873-1893 Even as India continued to remain on a monometallic silver standard, the 1873-1893 period was truly dramatic. The gold/silver ratio,

11 See D.K. Malhotra, History and Problems of Indian Currency, 1835-1949: An Introductory Study, Fifth Edition, Minerva Book Shop, Simla 1949.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 126 which had maintained parity over centuries, was disrupted forever. With Britain on a monometallic gold standard and India on a silver standard, the breakdown in parity was refl ected in disruption of a stable sterling-rupee exchange rate, with the rupee depreciating from Rs.10 to Rs.15 per sterling pound over 20 years. Th e reasons for this change in exchange and parity rates were, in the fi rst place, the dropping of silver as a money medium by the principal countries of the world, and secondly an increase in the production of silver relative to gold.13 Th ough these reasons are contradicted by facts relating to the actual production of gold and silver, it is not necessary to delve further into the cause of the depreciation; most important to us is the fact that the depreciation was triggered by external and exogenous factors and was not due to India’s balance of payments position.14 Th roughout the period it was hoped that the price of silver would stabilize. Th e silver producers’ interests in sustaining demand for the metal maintained pressure on the U.S. government to establish bimetallism. Many international conferences were held, in which India too participated, but the fi nal outcome at the International Monetary Conference held at Brussels in 1892 sealed the fate of silver. Th e U.S. decided to abandon its pursuit of bimetallism and adopt a pure gold standard. 1893-1898 When the U.S. announced its decision to give up the proposal for a bimetallic standard, and therefore the purchase of silver for currency, the gold price of silver witnessed a further fall. It was only after 1898-1899 that the rupee stabilized and managed to maintain a minimum value of greater than 1s.3d; the reason perhaps being the general increase in the demand for rupees among a growing population, and a greater quantum of economic activity.15 Th e 1893-1898 period is regarded as one of transition.

12 Malhotra, History and Problems of Indian Currency cit., pp. 5-6. 13 See, ibid., Chapter IV and B.R. Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency and Banking, Butler & Tanner Ltd, London 1947. 14 Ibid., pp. 71-80. 15 Vakil, Muranjan, Currency and Prices in India cit., p. 65. GE127 1899-1914

“For once it seemed that the problem of the depreciating rupee was satisfactorily solved”.16 Over the next fifteen years India witnessed a stable sterling-rupee exchange rate (see Graph 1). The system that had evolved from Britain’s hesitancy to put India on a pure gold standard was ultimately recognized as a “gold exchange standard”. Formally, we can say that this phase in India’s monetary history began in 1899 when the sovereign and half-sovereign were made legal tender at Rs.15 = £1 (or Re.1 = 1s-4d), vide Indian Act No. XXII.17 Under the gold exchange standard, gold was not used as currency, nor was a gold mint set up in India. The essential features of this system were that both gold sovereign and silver rupees were fully legal tender, with the government undertaking exchange of sovereign for rupees but not vice-versa. The intricacies of the gold exchange standard are beyond the scope of this paper; to us what is important here is the stability of the sterling-rupee exchange rate, which, as Graph 1 shows, endured until the outbreak of the War.

Currency Depreciation, Macroeconomic Environment, and Environment

The passion that the depreciation of rupee aroused is quite akin to the familiar outbursts of resentment against the World Bank and the IMF for their implementation of SAPs. A few remarks reproduced below will give a feel of how economists of the time perceived the situation. Vakil and Muranjan summarized the effect of this “evil” phase as “very grave” and one which put the people of India in “most serious difficulties”.18 MacLeod described it in the following terms: “A monetary crisis of the most momentous gravity has arrived in the affairs of India … which have brought India onto the verge of bankruptcy. The Government themselves describe the state of the country as ‘intolerable’”.19 In the

16 Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 152. 17 One rupee is written as Re. whereas rupees are written as Rs. 18 Vakil, Muranjan, Currency and Prices in India cit., p. 34, 38.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 128 Introduction to his book, Monson George stated that he had “endeav- oured to call attention to the great evil to the universe, and India and Great Britain in particular, caused by the depreciation in the gold value of silver”.20 According to Shirras, who was on special duty in the Finance Department of the Government of India, “No period of our currency history is so rich in literature as is the third period, 1874-1893 … the currency machine was the master of man, not the man of machine”.21 But, as we shall see, it is more than passion that makes the currency depreciation of the late nineteenth century comparable to SAPs. Th ere are three broad categories within which I seek to study the link between currency depreciation and the macroeconomic environment: budget, investment and trade. If these elements of macroeconomy were indeed severely impacted by the currency depreciation, it is quite likely that there could have been signifi cant repercussions on the environment, particularly forests and forest policy. Figure 1 below outlines my line of argument.

forests and the Budget

Th e depreciation of the rupee proved to be an “embarrassment” to the Government of India when its annual budgetary exercises began to go awry. Every year the Government had to reimburse the expenditure incurred in England by the Secretary of State for India. Th ese “home charges” or “drain”, which had to be paid in (gold) sterling, needed a larger and larger amount of rupees with the falling gold price of silver.22 Th e situation worsened with the gradual increase in home charges over the years so that “the rupee cost of the gold payments grew both by reason of the growth in their mag-

19 H. Dunning MacLeod, Indian Currency, Longmans, Green & Co., London 1898, p. v. Emphasis original. 20 E.G. Monson, Th e Silver and Indian Currency Questions: Treated in a Practi- cal Manner, Effi ngham Wilson & Co., London 1914, p. 5. 21 G. Findlay Shirras, Indian Finance and Banking, Macmillan & Co., London 1920, p. 114. 22 Th is “Drain” became a symbol of economic nationalism and rallying point for one of India’s earliest nationalist movements led by Dadabhoi Naoroji. GE129 FigureFigure 1. Possible 1. Possible impacts of exchange impacts rate depreciation of exchange rate depreciation

Increase revenue, increase forest exploitation

Budget Decrease expenditure, decrease forest protection

Exchange Rate Railways Depreciation Investment Public Works Private investment (jute, tea, cotton)

Fall in rupee price of exports, output Exports increases

Increased speculation, reduced trade

nitude, and also by reason of the contraction of the medium, i.e. the appreciation of gold in which they were payable”. 23 To Desai, it was not the home charges per se that were the problem; “The Drain created problems of repayment because it was incurred in terms of Pound Sterling then based on gold and paid in Rupees based on silver. Since the Rupee was depreciating against the pound the domestic burden of servicing the debt was getting heavier during 1870’s and 1880’s”.24 Between 1873 and 1893 the rupee value of home charges increased from 147 to 270 million; more than the combined revenues from land and customs duties. In hindsight one might suppose that the problem the Govern- ment of India was undergoing at that time was merely a depreciating currency. However, it is important to realize that an even greater problem was the uncertainty in anticipating the gold value of silver and therefore the extent and duration of the fall in the rupee, which changed “as much as 17 per cent within the course of one year”. 25

23 Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 83. 24 Lord M. Desai, Drains, Hoards and Foreigners: Does The Nineteenth Cen- tury Indian Economy Have any Lessons for The Twenty First Century India?, Reserve Bank Of India First P. R. Brahmananda Memorial Lecture, http://rbidocs.rbi.org. in/rdocs/Speeches/Pdfs/58008.pdf, p. 4. Emphasis my own. 25 J. McGuire, “India, Britain, Precious Metals and the World Economy: The

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 130 As Walter Bagehot, editor of Th e Economist, put it in 1877, “How long the fall in the value of silver will continue no one can say”.26 Sir David Barbour calculated that the additional burden imposed on the fi nances of India by the fall in exchange from 1s.6d. to 1s.5d. would be more than 10 million rupees.27 Th e outcome at the end of each year was not only uncertain but also put increasing pressure on the Government of India to raise revenues to provide for unexpected contingencies emanating from the currency depreciation. Table 1 shows how diff erences in anticipated and realized rupee-sterling exchange rates impacted the budgetary process; making budget calcu- lations and arrangements had become nothing more than illusory. With limited revenue sources available to the Government of India and an increasing and uncertain expenditure, a crisis in Indian fi nance was fast developing. Even as early as 1877, Bagehot observed, “the whole interest of the debate on the Indian budget centered in the discussion on the value of silver”.28 A few years later, the situation had become more serious: “Th e discussion of the Indian budget of 1879 in Parliament will not improbably be long referred to as marking the commencement of a new epoch in Indian fi nance.”29 In 1880, Fawcett made an urgent plea: “Enough has probably now been said to prove that the time has arrived when, in order to restore the fi nances of India and prevent them from drifting into hopeless embarrassment, it is absolutely essential that the policy of ‘rigid economy in every branch in the public service’, which has been recently announced by the Government, should be carried out with promptitude and thoroughness”.30 And in the early years of the last decade of the nineteenth century, Ellstaetter observed that “in

Role of the State Between 1873 and 1893”, in Evolution of the World Economy, Precious Metals and India, J. McGuire, P. Bertola, and P. Reeves (eds), Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2001, pp. 179-198, p. 181. 26 W. Bagehot, On the Depreciation of Silver, Henry S. King & Co., London 1877, p. 6. 27 Vakil, Muranjan, Currency and Prices in India cit., pp. 40-41. 28 Bagehot, On the Depreciation of Silver cit., p. 66. 29 H. Fawcett, Indian Finance: Th ree Essays, MacMillan & Co., London 1880, p. 115. 30 Ibid., p. 149. GE131 Table 1. Fluctuations in exchange and rupee cost of gold paymentsTable 1: Fluctuations in exchange and rupee cost of gold payments

Financial Year Estimated Rate Rate of Changes in the rupee of Exchange on Exchange cost of sterling which the budget actually realised payments consequent of the year was on the average upon changes between framed during the year the estimated and realised exchange rates. All figures indicate an increase in the necessary rupee outlay, except for those preceded by (-), which indicate a decrease.. (s-d* per rupee) (s-d per rupee) ('000 rupees) 1874-75 1-10.4 1-10.2 1,591 1875-76 1-9.9 1-9.6 1,957 1876-77 1-8.5 1-8.5 (-)76 1877-78 1-9.2 1-8.8 3,843 1878-79 1-8.4 1-7.8 5,687 1879-80 1-7.0 1-8.0 (-)8,440 1880-81 1.8.0 1-8.0 424 1881-82 1-8.0 1-7.9 1,017 1882-83 1-8.0 1-7.5 3,746 1883-84 1-7.5 1-7.5 (-)362 1884-85 1.7.5 1-7.3 1,897 1885-86 1-7.0 1-6.3 5,682 1886-87 1-6.0 1-5.4 6,517 1887-88 1-5.5 1-4.9 7,190 1888-89 1-4.9 1-4.4 7,798 1889-90 1-4.4 1-4.6 (-)2,731 1890-91 1-4.6 1-6.1 (-)23,551 1891-92 1-5.3 1-4.7 8,009

* See footnote 2 for description of British currency denomination.

Source: B.R. Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 107. * See footnote 2 for description of British currency denomination. Source: B.R. Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 107. the present depressed conditions of the rates of exchange the situation of the Indian Government has become decidedly critical. The amounts which are needed to meet the gold demands have become, owing to the renewed decline in the rates of exchange, even much greater than

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 132 was expected by Sir David Barbour in his very pessimistic estimate for 1893-4; and the defi cit will accordingly be considerably greater”. Ro- thermund considered that by 1893 “the bankruptcy of the British In- dian government was imminent”.31 Th e home charge, moreover, was not the only outgoing in terms of (gold) sterling; expenses for European troops maintained in India, pensions and non-eff ective allowances payable in England, and stores purchased in England for consumption in India were other payments that had to be remitted abroad. “In order that this defi cit should not become chronic, the means of relief adopted must be drastic. Th is is only possible by either a reduction of expenditures, or by an increase of income”, wrote Karl Ellstaetter. 32 All this bears witness to the urgency and criticality of the situation of India’s budget that had developed on account of the depreciation of the rupee and the consequent pressure on the Government of India to set right its burgeoning budgetary imbalances by increasing revenues and cutting back expenditures; an outcome not unlike what some countries later experienced under SAPs. It now remains to be seen how this increased pressure on revenue generation and expenditure cuts could have specifi - cally impacted the environment at that time and whether there exists any tangible qualitative evidence to that eff ect. Two main viewpoints hold sway in the study of colonial India’s environmental history: one is that of Guha, who argued that “organized forestry in colonial India developed in response to the revenue and strategic needs of empire”; the other is exemplifi ed by Grove, who claims that “the roots of Forest-Department practices lie principally in the desiccationist movement”.33 From these contrasting viewpoints, a consensual perspective has emerged that situates Guha and Grove’s arguments in diff erent periods. In the last decades of the nineteenth

31 D. Rothermund, An Economic History of India: From Pre-colonial Times to 1991, Second Edition, Routledge, London 1993, p. 43. 32 K. Ellstaetter, Th e Indian Silver Currency: An Historical and Economic Study, translated by J.L. Laughlin, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1895, p. 73. 33 A. Skaria, “Timber Conservancy, Desiccationism and Scientifi c Forestry: Th e Dangs 1840s-1920s”, in Nature and the Orient: Th e Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia, R.H. Grove, V. Damodaran, and S. Sangwan (eds), Oxford University Press, Delhi 1998, pp. 596-635. GE133 century the Forest Departments were transformed, “with commercial considerations of revenue becoming the warp to [their] weft”.34 Based on a quantitative content analysis of the Indian Forester, Weil too agrees with the view that “the Forest Service embraced an increasingly ex- ploitationist argument – emphasizing profits, the cultivation of commercial species, and the development of new minor forest products … (and) obviated the need for a broad based, ecological, understanding of forests”.35 But why this shift in forest policy? To Weil, “the deeper reasons for the shift to a commercial orientation require consideration of the internal culture of the Forest Service along with its bureaucratic context – particularly its competition with, and sense of inferiority to, the Civil Service and the engineers”.36 The Forest Policy Resolution of 1894 gave the district officer a superior position to the forester’s by officially declaring that “whenever an effective demand for culturable land exists and can only be met from forest area, the land should ordi- narily be relinquished without hesitation”.37 I, however, contend that a more obvious reason for this shift towards commercialization of forests may have been the growing pressure on the Government of India to generate additional revenue from new sources to meet its financial obligations. This pressure to generate revenues may have in fact been the root cause for giving District Officers of the Revenue Department an upper hand vis-à-vis the foresters; contrary to Weil’s argument that the Forest Department adopted a more commercial posture because of an inferiority complex towards civil services. Though many environmental historians agree that there was an increasing drift of the Forest Department towards “revenue generation”, we generally cannot find definitive statements that this was specifically triggered by the currency depreciation. A few remarks by an official of the Indian Forest Department, however, do suggest that this

34 Ibid., p. 596. 35 B. Weil, “Conservation, Exploitation, and Cultural Change in the Indian Forest Service, 1875-1927”, in Environmental History, 11, 2006, p. 337. 36 Ibid., p. 322. 37 Ibid., p. 335; National Forest Policy 1894. 38 G.H. Strettell, New Source of Revenue for India, Marlborough & Co., Lon- don 1878. Emphasis my own.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 134 change in attitude may have indeed been driven by a desperate need for revenue generated by the emerging crisis in the macroeconomy, including the depreciation of the rupee. George H. Strettell published a book entitled New Source of Revenue for India in 1878, a few years after the depreciation of the rupee, where he makes an ardent plea for the developing of extensive bamboo cultivation for paper-making.38 Th e title of the book and a paragraph entitled “Present time specially suited for this enquiry” captures the link between the currency question and pressure on the state to increase revenues. At a time when it is necessary to borrow eight and a-half millions to defray the expenses of famine relief, and when the future of the silver question is wholly uncertain, the importance of developing every source of wealth must be apparent …39 A careful reading of Strettell’s work and the underlying tone of his proposal reveals the sense of urgency and necessity for the Forest Department to raise revenues: It has often struck me, while engaged in my offi cial duties in the Indian Forest Department, that a large revenue might be derived from plants which are looked upon as mere weeds … I should be failing in my duty, if I did not draw prominent attention to a source of revenue which has, for reasons which I have attempted to give, hitherto remained comparatively neglected. …Th e raw material might be sold at such a price as to add considerably to the Imperial revenue …My object in writing this essay is to show that the revenue of India may be largely increased … It is because of the deep interest I take in the opening out of the fi bre trade of India, and because I am convinced that an energetic and thorough enquiry into the subject will result in a great gain to the revenue of that country, that I have written his essay in the interests of the Government whose servant I am.40 Th ough foresters like Strettell had obviously seen a pressing need for the Forest Department to generate revenues, some equally emi- nent persons argued, instead, that the Forest Department was not directly called upon to contribute to India’s increased need for revenue. Th e Strachey brothers, who modestly claimed that “there is hardly a great department of the administration for the management of which, at some time, one or other of us has not been responsible

39 Ibid., p. 38. Emphasis my own. 40 Ibid., pp. 37-38. GE135 …”, commented specifically on the role of the Forest Department. Their tone is rather desiccationist:41 The stationary condition of the net forest revenue has been rather a matter of satisfaction than otherwise. The forest administration, which is of comparatively recent creation, looks to the future interests of the community more than to perfect profit, and is more occupied in the preservation and improvement of State forests than in realizing an immediate large revenue. The gross revenue is now, however, close to £700,000.42 This remark is actually quite ambiguous because, in spite of absolv- ing the Forest Department from profit-making, it nonetheless points out to an increase in gross revenue generation by the Department. And this trend of increasing forest revenues is borne out by other records as well, as shown in Graph 2, which refers to United Provinces (U.P.), and Graphs 3a and 3b, which refer to all of British India. Although the trend in increasing revenues and surpluses illustrated in Graphs 2 and 3a coincides quite closely with the period of currency depreciation, one cannot hastily assume a definitive causal connection between them because, as is commonly known, this was also the period when the construction of the railways was driving up the demand for timber. However, the role of the Forest Department as a provider of timber to the railways was itself contested, and here too a conflict of views was fought out in which revenue generation gained the upper hand. In my treatise on environment change in colonial India, I pointed out that “differences emerged between different levels of government” as to whether sale of timber to the railways should be the priority of the Forest Department.43 “The state government argued that forests were preserved at considerable cost and should be exploited for sale of timber and other produce without restriction. The Governor of Bengal, Sir Charles Elliot, initially disagreed, holding that this would interfere with afforestation,

41 Sir J. Strachey, Lt-Gen. R. Strachey, The Finances and Public Works of India, 1869-1881, Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co., London 1882, p. vii. 42 Ibid., p. 29. 43 K. Sivaramakrishnan, Modern Forests: Statemaking and Environmental Change in Colonial Eastern India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1999, p. 137.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 136 GraphGraph 2. 2. Forest forest revenue, revenue, expenditur eexpenditure and surplus: United and Provinces surplus: united Provinces

3500

3000

2500

2000 ('000s )

1500 Rupees 1000

500

0 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896 1901 1906 1911 Year Gros s R evenue

Expenditure S urplus

Source: C.G. Trevor and E. Smythies, Practical Forest Management, Government Press,Source: United C. G. Provinces,Trevor and E. Allahabad, Smythies, Practical 1923, p. Forest 20. Management, Government Press, United Provinces, Allahabad, 1923, p. 20.

which was for him the primary function of the Forest Department. Th at he had to defer to more pressing defi nitions of the Forest De- partment as a ‘quasi-commercial agency’ is not surprising given the large profi ts from forest operations in the fi rst two decades”.44

44 Ibid., p. 137. GE137 GraphGraph 3a. 3a. Financial Financial results of results forest administration of forest in administrationBritish India in Bri- tish India

Rupees(millions) 10

4 9 9 4 9 4 -7 0 9 4-8 4-9 9-1 6 8 9 04- 0 8 8 8 9 1864-691 1874-791879-841 1889-941 1899-01 19

Quinquennial Period Gross Revenue Expenditure Surplus

Source: R.S. Troup, The Work of the Forest Department in India, Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta, 1917, p. 63. Source: R.S. Troup, The Work of the Forest Department in India, Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta, 1917, p. 63.

Graph 3b also shows some interesting aspects concerning the For- est Department’s expenditure. The ratio of surplus to gross revenues, which was around 36% in the 1860s, declined over the next two decades, but then began to increase steadily. This growth in absolute revenues and revenue/surplus ratio reflects the changing agenda of Forest Departments, which I believe was, to some extent at least, driven by “real” (or more precisely, monetary) macroeconomic dis-

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 138 Graph 3b. Percentage surplus to gross revenue in forest administration in British IndiaGraph 3b. Percentage surplus to gross revenue in forest administration in British India

50 45

40 35

20 Percentage 15

4 4 9 -79 89 -04 14 9-7 9-8 4- 4-9 4-09 9- 6 7 9 0 8 8 8 9 1864-691 1874 1 188 1889-941 1899 1 190 Quinquennial period Source: Troup, Th e Work of the Forest Department in India cit., p. 63. Source: R.S. Troup, The Work of the Forest Department in India cit., p. 63.

turbances rather than a more insidious “subtext in the story of the consolidation of imperial control over India”.45

Investment Impacts on Forests

Like contemporary SAPs, the depreciating silver rupee also had an eff ect on foreign investment in India and consequently on the environment. Th e question, however, is whether a depreciating rupee had a net positive or negative eff ect on investment in India. Generally speak-

45 M. Rangarajan, “Production, Desiccation and Forest management in the Cen- tral Provinces 1850-1930”, in Grove et al. (eds), Nature and the Orient cit., p. 576. GE139 ing, a depreciating currency has contradictory effects on investment decisions. On the one hand, when the exchange rate of the currency of country X falls, foreign companies in country Y may increase investment because they can buy more per unit of currency Y. On the other, once they have invested, a continued depreciation of currency X would mean that profits, when repatriated in terms of currency Y, shrink. This is a disincentive for companies in country Y to invest in country X. Ellstaetter argued that the net impact of currency depreciation on investment was negative: “If India had no depreciating standard, their industries would surely have had a very much larger capital at their disposal”, indicating that the declining profit repatriation effect from continual rupee depreciation was dominant.46 Other commentators of that time also seemed to think so. MacLeod (1898) conjectured that reduced inflow of capital to India due to currency depreciation between 1861 and the 1898 was more than £100,000,000.47 In 1892 David Barbour, Finance Minister to the Indian Government, similarly articulated the impact of the depreciation on the construction of the railways: “The fear of a fall in silver, however, stands in the way of their construction … the small, though certain, profit which Indian railways are likely to return for the first few years the risk of investing capital in a country with a silver standard deters the prudent investor, while such railways have no attraction for the more speculative”.48 The depreciation and instability of the rupee made the raising of capital increasingly difficult and expensive for both the Government of India and private investors. For instance, the government had to guar- antee minimum returns on the stocks of the railway companies. Since this capital was raised in England, a decline in the gold price of silver obviously meant an increase in the quantum of rupee payments. In a dispatch to the Secretary of State for India, the government pleaded: We are forced, therefore, either to increase our sterling liabilities, to which course there are so many objections, or to do without the railways required for

46 Ellstaetter, The Indian Silver Currency cit., p.53. 47 Dunning MacLeod, Indian Currency cit., p. 42. 48 Sir D. Barbour, The Silver Crisis: India’s Financial and Commercial Sufferings, J.E. Cornish, Manchester 1892, p. 5.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 140 the commercial development of this country, and its protection against inva- sion and the eff ects of famine.49 With almost 50 per cent of Britain’s foreign investment abroad made in the transportation sector, a slowing down of investment in the railways would have had a “positive” environmental impact, given the sector’s gluttonous demand for timber.50 However, when we look at the growth rates in the laying down of railway tracks, they are so spectacular that it is hard to see any dampening eff ect of the currency depreciation on investment in this sector: “In 1860 there were about 850 miles of track open in the subcontinent, 16,000 by 1890 …”.51 An enormous volume of sleepers was required for this new construction. Each new mile of railway track required 1760 sleepers. One tree yielded 3 to 5 broad gauge and 6 to 10 narrow gauge sleepers.52 In spite of this growth rate in the railway network and the consequent demand for timber, it is diffi cult to dismiss the counterfactual claim that had it not been for the rupee depreciation these growth rates may have been even higher. Th e development of other public works such as irrigation tanks and canals also suff ered on account of the Government’s diffi culties in raising capital.53 With inadequate domestic savings, the government had to tap foreign capital. As long as gold/silver parity existed, this was not problematic. However, when the gold price of silver fell the government had to increasingly issue sterling debt as foreign investors were not willing to hold rupee debt. Th is led to an increase in silver rupee expenditure in servicing sterling debt and outfl ows for repayment of principal on maturity, with the result that “the expansion of extraordinary public works did not proceed at a pace

49 Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 90. 50 R. John, G. Ietto Gillies, H. Cox, and N. Grimwade, Global Business Strat- egy, Cengage Learning EMEA, 1997, p.18. 51 Tomlinson, Th e Economy of Modern India cit., p. 55. 52 E.P. Flint, “Deforestation and Land Use in Northern India with a Focus on Sal (Shorea robusta) Forests, 1880-1980”, in Grove et al. (eds), Nature and the Orient cit., pp. 421-458, p. 437. 53 Th ese “public works” accounted for almost 20 per cent of Britain foreign investments abroad. See John et al. (eds), Global Business Strategy cit., p. 18. GE141 demanded by the needs of the country”.54 The impact of this slow- down of investment in public works can be expected to have damp- ened agricultural expansion. At the same time, the depreciation presumably had an opposite effect on exports and the spatial expansion of crop cultivation. The possibility of such impacts, ambiguous as they may be, is nonetheless important to recognize. Private business investment in India, though not guaranteed by the government like the railways and public works, may also have been affected by increasing risk from the declining sterling value of accumulated profits due to a depreciating silver rupee. The growth of the cotton, jute and tea industry may therefore have been imped- ed to some extent by the prevailing currency situation, though at the same time a greater purchasing power of sterling would have meant an incentive to invest in as well as export from India. According to Jevons, it is the latter trend that prevailed. Thanks to the falling rupee, merchant princes of Bombay and Calcutta made large fortunes in the export trade, which were reinvested in cotton and jute mills in India.55 Table 2 shows the “growth of these industries as a result of capital invested during the period of falling exchange”.56 In the case of investment in the tea industry, Rungta points out that even though the price of tea fluctuated a great deal on account of the fluctuations in the exchange rate, particularly around 1890, the flow of investment was determined primarily by the rateof growth of the market. This is substantiated by the Darjeeling and Terai Planters Association’s memorandum to the Viceroy of India, which states that “whatever difficulties they meet with in procuring financial assistance from the capitalists in England are … attribut- able to over-production of tea, and not to any deterrent effects produced upon English capitalists by the fluctuations in Exchange”.57 In fact, the steady decline in rupee value may have contributed to

54 Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 88. 55 H. Stanley Jevons, Money, Banking and Exchange in India, Superintendent Government Central Press, Simla 1922, p. 128. 56 Ibid., p. 128. 57 R. Shyam Rungta, The Rise of Business Corporations in India, 1851-1900, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1970, p. 171.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 142 Table 2. Growth of Cotton and Jute Manufactures between 1878-79 and 1898-99 Table 2. Growth of Cotton and Jute Manufactures between 1878-79 and 1898-99

1878-79 1898-99 Percentage Increase Cotton Manufacture Number of mills 58 174 200 Number of looms 12,983 37,288 187 Number of spindles 1,436,464 4,463,342 211 Authorised capital* 57.1 150.4 163

Jute Manufacture Number of mills 22 33 50 Number of looms 4,946 13,421 172 Number of spindles 70,840 279,482 294 Authorised capital* 26.7 49.3 85 * Sterling share capital in millions of rupees converted at Rs.10 = £1. Source: Stanley Jevons, Money, Banking and Exchange in India cit., p. 128. * Sterling share capital in millions of rupees converted at Rs.10 = £1. theSource: overall H. Stanley growth Jevons, in overseasMoney, Banking demand and Exchange for Indian in India tea cit., and p. 128. have been an incentive to invest in the tea industry. As regards private investment, the generally accepted view is that “depreciation facilitated expansion of small scale commodity production such as wheat, cotton, jute, tea and other primary products and also led to the rise of two factory based industries in India: textiles and jute”.58 What concerns us here, however, is the impact of industrial growth on the environment; to estimate it, we must look at the role played by currency depreciation in the growth of agricultural export.

Agricultural Trade and forests Perhaps the most direct outcome of a depreciating currency is increased exports. One of the concerns with SAPs was the impact of currency devaluation on increased exports of environmentally sensitive commodities and goods. I pose a similar question here: Did the

58 J. McGuire, “India, Britain, Precious Metals and the World Economy: Th e Role of the State Between 1873 and 1893”, in McGuire et al. (eds), Evolution of the World Economy cit., p. 181. Emphasis my own. GE143 rupee depreciation stimulate (investment and) exports of goods and commodities in the late nineteenth century? This impact is important to us because Indian exports predominantly consisted of a range of environmentally sensitive commodities and goods, including timber, bamboo, plantation products such as tea and rubber, agricultural produce such as wheat and sugarcane, and commercial crops such as jute. Table 3 shows the composition of India’s export products. Before answering this question, I must mention that many economists and economic historians of the early twentieth century believed that the depreciation of the rupee per se may not have had a significant impact on export. For instance, Vakil and Muranjan argued that the advantage of a depreciating rupee to Indian exporters was only a tran- sient; a benefit accruing to Indian exporters only in the time interval between the depreciation of currency and the proportionate increase in domestic price levels.59 Ambedkar too argued that the long-term impact of rupee depreciation was a steep increase in price levels without a corresponding increase in nominal wages. “The conclusion, therefore, is that the falling rupee exchange could not have disturbed established trade relations or displaced the commodities that entered international trade”.60 The depreciation would thus have benefited Indian producers but left labour worse off, with lower real wages. In spite of the argument that domestic price increases would have nullified the benefits of a fall in the rupee, a continual depreciation of currency could have meant a sustained benefit to exporters, since price adjustments occurred with a time lag. Moreover, in India the habit of hoarding precious metals resulted in the non-monetization of silver into coins, so that price increases may not have been commensurate with the surpluses in the balance of payments. In this regard, Schmidt commented: “Prices in the silver countries have admittedly not risen, and the equilibrium of trade has therefore not been reestablished in the manner which the text books lead us to anticipate. But I even doubt whether conditions such as would produce a rise in prices exist in the silver countries”.61

59 Vakil, Muranjan, Currency and Prices in India cit., p.42. 60 Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 105. 61 H. Schmidt, The Silver Question in its Social Aspect: An Enquiry into the

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 144 Table 3. Indian exports (percentage share in total export value)Table 3. Indian exports (percentage share in total export value)

Commodity 1860-1 1870-1 1880-1 1890-1 1900-1

Raw cotton 22.3 35.2 17.8 16.5 9.4 Cotton goods 2.4 2.5 4.2 9.5 9.4 Indigo 5.7 5.8 4.8 3.1 2 Food grains 10.2 8.1 17.1 19.5 13.1 Raw jute 1.2 4.7 5.2 7.6 10.1 Jute goods 1.1 0.6 1.5 2.5 7.3 Hides & skin 2 3.7 5 4.7 10.7 Opium 30.9 19.5 18.2 9.2 8.8 Oilseed 5.4 6.4 8.6 9.3 8.3 Tea 0.5 2.1 4.2 5.5 9

Source: Tomlinson, Th e Economy of Modern India cit., p. 52. Source: B.R. Tomlinson, The Economy of Modern India cit., p. 52.

Although it is diffi cult to pinpoint a specifi c causal link between rupee depreciation and export growth in the late nineteenth century, there is extensive evidence that India did witness growth in exports in this period. Th e reasons are many, including “the world trade boom that began in the 1870s and lasted, with some minor interruptions, until 1913...”62 accompanied by a “complete revolution in the conditions of trade in the country”,63 which arose from a multitude of factors including the opening of the Suez canal in 1869, the replacing of sailing vessels with steamships, an expanding railway network within India, declining freight rates and the elimination of the middleman. In this changing global macroeconomic environment, “the steady depreciation of silver-based currencies such as rupee against the gold- based currencies of Europe and North America kept Indian export prices competitive in the 1870s, 1880s and early 1890s”.64

Existing Depression of Trade, and the Present Position of the Bimetallic Controversy, Effi ngham Wilson, London 1886, p. 34. 62 Tomlinson, Th e Economy of Modern India cit., p. 119. 63 Ellstaetter, Th e Indian Silver Currency cit., p.26. 64 Tomlinson, Th e Economy of Modern India cit., p. 53. GE145 Rather than as a positive development, Hyndman perceived this export growth as one which arose from India’s desperation for gold to remit its obligated charges to Britain: “Many millions more tons of agricultural produce [had to be exported] in order to make up the amount of the drain for home payments in gold”.65 This viewpoint is further exemplified by Schmidt who saw a continued pressure for Indian exports to increase in order to receive enough gold to balance the budget of the Indian Government.

India has been developed and protected by English capital for many years past, and for these services she owes a yearly payment to England which, to a very large extent, has to be made on the gold basis. As silver has fallen, the burden of these payments has increased, and India has had to augment her exports to re-establish the balance. The larger offers of her produce resulting from this cause, together with the possibility of obtaining it for less gold, owing to the lower price of silver, brought about the first fall in the prices of the gold countries, which took place in the quotations of the produce of the East. As exchange continued to fall India had to still further increase her exports and, taught by necessity, she began more and more to turn her attention to the cultivation and production of articles which, hitherto, had been chiefly supplied by gold countries, her exports of which would therefore enjoy to the full the benefit of the lower price of silver, i.e., wheat, cotton, hides, etc.66

The increased export of goods and commodities from India was not a matter of choice, it was a necessity. Viewed in this way, it is then apparent why the Forest Policy Resolution of 1894 would have favoured agriculture expansion over forest preservation.67 Whichever way we choose to look at the possible reasons for export growth, the outcome was unequivocal: Indian commodity exports increased significantly. For instance, “in 1891-5… about 17 per cent of the wheat harvest was exported, as against 8 per cent of the rice harvest”. 68 The export of jute bales from Calcutta almost doubled, from 173,255 in

65 H.M. Hyndman, The Bankruptcy of India: An Enquiry into the Administration of India under the Crown, Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., London 1886, p. 210. 66 Schmidt, The Silver Question cit., p.10. 67 See footnote 37 above. 68 Tomlinson, The Economy of Modern India cit., p. 61.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 146 1880-81 to about 363,770 in 1894-5.69 Tea also “grew spectacularly during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when tea production increased from 6,000,000 lb in 1872 to 75,000,000 lb in 1900”.70 Tea exports, which were a very substantial portion of total production, rose sharply from about 33 million lb in 1877-8 to about 58 million lb in 1882-83.71 Graph 4 below shows the upward trend in the export of timber (mainly teak) between 1868 and 1904. Since “the great export staples, on which India’s whole trade depends, [were] mainly agricultural”,72 these increases in production “exercised a major infl u- ence on the rural economy from about 1870 until the late 1920s”.73 Th e link between agriculture and forests has always been close, though primarily a negative one. As Flint points out, “deforestation, driven by agricultural expansion and aggravated by the extraction of forest biomass at unsustainable levels, has long been recognized as the dominant trend in the history of Indian land use”.75 Th is negative relationship can only have been accentuated during the export boom of the late nineteenth century, in which the production of agricultural commodities witnessed substantial increases. Th e increased production presumably came from both a temporal expansion, whereby “farmers increased the proportion of arable land which was cropped more than once per year”, and a “spatial expansion; and, of all the land available for such expansion, forest land was the easiest to convert. However, the latter was in no way insig- nifi cant; Roy estimates that between 1885 and 1938, cultivable area

69 T. Sethia, “Th e Rise of the Jute Manufacturing Industry in Colonial India: A Global Perspective”, in Journal of World History, 7, 1, 1996, p. 79. 70 R.P. Behal, “Power Structure, Discipline and Labour in Assam Tea Planta- tions during Colonial Rule”, in Coolies,Capital,and Colonialism: Studies in Indian Labour History, R.P. Behal and M. van der Linden (eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, p. 143. 71 W.W. Hunter, Th e Indian Empire: Its People, History and Products, Asian Educational Services, New Delhi 1905 (reprint 2005). 72 H.J. Tozer, British India and Its Trade, Harper & Brothers, London 1902, p. 8. 73 Tomlinson, Th e Economy of Modern India cit., p.59. 74 E.P. Flint, “Deforestation and Land Use in Northern India with a Focus on Sal (Shorea robusta) Forests, 1880-1980” in Grove et al. (eds), Nature and the Orient cit., p. 421. GE147 Graph 4. Quantity of timber exported from British India to foreign countries on private account

Graph 4. Quantity of timber exported from British India to foreign countries on private account

90000

80000

70000

60000

50000

40000

30000

20000

Timber exports in cubic tons cubic exportsin Timber 10000

0 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 Year

Source: Based on data compiled from Digital South Asia Library, Statistical Ab- stracts Relating to British India, 1868-1904, http://dsal.uchicago.edu/statistics/

Source: Based on data compiled from Digital South Asia Library, Statistical Abstracts Relating to British India, 1868-1904, 75 http://dsal.uchicago.edu/statistics/in coastal Madras increased . by sixty million acres”. The increase in arable land area was not limited to the subsistence agricultural sector; agricultural clearance for cash crops such as cotton, tea and sugar also destroyed large areas of forest during the colonial period.76 Moreover, this commercialization was “driven by trans-local markets. Between 1880 and 1925, the real volume of trade to and from India doubled. The value of export quintupled between 1870 and

75 T. Roy, Rethinking Economic Change in India: Labour and Livelihood, Routledge, London 2005, p. 35. 76 Flint, Deforestation and Land Use cit., p. 432.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 148 1914. More than half of Indian exports now consisted of agricultural goods such as grains, seeds, raw cotton and raw jute. Th e age of the artisan had ended, and the age of the peasant had arrived”.77 Th is is also evident from the changing composition of exported products presented in Table 4. Th e confl ict between the civil service and forest offi cials, with the former gaining the edge, has already been highlighted above. Th us, the conversion of forests to agricultural lands could only have accelerated during this period. Writing in 1897, Brandis describes how domestic agricultural growth impacted forests during the Indian cotton boom, c. 1860-65, which came about as an eff ect of the American Civil War and the resulting drop in the supply on the international market. Th ere is no reason to suppose the situation would have been any diff erent with the extensive increases in cotton cultivation in the 1880s. In certain forest tracts the watershed of the timber trade has entirely changed since the American war has stimulated the export and cultivation of cotton. From the forests of north Canara, the former export of timber was all sea- wards, and fortunately it was not of great importance, and has not exhausted the forests. Th e export inland was trifl ing. Since the American war, however, a considerable demand of timber and bamboos for the cotton producing tracts east of Dharwar has sprung up, and brisk trade is now carried on in that direction. Similar changes in the lines of export have taken place in the Kandeish Dangs, and elsewhere in many places.78 Evidence of the impact of expansion of plantations on forests is strong. For instance, Reisz reports of rubber tapping on deforestation; “Indian exports peaked in 1869 and then declined rapidly as the rubber forest retreated under extraction pressure. In 1869, Gustav Mann, Assistant Conservator of Forests in Bengal, claimed rubber tappers would fell trees ‘with axes, or, if this was too trouble- some, collect fi rewood and burn them down, so as to render the operation of tapping more convenient than it would have been had

77 Roy, Rethinking Economic Change in India cit., p.35. 78 D. Brandis, Forestry in India: Origins and Early Developments, with a fore- word by Samar Singh, Natraj Publishers, Dehra Dun 1994 (original 1897), p.30. 79 E. Reisz, Free Trade and the Pursuit of Hegemony: Imperial Britain in Global Rubber Markets, 1860-1922, http://www.ehs.org.uk/othercontent/reisz.htm, p. 3. GE149 Table 4. Approximate area in ‘000 acres occupied by cotton and wheat Table 4. Approximate area in '000 acres occupied by cotton and wheat

Province Wheat Cotton 1877-78 1882-83 1877-78 1882-83

Madras 16 27 1,000 1,456 Bombay & Sind 915 1,626 1,420 2,640 Punjab 7,000 6,731 660 860 Central Provinces 3,600 3,619 810 612

Source: Hunter,W.W. Hunter, The Indian The Indian Empire Empire cit., p. cit., 501. p. 501. the trees been left standing’ ”.79 In his practical guide on tea cultivation, Money describes how planters would have to get rid of the jungle before undertaking a new venture: “In Bengal I do not think the nature of the jungle on land contemplated signifies much. As a rule, the thicker the jungle the richer the soil; but in seeking for a site large trees should not be a sine qua non. Much of the coarse grass land is very good, and large trees add enormously to the expense of clearings. It is not cutting them down which is so expensive, it is cutting them up and getting rid of them by burning, or otherwise, after the former is done”.80 Hunter graphically describes the process of bringing new land into condition, for which “the jungle should be cut down in December, and burned on the spot in February”.81 In his study of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Meyer too found that “forest destruction intensified (c.1870) with the development of new plantation products such as tea, coconut and rubber … like in India”.82 Their need for land for the expansion of production required tea planters to prevent “the state’s Forest Department, their competitor for control of forest lands, from gaining control over wide forest are-

80 E. Money, The Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea, Fourth edition, W.B. Whittingham & Co., Calcutta,1883, p. 34. 81 Hunter, The Indian Empire cit., p. 508. 82 E. Meyer, “Forests, Chena Cultivation, Plantations and the Colonial State in Ceylon 1840-1940”, in Grove et al. (eds) Nature and the Orient cit., p. 799.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 150 as”.83 Furthermore, and this eff ect is largely overlooked, many crops, including tea “generate negative environmental impacts because of their indirect eff ects, for example, during the processing stage after the crops are harvested”. 84 Th is was all the more true in the nineteenth century during the expansion of tea cultivation in India, when for every 500 acres under tea another 400 was needed for charcoal.85 Th is led to the “wholesale destruction of forests that (took) place in all Tea districts, in order to supply charcoal for Tea”.86 Money’s guide also brings out the sensitivity of British demand to the (sterling) price of tea: “Quotations last year receded step by step, and, as prices dropped, so we found the consumption grew, till for the last quarter of 1882, with its very low range of prices, the average monthly deliveries reached the unprecedented fi gures of over 5.25 million pounds … a considerable check was given to deliveries of Indian Teas during the latter part of 1881 and the early part of 1882 through the rise of prices during that period”.87 Further evidence of the close connection between currency prices and the prices and production of tea can be found in a debate in the British Parliament against the closing of the mint in 1893. A Mr. Burdett-Coutts of Westminster claims that “the tea-planters of Southern India … want … a falling rupee … because, selling their tea in Europe in gold, they get, with a falling rupee, more rupees per sovereign, while at the same time, they do not pay their labourer any more of these depreciated rupees”.88 A Mr. Wylie reiterates that “exporters from India, the planters, and the British manufacturers in India, who had been making enormous profi ts by the fall in the exchange, wished

83 R.P. Tucker, “Th e Depletion of India’s Forests under Imperialism: Planters, Foresters, and Peasants in Assam and Kerala”, in Th e Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History, D. Worster (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988, p. 124. 84 D. Reed, “Conclusions: Short-term Environmental Impacts Of Structural Adjustments Programs” in Reed (ed.), Structural Adjustment cit., p. 305. 85 Money, Th e Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea cit., p. 2. 86 Ibid., p. 121. 87 Ibid., pp. 197-198. 88 Commons Sitting of 29 March 1898, Orders, Indian Currency, http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1898/mar/29/indian-currency GE151 it to be allowed to decline still further”.89 Obviously then a steep depreciation in the rupee-sterling exchange rate would have influenced the demand and thereby cultivation of tea. Rungta (1970) also gives an interesting account of how tea companies, which accounted for the largest investment in India after the railways, were responding to the currency situation when “towards the latter part of the nineties many rupee companies were converted into sterling companies, since the depreciation of the rupee gave a higher capitalized value in sterling”.90 By the last decade of the nineteenth century, when the rupee had “touched its lowest value in terms of sterling and a further fall was very unlikely in view of the currency measures of 1893”, and tea exports were boom- ing, investment in the tea industry increased since “sterling could … buy more of the factors of production whose money cost did not rise”.91 Rungta then goes on to quote something which is of even greater interest to us, namely, the comments of a tea planter: While the jungle, forest, bamboo, sunn and okra grass are being cut to make room for tea plants, agency houses in London, Glasgow and Calcutta were busy turning land syndicates into gardens, established gardens into companies, and companies into still bigger companies. The bones of the industry were churning with a vengeance. 92 The fact that in Assam alone the “area under tea cultivation expanded from 27,000 acres to 204,000 acres” is a clear corroboration of how the macroeconomic environment, with additional support from currency depreciation, was definitively having an impact on the environment.93 Tucker captures the argument I have made thus far, albeit for a period just a few years later:

The impact of World War I on Assam’s forest lands centered on wartime prosper-

89 Ibid. 90 Shyam Rungta, The Rise of Business Corporations in India cit., p. 170. 91 Ibid., p. 172. 92 Ibid., p. 172. 93 R.P. Behal,” Power Structure, Discipline and Labour: Assam Tea Plantations during Colonial Rule”, in Behal, van der Linden (eds), Coolies, Capital, and Co- lonialism cit., p. 124.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 152 ity and expansion in the tea industry. Prices in Europe rose; acreage under tea in Assam extended rapidly; and dividends to the planters rose correspondingly.94 If a depreciating rupee encouraged Indian exports, a countervail- ing eff ect was the fl uctuations and uncertainty in exchange rates that accompanied the overall downward trend in the rate. Without effi cient hedging institutions, there was the danger that returns from speculation could overshadow those from trade, thereby driving out genuine exchange of goods and service between India and other gold currency countries of the world. Ellstaetter narrates how severe the impact on trade could be: Th e native merchants of Kurrachee, an exceedingly fl ourishing seaport at the mouth of the Indus, because the fi rms engaged in the importation of cotton goods lost heavily in 1890 by the sudden rise of exchange, and the exporters of grain also had lost heavily by the fall in 1891, resolved, as a consequence, in 1892 to buy no more European goods.95 Th e overall impact of currency depreciation on export growth may, however, be considered positive. Based on a regression analysis, Brahmananda found that “except in regard to coff ee, the downward trend in exchange rate seems to have had an upward eff ect upon the quantity of export of every other commodity … for a one percent decrease in exchange rate, the quantity of export went up by about 0.4 percent …”.96 In another important quantitative study, Nugent argued that the exogenous depreciation of silver relative to gold-based currencies benefi ted the former. Between 1871 and 1899 India, for instance, witnessed “with a single exception … the largest 2-decade increase in real per capita income in its history”.97

94 R.P. Tucker, “Th e Depletion of India’s Forests under Imperialism: Planters, Foresters, and Peasants in Assam and Kerala”, in Worster (ed.), Th e Ends of the Earth cit., p. 124. 95 K. Ellstaetter, Th e Indian Silver Currency cit., p.23-24. 96 P.R. Brahmananda, Money, Income and Prices in 19th Century India: A His- torical, Quantitative and Th eoretical Study, Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai 2001, p. 481. 97 J.B. Nugent, “Exchange-Rate Movements and Economic Development in the Late-Nineteenth Century”, Journal of Political Economy, 81, 5. GE153 This investigation shows the various possible, though opposing, linkages between the macroeconomic environment and forests, triggered off by a depreciating and unstable currency. The net effect is no doubt a purely empirical question, which is complicated by other simultaneous macroeconomic events and socio-political changes. The communication and transport revolution of the 1850s and 1860s – which included the inauguration of the Indian telegraph system in 1854, the overland cable connection to Europe in 1868, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and the laying of the sub-marine cable in 1870 - transformed the relationship between central (British) and provincial (India) governments, ultimately allowing a greater degree of financial centralization and control.98 These simultaneous events only add to the complexity of my research but do not play down the importance of the exchange rate depreciation on the economy. In fact, Sir Charles Muir even put its importance at a level greater than others.

Wars, famine, and drought have often inflicted losses on the Exchequer far greater than the charge that threatens us in the present year. But such ca- lamities pass away; the loss is limited; and when it has been provided for the finances are again on sure and stable ground. This is not the case with the present cause of anxiety (rupee depreciation). Its immediate effects are serious enough … but that which adds significance to it is that the end cannot be seen; the future is involved in uncertainty.99

Summary and Conclusion

This study has attempted to establish a linkage between two fac- ets of Indian history: financial and environmental. Although these two areas have been the separate focus of contemporary research in the context of structural adjustment programmes, their connection has never been explored so far. More often than not, historians have investigated “real” causes rather than “monetary” ones for deforesta-

98 S. Bhattacharya, The Financial Foundations of the British Raj: Ideas and In- terests in the Reconstruction of Indian Public Finance, 1858-1872, Revised Edition, Orient Longman, New Delhi 2005, p.3. 99 Quoted from Ambedkar, History of Indian Currency cit., p. 114-115.

RESEARCH ARTICLES / Sivramkrishna 154 tion and forest policy in the nineteenth century. It is quite possible, however, that monetary disturbances could in fact have been the root, or at least a signifi cant, cause in the shifting priorities and policies of India’s colonial government. In my opinion, the environment in Indian history must be seen as part of a whole. Th e policies and decisions of the Forest Depart- ment and its colonial representatives were situated within a macroeconomic context in which personal beliefs and views may have played an important role in shaping outcomes. At the same time, the larger economic context, including the larger global macroeconomic context, certainly exerted pressures on individuals and institutions and led to outcomes that were not always the same as those originally intended. Th is is evident in recent literature on the impact of SAPs on the environment, where researchers and poli- cymakers have highlighted the close linkages that exist between macroeconomic policy and the environment. Th ere is no reason to believe that these linkages were not as vital in the past, especially in nineteenth century colonial India, whose economy was in many ways more “open” than today, and hence more vulnerable to international fi nancial and monetary disturbances. As we have seen in Table 4 above, in the year 1880-81 just three commodities (raw cotton, food grains and opium) accounted for more than half the total value of exports. Th e situation in colonial India was thus more akin to that of many present African economies that are dependent on the exportation of relatively few primary commodities, thereby making forests and environment highly vulnerable to macroeconomic disturbances; precisely the economies in which the implementation of SAPs has been regarded as most problematic, at least in so far as its adverse impact on the environment is concerned. Our paper is an attempt to extend this contemporary model of SAP-environment linkages to a diff erent, but not entirely dissimilar context in Indian history.

GE155 Agroecosystem, Peasants, and Conflicts: Environmental History in Spain at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century

Antonio Ortega Santos ver the past few years, the study of environmental history in Spain has seen an increase in projects and workgroups, mainly as a result of concern about the environmental impact of capitalist civilization. Th e present essay deals with the energy balance of agrarian systems, inequality of access to goods and environmental revenues, and Ocompetition over the natural resources of human communities since the middle of the nineteenth century. In Spain, environmental history has evolved from 1980s agrarian history. One of its principal aims is to create a framework for the interpretation of the metabolism between agro-ecosystems and rural communities. Another important fi eld of interest that has been gaining increasing importance is the study of the impact of privatization on the access to common environmental goods, and social resistance to this privatization, a result of the mercantilization of rural economies and the as- signing of monetary value to resources previously subject to customary ways of management. Spanish environmental history shares this social- environmental bent with other emergent historiographies worldwide. It has also developed an important connection with the environmental historiography of the “South”, which has forged an interdisciplinary link with Political Ecology and Ecological Economy. Th is article proposes to examine the origin, development and future of environmental history in Spanish historiography. It will focus on the increasing number of workgroups that have broken the mode of conventional methodology and opened themselves up to the infl uences of historiographies of other, non-European realities.

The origins of environmentalism in Spain

Interest in how human societies have managed natural resources has sprung up only recently in Spanish historiography, in the wake of a growth of interest in the forestry and fi shing industries among geographers, historians, and economists over the last two decades. Luis Urteaga has authored an original study in this fi eld.1 His innovative and original work is marked by an ability to integrate the environmental issue in a new paradigm incorporating contemporary “culture of the environment”. Th e scientifi c paradigm prevailing from the late seventeenth century onward advocated the removal of obstacles in the way of an increasing anthrophization of nature.

1 L. Urteaga, La tierra esquilmada. Las ideas sobre la conservación de la naturaleza en la cultura española del siglo XVII, CSIC-Ediciones del Serbal, Barcelona 1987. GE157 Anthrophized Nature was seen as a source of goods and inputs for the productive system (a key element in the proposed transformation of agricultural systems in the paradigm of the Enlightenment). This paradigm, rooted in classical thinking propounding an anthropocentric world view, aimed at a “triumph” over nature, while it completely ignored the negative environmental consequences of human activity. Voices were also raised, however, against the disruption of the order and harmony of natural creation. Urteaga rescues from oblivion authors such as Sarmiento, Cornide, Sáñez of Reguart, Larruga, Cav- anilles, and others, who, starting in the eighteenth century, criticized modern fishing practices and forest management, pointing out that they resulted in economic losses (reduction of labor, low productivity increase). These writers, however, still lacked an adequate understanding of the limited character of available resources and, hence, of the fact that the new forestry and fishing practices were depleting Spanish forests and marine ecosystems. Urteaga focuses especially on the forest policy of enlightened des- potism in Spain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, which sought to establish “scientific” management of forests to put a stop to the plundering of historic Spanish forests. There was certainly a shortage in the availability of firewood in the eighteenth century, although our knowledge is fragmentary, being based on a multiplicity of scattered testimonies regarding the difficulties experienced by many communities in procuring a firewood supply. Urteaga also looks at forest history in the 1990s, dealing with topics such as the impact of forest legislation on traditional management systems; incompatibility between forest management and livestock raising; policies on restocking and planting; and conflicts over forestland ownership. The impact of the extension of scientific forestry often collided with projects of agricultural expansion into mountain terrain requiring intense anthropic modification of the environment in the form of pruning or crop rotation. An especially interesting aspect that Uertaga brings into focus is the concern for the environment found in the writings of many pre-ecological authors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. These authors gave rise to a school of thought which, with

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 158 the growing mercantilization of the environmental goods, inherited the Enlightenment project. Th is school eventually disappeared with the advent of modern industrial agriculture. Other disciplines have contributed to the emerging of environmental history in Spain in the 1990s; notably landscape geography, which has contributed both micro-analytical studies and studies that have extended geography as a scientifi c paradigm. Forests have drawn special interest, both as regards their extension and their economic potential.2 Some forest scientists have given exceptional contributions to the ra- tionalization of forestland management policies,3 devoting special attention to jurisdictional changes imposed by the liberal revolution on ownership of forest resources in Spain as a strategy to maximize their extraction.4 Geographic, scientifi c, and forestry studies of the impact of policy actions on the structure of forest uses – stressing the role of the forest engineer corps as agent of state forest policies5 – have played

2 C.M. Valdés, Tierras y montes públicos en la Sierra de Madrid. Sectores Central y Meridional, Serie Estudios Ministerio Agricultura, Madrid 1996. C.M. Valdes, E. Sáez Pombo, “Los Planes de Aprovechamiento Forestales en los montes de la provincia de Madrid, 1873-1914”, in La Sociedad Madrileña durante la Restau- ración, 1876-1931, L.E. Otero Carvajal, A. Bahamonde Magro (eds), Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid 1989, vol. I, pp. 289-313. C. M. Valdés, R. Mata Olmo, E. Sáez Pombo, I.F. Gonzàles, “La propiedad pública forestal en el cambio de siglo: la relación de montes no catalogados de 1897”, in Actas del VI Coloquio de Geografía Rural, Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 1991, pp. 117-134. 3 J. Gómez Mendoza, Ciencia y política de los montes españoles (1848-1936), ICONA, Madrid 1992. J. Gómez Mendoza, E. Sáez Pombo, C.M. Valdés, “La gestión territorial y ambiental de un parque metropolitano: el Parque Natural de la Cuenca Alta del Manzanares (Madrid)”, in Actas del VII Coloquio de Geografía Rural, Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba 1994, pp. 384-392. 4 J. Gómez Mendoza, “El marco jurídico y las formas de explotación de los montes de España”, in VI Coloquio de Geografía Rural, Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 1992, pp. 79-143. J. Gómez Mendoza, R. Mata Olmo, “Actuaciones Forestales públicas desde 1940. Objetivos, criterios y resultados”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 65, 1992, pp. 15-64. 5 V. Casals Costa, “Defensa y Ordenación del bosque en España: Ciencia, Naturaleza y Sociedad en la obra de los Ingenieros de Montes durante el siglo GE159 an important role in the rise of this historiographical trend.6 During the 1990s, socio-environmental awareness took historiography by storm. Having originally arisen within the field of political ecology, it generated a demand for an alternative development model based on social and environmental sustainability and a respect for cultural and biological diversity;7 a model advocating the defense of equity at the global level, to be achieved by a multiplicity of local actions by social groups struggling for a more equitable allocation and redistribution of goods. By studying how environmental resources and incomes are allocated in individual societies,8 we can better comprehend the struggle for survival and the endo- and exo- somatic reproduction of human groups. Distributive disputes take center stage in paradigms for the study of environmental conflicts (this will be dealt with later), and this has become one of the most innovative features of contemporary Spanish environmental history. They are especially to the fore in Joan Martinez Alier’s diverse and complex studies, ranging from the global to the local. Martinez Alier has laid down guidelines for ecological history incorporating the concerns of global and “glocal” environmentalism within an interdisciplinary perspective. He has

XIX”, in Geocrítica, 73, Universidad de Barcelona, Cátedra de Geografía Hu- mana, Balcelona 1988. V. Casals Costa, Los Ingenieros de Montes en la España Contemporánea, 1848-1936, Ed. del Serbal, Barcelona 1996. 6 H. Groome, “El desarrollo de la política forestal en el Estado Español: desde el siglo XIX hasta la guerra civil”, in Arbor, 474, CSIC, Madrid 1985, pp. 59-89. H. Groome, “El desarrollo de la política forestal en el estado español: desde la guerra civil hasta la actualidad”, in Arbor, 505, CSIC, Madrid 1988, pp. 65-110. H. Groome, Historia de la Política Forestal del Estado Español, Agencia del Medio Ambiente, Madrid 1990. 7 J. Martínez Alier, De la Economía Ecológica al Ecologismo Popular, Icaria, Barcelona 1992. 8 J. Martínez Alier, “Hacia una historia socioecológica: algunos ejemplos andi- nos”, in Ecología, Campesinado e Historia, E. Sevilla Guzmán, M.L. González de Mo- lina (eds), La Piqueta, Madrid 1993, pp. 219-257. J. Martínez Alier, “Indicadores de sustentabilidad y conflictos distributivos ecológicos”, in Ecología Política, 10, CIP/ Icaria, 1996, pp. 35-43. J. Martínez Alier, J. Sánchez, “Cuestiones distributivas de la economía ecológica”, in Ecología Política, 9, CIP/Icaria, 1995, pp. 77-90.

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 160 thus come to the rescue of contemporary thinkers who were still hanging on to the concept of the economic-ecological importance of agrarian systems for the sustainable reproduction strategies of peasant groups. Martinez Alier argues that an emancipatory discourse informs peasant economies and that peasants promote old-new social practices rooted in environmental ethics. Th is is a new form of environmentalism: the “environmentalism of the poor”. Political Ecology, Ecological Economics, and Eenvironmental History, merged in scientifi c proposals granting special attention to changes in energy dynamics and the reproductive dimensions of agro- ecosystems in today’s world, have lately come to the fore in Spain, deploying more materialistic approaches to collective forms of social action and the complex issue of the energy requirements of the operation of current Spanish farming systems. After concentrating on the role of agricultural property as a space for social reproduction in the 1980s and 90s,9 Environmental historiography has lately been focusing increasingly on the theoretical aspects of the energy consumption of agricultural systems,10 with the intent to verify the historical sustainability of the transition from traditional organic economies to an industrialized agriculture incorporating new technological and scientifi c packages that are characteristic of the green revolution. Ad- vances have been made in the study of the material and energetic fl ow of agricultural systems, and on the historical sustainability of

9 J. Martínez Alier, La estabilidad del latifundismo, Ruedo Ibérico, París 1968. Id., “Peasants and Labourers in Southern Spain, Cuba, and Highland Peru”, in Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 1, 2, Routledge, 1974, pp. 133-163. 10 P. Campos Palacín, J.M. Naredo, “La energía en los sistema agrarios”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 15, Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1980, pp. 17-123. Id., “La degradación de los recursos naturales en la dehesa. Análisis de un modelo de dehesa tradicional”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 26, Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1983, pp. 289-381. P. Campos Palacín, “El valor económico total de los sistemas agroforestales”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 71, Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1994, pp. 243-256; P. Campos Palacín, J.M. Naredo, “Los Balances En- ergéticos de la Agricultura Española”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 15, Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1980, pp. 162-255; J.M. Naredo, La Evolución de la Ag- ricultura en España (1940-90), Biblioteca de Bolsillo, Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Granada, Granada 1996. GE161 different levels of fertilization,11 whose limitations are dictated by the metabolism of Mediterranean Ecosystems before the introduction of management practices imposed by the paradigm of modernization. In this historiographical transition, an important precedent that has set the guidelines for all subsequent studies on the metabolism of contemporary farming systems is the work of Pablo Campos and Jose Manuel Naredo. The imposition of the green revolution as a technological and productive package marked a break with the pre-industrial farming system prevailing in Spain up until the second half of the twentieth century, and led to a quick transition to industrialized agriculture. However, the only sources available on this process are limited and fragmented empirical information and unofficial records. The ir- ruption of industrialized agriculture led to the loss of the natural fertility of the soil through the loss of the traditional crop rotation system and the reduction of livestock as pastures gave way to an expanding agriculture. There was a shift to an agricultural model based on non- renewable inputs, with a low energy efficiency of the livestock sector and a growing dependence on imported feed. Campos and Naredo made a huge empirical effort to understand how in the first quarter of the twentieth century the peasant economy was forced to make the leap to a mechanized industrial agriculture largely relying on fossil fuels. Their studies offer in-depth analyses, of broad empirical scope, of the performance of ecosystems, despite the absence of useful official statistics for the Franco period. By shedding light on how these ecosystems work energy-wise, the two historians aimed to provide a useful frame of reference for the setting up of programs in the Spanish Mediterranean mountains during the 1990s to generate an income for local rural communities. Campos and Naredo have illustrated how the spread of industrial agriculture in Spain altered biological cycles of reproduction of agro-ecosystems, redefining traditional systems of crop rotation in order to increase production beyond the limiting factors in environmental Mediterranean Ecosystems.12

11 R. Garrabou, J.M. Naredo, La Fertilización en los sistemas agrarios. Una perspectiva Histórica, Fundación Argentaria Visor, Madrid 1996. 12 P. Campos Palacín, J.M. Naredo, “Los balances energéticos de la economía

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 162 from the South: the social turn of environmentalism in Spain

Spanish environmental history has incorporated methodologies, fi elds of study, and paradigm revisions from realities outside Europe, later developing its own approaches, which promote the emanci- pation of local communities in the face of pressure from the state or local power structures. Th is trend latched onto the “third wave of environmentalism”, inspired by Rama Guha’s reinterpretation of the unsustainability of North–South economic relations. Today the debate is leaning towards active participation in environmental struggles for the defense of spaces and resources of reproductive or symbolic value for rural or urban communities. In Spain, the former in particular, under the pressure of Nation-State Forestry Laws and the infl uence of the capitalist market, found themselves deprived of control of the management of natural resources. In other countries, instead, it was transnational companies that were the actors of this change in the access to and allocation of natural goods.13 In the 1990s, Spanish environmental history received especially signifi cant impulse from Indian historiography. In India, monographs, regional studies, and research projects had been focusing on land use, forest management, irrigation systems, and the reemer- gence of social confl icts between local groups and colonial authorities or corporate commercial entities. Agricultural surveys highlighted changes in land tenure, social inequality, and the role of coloni-

española”, cit., pp. 163-255. Id., “Los energía en los sistemas agrarios”, cit., pp. 17-113; Campos Palacín, El valor económico total cit., pp. 243-256. Id., “La de- gradación de los recursos naturales en la dehesa. Análisis de un modelo de dehesa tradicional”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 26, Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca, Madrid 1986, pp. 289-380. Id., “Hacia la medición de la renta de bienestar del uso múltiple de un monte”, in Las Montañas del Mediterráneo, A. Ortega Santos, J. Vignet Zunz (eds), Exma, Diputación Provincial de Granada, Granada 2002, pp. 61-75. 13 For a more extended overview, M.J.G. Parnwell, R.L. Bryant, Environmental Change in South East Asia. People, Politics and Sustainable Development, Routledge, London 1996. R.H. Grove, V. Damodaran, S. Sangwam, Nature and the Orient: Th e Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia, Oxford University Press, Delhi 1998. GE163 alism, drawing a scenario calling for strong social action.14 Social protests and reactions to the appropriation of the biomass of natural areas through forestry laws and the placing of entire ranges of forest resources at the service of commercial interests are the key elements in the work of Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Gadgil,15 who offer valuable methodologies for the study of European realities.16 In recent times, the field has become ready for the study of new forms of struggle. These have been designated as “environmentalism of the poor”17, a defense of the reproducibility of resources from predatory northern ecological models. The study of disputes over the allocation of assets and resources within and between societies18 en- hances the interdisciplinary facet of environmental history, staking out a space in the fields of political ecology19 and ecological economy. Such disputes were well summarized by Rama Guha as being between omnivores and ecosystem people. They are the result of people’s struggle for access to productive resources and reproductive rights against a model of developed capitalism that rests on increasingly global social asymmetries; an “environmental scenario” in which both intra and inter-society conflicts arise, creating new and old forms ofenvironmental

14 A. Agrawal, K. Sivaramakrisnan, Agrarian Environments. Resources, Represen- tation and Rule in India, Duke University Press, London 2000. 15 R. Guha, The Unquiet Woods. Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in Hima- laya, University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. M. Gadgil, R. Guha, “State For- estry and Social Conflict in British India”, in Past and Present, 123, Past and Present Society, Oxford 1993, pp. 141-177. M. Gadgil, R. Guha, This Fissured Land. An Eco- logical History of India, University of California Press, Berkeley 1992. Id., Ecology and Equity. The Use and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India, Routledge, New York 1995. R. Guha, “The Prehistory of Community Forestry in India”, in Environmental History, vol. 6, 2, White Horse, Cambridge 2001, pp. 212-238. 16 M. Gadgil, R. Guha, “Los hábitats en la historia de la humanidad”, in Ayer, 11, Marcial Pons, Madrid 1993, pp. 49-111. 17 J. Martínez Alier, El Ecologismo de los pobres. Conflictos ambientales y lenguajes de valoración, Icaria, Barcelona 2005. R. Guha, J. Martínez Alier, Varieties of Environmen- talism. Essays North and South, Earthscan Publications, London 1997. 18 Martínez Alier, Indicadores de sustentabilidad cit., pp. 35-44. 19 On the interdisciplinary connection between environmental history and political ecology, see Martínez Alier, De la Economía Ecológica cit. Id., Hacia una Historia Socioecológica cit., pp. 19-257.

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 164 refugees.20 Understanding such scenarios requires a sophisticated vision of confl ict, far removed from the institutionalized paradigm of social history. We are looking here at everyday forms of protest that Scott21 sees as reminiscent of Ghandian passive resistance,22 but which also display an endogenous capacity to develop strategies built around the rejection of industrial or agricultural models imposed from outside the community. Th ese people are fi ghting against a “looting of the economy” which has not only destructured economies in the south but also squandered its natural and human capital, depriving present societies of their reserves for future development. If the interdisciplinary work in India made its mark in the agenda of Spanish environmental history, the same is true of socio-environmental themes developed in studies on Latin America.23 24 Here, an approach based on political ecology, environmental history, and ethnic identity has prevailed in recent years, producing studies centered on the history of agriculture, forestry, and environmental confl ict. Th ese studies, which include several monographs, place special emphasis on the relationship between humankind and environment, most notably as regards the impact of natural resource management. Some studies on Mexico,25 Argentina,26 and Brazil27 have shown

20 R. Guha, “From Experience to Th eory: Traditions of Socio-Ecological Re- search in Modern India”, in Sustainability and the Social Sciences. A Cross-Discipli- nary Approach to Integrating Environmental Considerations into Th eoretical Reorien- tation, E. Becker, T. Jahn (eds), Zed Books, New York 1999, pp. 96-112. 21 J. Scott, Weapons of the Weak. Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, Yale Uni- versity Press, New Haven 1995. 22 For an overview of social resistance, see R. Guha, “El Ecologismo de los Pobres”, in Ecología Política, 8, CIP/Icaria, Madrid 1994, pp. 137-153. 23 G. Castro Herrera, “Th e Environmental Crisis and the Task of Environmen- tal History in Latin America” in Environment and History, 3, White Horse Press, Cambridge 1997, pp. 1-18. 24 An excellent resource for literature on environmental actions in Latin Amer- ica is www1.lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/environment, and also www.csulb.edu/ projects/laeh. 25 F. Ortiz Monasterio, Tierra profanada: historia ambiental de México, Insti- tuto Nacional de Antroplogía e Historia, Ciudad de México 1987. A. Tortolero Villaseñor, Tierra, Agua y Bosques. Historia y Medio Ambiente en el México Cen- GE165 remarkable profundity of thought and achieved especially significant results. Some incorporate philosophical thought28 on environmental issues to address subjects such as changes in land use and the impact of extractive activities in colonies in Latin American ecosystems.29 Reinaldo Funes’ study of Cuba clearly shows that since the nineteenth century, or even earlier, industrial complexes were tools in the service of economic growth models implemented in ecosystems without regard to their destructive consequences; most notably, their dependence on intense historical processes of deforestation.30 Since E. Leff’s original work,31 the debate on the environmental tral, Centre Français d`études mexicaines et centroaméricanes, Ciudad de Méx- ico 1996; G. López Castro, Sociedad y Medio Ambiente en México, El Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora 1997. A. Tortolero Villaseñor, “Tierra, Agua y bosques en Chalco (1890-1925). La innovación tecnológica y sus repercusiones en un medio rural”, in Agricultura Mexicana: crecimiento e innovaciones, M. Menegus, A. Tortolero Villaseñor (eds), Instituto Mora, Colegio Michoacán, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, México 1999, pp. 174-236. 26 E. Brailovsky, D. Foguelman, Memoria Verde. Historia Ecologica de la Ar- gentina, Sudamericana, Buenos Aires 1991. G. Zarilli, “Capitalism, Ecology and Agrarian Expansion in the Pampean Region, 1890-1950”, in Environment and History, 6, White Horse, Cambridge 2001, pp. 561-583. 27 W. Dean, Brazil and the Struggle for Rubber: a Study in Environmental Histo- ry, Cambridge University Press, New York 1987. Id., With Broadax and Firebrand. The Destruction of Brazil`s Atlantic Forest, University of California Press, Berkeley 1995. S. Miller, Fruit less Tress. Portuguese Conservation and Brazil`s Colonial Tim- ber, Stanford University Press, Stanford,2000. 28 J. Augusto Padua, Un Sopro de Destruiçao. Pensamento Político e Crítica Ambien- tal no Brasil Esclavista (1786-1888), Jorge Zahar Editor, Río de Janeiro 2002. 29 For references to works on Colombia, see www.unal.edu.co/webidea (Insti- tuto de Estudios Ambientales). For Chile, www.historiaecologica.cl. For studies on natural resource management, CIECO-México, www.oikos.unam.mx/cieco/. For a general approach to environmental studies in different South American states, www.stanford.edu/group/LAEH. 30 R. Funes Monzote, “La conquista de Camagüey por el azúcar. 1898-1926. El impacto ambiental de un milagro económico”, in Tiempos de América, 8, Cen- tro de Investigaciones de América Latina, Castellón 2001, pp. 3-28. Id., De bosque a sabana: azúcar, medio ambiente y deforestación en Cuba, 1492-1926, Siglo XXI Editorial, México 2004. 31 E. Leff, Ecología y capital. Racionalidad ambiental, democracia participativa

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 166 contradictions of capitalism and the creation of an alternative capitalist development model has led historians to condemn capitalism’s dispos- session and marginalization of the rural world.32 In a recent study by Leff on Latin America, political ecology occupies a border zone between ecological economics and economics, as the author strives to analyze the signifi cance of the reappropriation of nature for the purpose of socioeconomic development. Such an approach is necessary to address the in- adequacy of a purely economic valuation of nature and the concomitant issue of the allocation of environmental goods in a market economy.33 According to another South American author, Escobar, on one hand we have organic nature, on the other the capitalization and technicalization of nature by a dominant culture founded on science and the market. Th ere is resistance to the hegemonic dominance of uniformity, to thingiﬁ cation, as environmentalists and ethnic minori- ties struggle for social justice and equality.34 Environmental confl ict is indeed destined to become one of the principal historiographic topics.35 Th ere are already some studies on social struggles over goods and natural resources, connected with, but outside of, the paradigm of social history. Th ese studies have redefi ned the forms of struggle and the key motivations of resistance against the state, local authorities, and transnational companies, challenging Folchi’s arguments,36

y desarrollo sustentable, Siglo XXI Editorial, México 1986. Id., Los problemas del conocimiento y la perspectiva ambiental del desarrollo, Siglo XXI Editorial, México 1986. Id., Medio ambiente y desarrollo en México, UNAM-M.A, Porrúa, México 1990. E. Leff , J. Carabias, Cultura y manejo sustentable de los recursos naturales, UNAM-M.A, Porrúa, México 1993. 32 D. Barkin, Riqueza, pobreza y desarrollo sustentable, Centro de Ecología y Desarrollo, Editorial Jus, México 1998. 33 E. Leff , “La Ecología Política en América Latina. Un Campo en construc- ción”, in Los Tormentos de la Materia. Aportes para una Ecología Política Latinoa- mericana, H. Alimonda (ed.), CLACSO, Argentina 2007, pp. 21-41. 34 For ethnoecology and its link with environmental history, see V. Toledo’s il- lustration, available at www.oikos.unam.mx/prueba_menus/toledo, and the journal Etnoecología, www.etnoecologica.org.mx. 35 For the study of environmental confl icts, www.olca.cl (Observatorio Lati- noamericano de Confl ictos Ambientales), and http://confl ict.colorado.edu 36 M. Folchi Donoso, “Confl ictos de contenido ambiental y ecologismo de los GE167 which neglect to consider the role of individual or social perception of environmental damage in determining conflicts. Historiography on environmental conflicts has a more sophisticated approach. It takes into account dynamics of exclusion and dislocation implemented by the state legislative apparatus, and their impact on community management practices. In many cases, such as that of Chile, environmental historians have been analyzing conflicts against industrial development, mining, or a model of forest management.37 Some environmental struggles have stimulated the production of numerous works reflecting the wide dissemination of so far hidden forms of environmentalist resistance such as protest speeches and social mobilization in defense of land ownership and the environment. These struggles have the potential to lead to new ways of managing natural resources. From the earliest work in this particular field by Arturo Escobar38 and Sonia E. Alvarez39 to the most recent by H. Collison,40 scholars have been arguing that socio-environmental sustainability has been gaining increasing importance in the eyes of Latin American ethnic-peasant groups. The logic of the monetary pobres: no siempre pobres, no siempre ecologistas”, in Ecología Política, 22, Icaria, Barcelona 2001, pp. 79-100. 37 Id., “La insustentabilidad del boom minero chileno, política y medio ambiente 1983-2003”, in Ecología Política, 23, Icaria, Barcelona 2003, pp. 23-50. R. Montalba-Navarro, N. Carrasco, “Modelo forestal chileno y conflicto indígena ¿ecologismo cultural mapuche?”, in Ecología Política, 26, Icaria, Barcelona 2003, pp. 63-76. Id., “La insustentabilidad de la industria del cobre en Chile: Los hor- nos y los bosques durante el siglo XIX”, in Revista Mapocho, 49, Biblioteca Na- cional de Chile, Chile 2001, pp. 149-175. E. Dore, “Environment and Society. Long-Term Trends in Latin American Mining”, in Environment and History, 6, White Horse Press, Cambridge 2000, pp. 1-29. 38 A. Escobar, “Cultural Politics and Biological Diversity. State, Capital and Social Movements in the Pacific Coast of Colombia”, in Between Resistance and Revolution. Cultural Politics and Social Protest, R.G. Fox, O. Starn (eds), Rutgers University Press, New Jersey 1997, pp. 40-65. 39 S.E. Álvarez, “Reweaving the Fabric of Collective Action: Social Movements and Challenges to ‘Actually Existing Democracy’ in Brazil”, in Fox, Starn (eds), Between Resistance and Revolution cit., pp. 83-118. 40 H. Collinson (ed.), Green Gerrillas. Environmental Conflicts and Initiatives in Latin American and the Caribbean, Black Rose Books, Montreal 1997.

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 168 valuation of environmental goods and the imposing of the dynamics of global market all over the world has resulted in the depredation of natural resources and confronted international market actors with the problem of settling environmental claims. Some protests adopt a defensive logic, choosing strategies linked to the reproductive needs of human groups or designed to counter the threat of external social forces in the context of capitalist economy. Th ese strategies involve discourses and acts of environmental resistance that are close to those of environmental movements in the North.41

Environmental history in Spain: an emerging field for understanding of the future

Today, at the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century, Spanish environmental history has been incorporating some elements of its con- stitutive origins, outlined in the fi rst part of the present article. At the same time, it is leaning towards programs with the above-discussed Southern, social-environmental bent. To a large extent, researchers and emerging groups of the 1980s have moved from forest history to environmental history, expanding their methodologies and proposals for the study of the energy balances of farming activity. It has not been an easy road, but during the last decade scientifi c meetings have been held which have set down guidelines for new work in environmental history in Spain. Th e fi rst Meeting of Envi- ronmental History in Spain was held in May 1999 at Andujar (Jaen), the second in November 2001 at Huesca, and a third one in April 2006 at Carmona (Seville), in parallel with the III Latin American and Caribbean Environmental History Symposium. It has taken the commitment of many researchers to achieve all this.42

41 For a tipology of peasant-environmental confl icts, in a more complex perspective, D. Soto Fernández, A. Herrera González de Molina, M.L. González de Molina Navarro, A. Ortega Santos, “La protesta campesina como protesta ambiental, siglo XVIII-XX”, in Historia Agraria, 47, SEHA/Servicio Publicaciones Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 2007, pp. 31-55. 42 One of the fi rst building blocks in the construction of environmental history in Spain is J. Martínez Alier, M. González de Molina (eds), “Historia y Ecología”, GE169 These meetings have helped scholars to revise approaches first in- augurated in the 1980s and enrich them with new methodology and objectives. As in the early years of the emergence of environmental history, a central axis has been forest history, notably as regards changes in forms of ownership (from communal to state or private) in the late twentieth century and changes in natural resource management. Little attention has been given so far to the impact of these transformations on the functioning of ecosystems. Some local studies on Galicia,43 the Basque country, Navarra44 and Andalucía,45 as well as other areas46 in Ayer, 11, Marcial Pons, Madrid 1993, (incorporating new methodologies proposed by J. Martínez Alier, R. Guha, M. Gadgil, C. Merchant, J. Radkau, and P. Bevilacqua). 43 A. Arteaga Rego, X. Balboa López, “Montes públicos y desamortización en Galicia”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 57, Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1990, pp. 157-201. Id., “La individualización de la propiedad colectiva: aproximación e interpretación del proceso en los montes de Galicia”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 65, Ministerio Agricultura, Madrid 1992, pp. 101-120. X. Balboa López, O Monte en Galicia, Xerais, Vigo 1990. O. Rey Castelao, Montes y política forestal en la Galicia del Antiguo Régimen, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 1995. E. Rico Boquete, Política forestal e repoboacions en Galicia, 1941-71, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela 1995. O el más reciente Grupo de Estudio de la Propiedad Comunal, “La devolución de la propiedad vecinal en Galicia (1960-1985)”, in Historia Agraria, 33, Servicio Publicaciones Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 2004, pp. 107-131. 44 I. Iriarte Goñi, Bienes comunales y capitalismo agrario en Navarra, Serie Estudios Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1997. J.M. Lana Berasain, “Los aprovechamientos agrícolas comunales en el Sur de Navarra entre los siglos XIX-XX”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 65, Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1992, pp. 361-368. 45 J.I. Jiménez Blanco, “Presente y pasado del Monte Mediterráneo en Es- paña”, in Agriculturas Mediterráneas y mundo campesino. Cambios históricos y retos actuales, A. Sánchez Picón (ed.), Instituto de Estudios Almerienses, Almeria 1994, pp. 111-134. J. I. Jiménez Blanco, Privatización y apropiación de tierras municipales en la Baja Andalucía, 1750-1995, Biblioteca de Urbanismo y Cultura, EMEMSA/ Ayuntamiento de Jerez de la Frontera, Jerez de la Frontera 1996. A. Ortega San- tos, “Common Woodlands in Mediterranean Societies: Commercial Management versus Forms of Peasant Resistance in Andalucía (Spain), 1750-1930”, in Forest History. Internacional Studies on Socioeconomic and Forest Ecosystem Change, M. Agnoletti, S. Anderson (eds), CABI Publishing, New York 2000, pp. 223-237. Id., “La desarticulación de la propiedad comunal en España, siglos XVIII-XX: una aproximación multicausal y socioambiental a la historia de los montes públicos”,

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 170 exist, but they do not address the issue of the socio-functionality of natural resources; notably, in these studies commons hardly emerge as a resource for the reproduction of rural communities. Commons were the target of legislative levers created by liberal policies to transform them into inputs for the budding agricultural-industrial production system. Th is process made management more effi cient in monetary terms, but not in socio-environmentalist ones.47 During the 1990s, this study trend was revised and expanded by other publications on commons, which went beyond Hardin’s at the time hegemonic paradigm regarding the managing of commons and rejected the priority of economic returns. Evaluating the socio-environmental profi tability of diff erent forms of natural resource management requires information gathered in the fi eld on the energy balances of agro-ecosystems, and notably on the metabolic function that forest areas perform for the agro-ecosystem as a whole. Such studies formed a separate trend in Spanish environmental history, concentrating on the study of fl ows of nutrients and energy in diff erent ecosystems, according to methodological proposals formulated by members of the Institute for So- cial Ecology in Vienna. From their earliest work in this fi eld, scholars adhering to this trend opted for a reexamination of the constituent elements of peasant economies and a redefi nition of the evolution of capitalist economy following the industrial revolution.48

in Ayer, 42, Marcial Pons/Asociación de Historia Contemporánea, Madrid 2001, pp. 191-213. Id., La tragedia de los cerramientos. Desarticulación de la comunalidad en la provincia de Granada, Centro Francisco Tomás y Valiente, Fundación Insti- tuto de Historia Social, Alzira 2002. 46 J.R. Moreno Fernández, El Monte Público en La Rioja durante los siglos XVI- II-XX: aproximación a la desarticulación del régimen comunal, Diputación Provin- cial de Logroño, Logroño 1994. Id., “El Régimen Comunal y la reproducción de la comunidad campesina en las sierras de La Rioja, Siglos XVIII-XX”, in Historia Agraria, 15, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 1998, pp. 75-113. 47 Grupo Estudios Historia Rural, “Más allá de la propiedad perfecta. El proceso de privatización de los montes públicos españoles (1859-1920)”, in No- ticiario de Historia Agraria, 8, Servicio de Publicaciones e Intercambio Científi co, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 1994, pp. 99-155. 48 In a more complex theoretical perspective about the integration of peasant- GE171 The economies of southern Europe continued in their path of adaptation and integration into world markets. Compared to the economies of the north, these economies are constrained by ecosystems with serious limitations as regards the availability of resources, water and nutrients.49 Recently, there has been a trend in environmental history to produce studies at both the macro and the micro level that employ historical sources to estimate balances of flows, material, and energy at a nation-state scale. Micro-level studies target restricted areas – municipalities or counties – bringing to bear a whole methodological array developed in studies on other areas of the world.50 This strategy involves addressing the balance sheets of energy flows and allows reconstructions within small error margins of the metabolism of the ecosystems under examination. Above all, it allows researchers to precisely evaluate the historical sustainability of the agro-ecosystems51 impacted by the agrarian policies of the nineteenth century. Along with this implementation of micro socio-environmental methodology, there is a whole new series of publications that have been reconstructing the function of Spanish economy through analyses of materials and energy flows. Distancing themselves from the ideas of traditional liberal economy, these studies approach economic problems at the actual level of oikonomía, going back to a more material vision of rural communities in emergence of capitalism in Andalucía, E. Sevilla Guzmán, M. González de Molina, “Ecología, campesinado e historia”, in Col. Genealogía del Poder, 22, La Piqueta, Madrid 1993. 49 M. González de Molina, “Condicionamientos ambientales del crecimiento agrario español, siglos XIX y XX”, in El pozo de todos los males. Sobre el atraso de la Agri- cultura Española Contemporánea, J. Andreu Pujol, M. González de Molina (eds), Críti- ca, Barcelona 2001, pp. 43-95. M. González de Molina, “Environmental Constraints on Agricultural Growth in XIXth Century Granada (Southern Spain)”, in Ecological Economics, 41, 2, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam 2002, pp. 257-270. 50 For more information www.iff.ac.at/socec/forschung/forschung_stoff_en.php. 51 G. Guzmán Casado, M. González de Molina, “Sobre las posibilidades del crecimiento agrario en los siglos XVIII, XIX y XX. Un estudio de caso desde la perspectiva energética”, in Historia Agraria, 40, SEHA/Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, 2006, pp. 437-471. M. González de Molina, Tras los pasos de la insustentabilidad. Agricultura y medio ambiente en perspectiva histórica, siglo XVIII-XX, Icaria, Barcelona 2006.

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 172 economic activity. Jose Manuel Naredo,52 in particular, has produced one of the most innovative revisions in this fi eld. Following in his tracks, Oscar Carpintero53 argued that the Spanish economy sustained the unsustainability of a model of high consumption of raw materials and non-renewable resources throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Th is concept had already been applied to the case of agriculture by P. Campos and J. M. Naredo in the 1980s, at both levels, that of economic dependency and that of the environmental consequences of the model in the context of the global ecological crisis. A contribution of ideas has also been coming from the fi eld of economics, notably from workgroups in Catalonia gathered around E. Tello and R. Garrabou. Th eir research started out with studies addressing changes in land ownership structures in Catalonia54 and culminated in projects analyzing changes in historical landscapes and the social metabolism of agro-ecosystems.55 E. Tello’s most re-

52 J.M. Naredo, “La modernización de la agricultura española y sus repercusiones ecológicas”, in Naturaleza Transformada, M. González de Molina, J. Martínez Alier (eds), Icaria, Barcelona 2001, pp. 55-86. Id., La Evolución de la Agricultura en España (1940-2000), Universidad de Granada, Granada 2004. J. M. Naredo, P. Campos, “Los balances energéticos de la economía española”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, Ministerio Agricultura, Madrid 1980, pp. 163-255. Id., “Los energía en los sistemas agrarios”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 15, Ministerio Agricultura, Madrid 1980, pp. 17-113. 53 O. Carpintero, Entre la economía y la naturaleza, Libros de la Catarata, Ma- drid 1999. Id., El metabolismo de la economía española. Recursos naturales y huella ecológica (1955-2000), Fundación Cesar Manrique, Lanzarote 2005. 54 R. Garrabou, J. Planas, E. Saguer, “Sharecropping and the Management of Large Rural Estates in Catalonia, 1850-1950”, in Journal of Peasant Studies, 28, 3, 2001, pp. 89-108. R. Garrabou, E. Tello Aragay, “Constructor de paisatjes. Amos de masies, masovers y rabassaires al territori del Vallès (1716-1860)”, in J. Fontana (ed.), Història i projecte social. Reconeixement d`una trajectòria, Crítica, Barcelona 2004, pp. 83-104. 55 E. Tello Aragay, “La formación histórica de los paisajes agrarios mediterrá- neos: una aproximación coevolutiva”, in Historia Agraria, 19, SEHA/Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 1999, pp. 195-211. X. Cussó, R. Garrabou, J.R. Olarieta, E. Tello Aragay, “Balances Energéticos y usos del suelo en la agricultura catalana. Una comparación entre mediados del siglo XIX y fi nales del siglo XX”, in His- toria Agraria, 40, SEHA/Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 2006, pp. 471-501. E. Tello Aragay, J. Marull, J. Pino, J.M. Mallarach i Carrera, “Análisis estructural y GE173 cent publication addresses the issue of global unsustainability from the perspective of ecological economic history.56 Moving from his criticism of a monetary approach to economic reality (crematística) as opposed to one based on oikonomía, E. Tello proposes going back to “alternative economic thought”. This allows alternative thinking and a better critical understanding of the problems of the global socio-environmental crisis and the measurable impacts of socio-economic systems on the environment.57 Action on the human tecnosfera implies a change in the metabolism of human societies. This requires a revised epistemology capable of reformulat- ing the concepts of development, growth and efficiency at a global scale. The incompatibility of the satisfaction of vital needs and the requirements of capitalist exploitation lies at the origin of the lack of sustainability of the North-South relationship. A third element that has found a place in Spanish environmental historiography is that of the education of the general public.58 Works such as Manuel Gonzalez de Molina’s59 have become essential sources for teachers and researchers seeking to inform themselves about the path taken by environmental history in recent decades. Claiming the ability to understand the complexity of Western society involves a capability to develop a criticism of its predation of global resources and calling into question a way of life that is cur- funcional de la transformación del paisaje agrario en el Vallés durante los últimos 150 años (1853-2004): relaciones con el uso sostenible del territorio”, in Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 25, 2006, pp. 105-126. 56 E. Tello Aragay, La historia cuenta: del crecimiento económico al desarrollo humano sostenible, El Viejo Topo, Barcelona 2005. 57 Id., “La mundialización capitalista y el ecosocialismo de andar por casa”, in Mientras Tanto, 76, 2000, pp. 31-40. Id., “Globalización del comunismo? Huelas y deudas ecológicas”, in Mientras Tanto, 80, 2001, pp. 83-93. Id., “Economía y ecología de las sociedades humanas: una nueva cultura para la justicia global”, in El valor de la ciencia, S. López Arnal (ed.), El Viejo Topo, Barcelona 2001, pp. 101-150. 58 J. Alonso Millán, Una tierra abierta. Materiales para una historia ecológica de España, Compañía Literaria, Madrid 1995. 59 M. González de Molina, Historia y medio ambiente, Eudema Historia, Ma- drid 1993. Id., Hombre y naturaleza en el siglo XIX. La raíces de la crisis ecológica, Santillana Hoy Historia, Madrid 1996.

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 174 rently threatened by a global ecological crisis rooted in the industrialization model. Researches working in this direction can be found in the journal Ayer,60 which has adhered to the agenda of some recent United States environmental history – notably work by John McNeill on the international system and environmental change in the twentieth century – by publishing a variety of studies identifying similar patterns in the Spanish context. Other notable work of recent years includes publications on Neo-Malthusianism,61 a study in the still insuffi ciently trodden fi eld of urban environmental history,62 essays on biological indicators,63 and works in forest or environmental history dealing with energy balances in agro-ecosystems.64 Th e constituent elements of Spanish environmental history were brought together to form a new paradigm in a book edited by Manuel Gonzalez de Molina and Joan Martinez Alier,65 a compilation of some of the best studies representing the various trends of environmental history in Spain and America. Th is is one of the results of the synergy created at the scientifi c meetings mentioned above. Th e book is structured around several themes. One of the fi rst is a proposed update of conventional agricultural history, both from the perspective of local and regional dynamic economic development and from that of the study of climate and its impact on Mediterranean agriculture; an approach cen-

60 A. Sabio Alcutén (ed.), “Naturaleza y confl icto social. La historia contem- poránea desde el medio ambiente”, in Ayer, 46, Macial Pons/Asociación Historia Contemporánea, Madrid 2002. 61 E. Masjuan, “Procreación consciente y discurso ambientalista: anarquismo y neomaltusianismo en España e Italia, 1900-1936”, in Ayer, 46, Marcial Pons/ Asociación Historia Contemporánea, Madrid 2002, pp. 63-93. 62 J. Martínez Alier, “Los indicadores de insustentabilidad urbana como indicadores de confl icto social”, in Ayer, 46, Marcial Pons/Asociación Historia Con- temporánea, Madrid 2002, pp. 43-63. 63 J.M. Martínez Carrión, “Biología, historia y medio ambiente. La estatura como espejo del nivel de vida de la sociedad española”, in Ayer, 46, Marcial Pons/ Asociación Historia Contemporánea, Madrid 2002, pp. 93-123. 64 M. González de Molina, G. Guzmán Casado, A. Ortega Santos, “Sobre la sustentabilidad de la agricultura ecológica. Las enseñanzas de la historia”, in Ayer, 46, Marcial Pons/Asociación Historia Contemporánea, Madrid 2002, pp. 155-187. 65 González de Molina, Martínez Alier (eds), Naturaleza Transformada cit. GE175 tered on the recognition of the limits of growth in the contemporary world66 and the need for adaptive management of the environment. A second, underinvestigated thematic terrain is that of industry and the environment in Spain. There have been some studies on mining activities and their environmental impact from a historical perspective, or on cases of pollution in the industrial use of natural resources.67 Only a few authors have researched the impact of population growth on vegetation and potential industrial uses of the countryside.68 A current trend in Spanish environmental history is to reexamine changes in ownership of communal goods, especially of public-state woodlands, which have been subject to a wider range of processes of disentailment. Above all, there is a reinterpretation of the role of these forest areas in meeting the reproductive needs of rural communities. Iñaki Iriarte provides an accurate breakdown of the evolution of forms of ownership.69 Another study,70 by the author of the

66 J.M. Naredo, “La modernización de la agricultura española y sus repercusiones ecológicas”, in ibid., pp. 55-85. M. González de Molina, “El modelo de crecimiento agrario del siglo XIX y sus límites ambientales. Un estudio de caso”, in ibid., pp. 87-125. V. Pinilla Navarro, “Desarrollo agrícola y medio ambiente. La agricultura aragonesa (1800-1975)”, in ibid., pp. 125-160. F. Sánchez Rod- rigo, “Clima y producción agrícola en Andalucía durante la edad moderna (1587- 1729)”, in ibid., pp. 161-180. 67 A. Sánchez Picón, “Transición energética y expansión minera en España”, in González de Molina, Martínez Alier (eds), Naturaleza Transformada, cit., pp. 265-287. J.D. Pérez Cebada, “Lluvia ácida y deforestación en la mina: el primer expediente de compensación por daños causados por efecto de la contaminación atmosférica (1847)”, in ibid., pp. 239-264. 68 J.G. Latorre, A. Sánchez Picón, J.G. Latorre, “The Man-Made Desert Effects of Economic and Demographic Growth on the Ecosystem of Arid Southeastern An- dalusia”, in Environmental History Review, 6, 1, American Society for Environmental History, 2001, pp. 75-95. Id., “Dealing with Aridity: Socioeconomic Structures and Environmental Changes in an Arid Mediterranean Region”, in Land Use Policy, 18, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam 2001, pp. 53-64. J.G. Latorre, Almería, Hecha a mano: una historia ecológica, Fundación Cajamar, Almería 2007. 69 I. Iriarte Goñi, “Explotación forestal, medio ambiente y derechos de propiedad de los montes municipales de Navarra (1900-1935)”, in González de Molina, Martínez Alier (eds), Naturaleza Transformada cit., pp. 211-238. 70 A. Ortega Santos, “Montes comunales en sociedades mediterráneas: modos

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 176 present article, proposes a view of environmental changes in forest woodlands and the ensuing complications in the commons issue as it has existed up until now. Common goods71 appear as a key element in the reproduction of rural communities. Th e pressure of liberal agrarian and forestry legislation undermined customary practices for the management of these spaces. According to R. Guha and Gadgil, the mountain commons of Mediterranean countries have witnessed a transition from a peasant to an industrial mode of use of natural resources. It is industrial interests that put pressure on the bureaucratic administrative state to convert forest areas into suppliers of inputs for the expanding capitalist agriculture and industry.72 However, the main connection of Spanish environmental with southern historiography is a widespread commitment to the study of environmental confl icts. For several years, researchers from An- dalusia have been publishing work that refl ects the setting up of a scientifi c management of natural resources by forest scientists and the state forestry administration throughout the nineteenth century; an approach that spelled the end of local traditional uses of natural resources. While no social group or civilization has been ¨ecologically innocent¨ throughout history, the alienation of peasant land through privatization implemented by state forest administrative apparatus elicited especially strong social protest. Th e fi rst studies on forest criminality73 recognized the rejection of privatization of

de uso de los recursos naturales en Andalucía Oriental, siglos XVIII-XX”, in ibid., pp. 367-391. 71 On the interaction between commons and environmental history, see M. González de Molina, A. Ortega Santos, A. Herrera González de Molina, “Bienes comunales desde la perspectiva socioambiental”, in Historia de la propiedad en España. Bienes comunales, pasado y presente, S. De Dios, J. Infante, R. Robledo, E. Torijano (eds), Centro de Estudios Registrales, Madrid 2002, pp. 493-533. 72 A. Ortega Santos, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Aprovechamientos forestales y desarticulación de la comunalidad en la provincia de Granada, siglos XIX-XX”, in Los montes andaluces y sus aprovechamientos: experiencias históricas y propuestas de futuro, E. Araque Jiménez, J.D. Sánchez Martínez (eds), Universidad de Jaén, Jaén2007, pp. 59-95. 73 F. Cobo Romero, S. Cruz Artacho, M. González de Molina Navarro, “Pri- vatización del monte y protesta social. Una primera aproximación a los delitos GE177 forest areas as an established social practice. Thus, researchers began to rescue conflicts over natural resources from the historiographical opacity they had been relegated to up to then. These studies reinterpreted in an environmental key many episodes already previously dealt with by conventional social history. To paraphrase Tilly, it is a matter of retrieving the languages of dispute. The logic of confrontation between social actors, dynamics of class conflict within environmental conflicts, and peasant struggles against local authorities for privatization or state-imposed monetization of common uses are just some of the elements that place these studies among the most advanced being carried on today, both in and outside Europe.74 Today, studies on environmental conflict are striving to rethink the intra and inter-relationships involved in the history of the management of natural resources. They focus on property disputes reflecting a social stake, viz., maintaining and enhancing sustainable development practices answering the productive needs of the community and forming a basis for community identity. Studies on en- forestales (1836-1920)”, in Agricultura y Sociedad, 65, Ministerio de Agricultura, Madrid 1992, pp. 253-302. Id., “Propiedad Privada y protesta campesina. Aprox- imación a la criminalidad rural en Granada, 1836-1920”, in Areas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 15, Universidad de Murcia/Fundación Caja Murcia, Murcia 1993, pp. 33-54. 74 A. Ortega Santos, M. González de Molina Navarro, “Bienes comunes y conflictos por los recursos en las sociedades rurales, siglos XVIII-XX”, in Historia Social, 38, Fundación de Historia Social, Valencia 2000, pp. 95-116. A. Ortega Santos, “Common Woodlands in Mediterranean Societies: Commercial management versus Forms of Peasant Resistance in Andalucía, Spain, 1750-1930”, in Forest History. International Studies on Socieconomic and Forest Ecosystem Change, M. Agnoletti, S. Anderson (eds), CABI Publishing, New York 2000, pp. 223- 237. A. Ortega Santos, “Über die historische nachaltigkeit der kolletiven bäuer- lichen Aktiosformen. Sozio-ökologische Konflikte in Ost-Andalusien (18 bis 20. Jahrhundert), in Von der Gottesgabe zur Ressource: Konflite um Wald, Wasser and land in Spanien und Detschland Seit der Frühen Neuzeir, M. Luise Allemeyer, M. Jakubowski Tiessen, S. Rus rufino (eds), Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2007, pp. 239- 269. D. Soto Fernández, A. Herrera González de Molina, M. González de Molina Navarro, A. Ortega Santos, “La protesta campesina como protesta ambiental, siglo XVIII-XX”, in Historia Agraria, 47, SEHA/Servicio Publicaciones Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 2007, pp. 31-55.

HISTORIOGRAPHIES / Ortega Santos 178 vironmental confl ict seek to rethink the position of citizens before access to resources was changed by the legislative action of nation- states, and analyze rural communities’ collective reactions against attacks by agents outside the community (state and local powers, commercial-industrial sectors, etc). Peasants, farmers, and livestock breeders were social agents whose response to the “privatization” of commons was not one of mere rejection. Th eir struggle was about the preservation of peasant management of resources against the encroaching of the industrial management of natural assets and attempts to force them to adopt the logic of the market in their relationship with the environment. Th e study of environmental history involves understanding environmental struggles (rural and urban) at a global scale as reactions against political inequity and unsustainability by diff erent social groups resisting the impositions of the state, market economy, or political institutions. Th e complex and rich panorama of Spanish environmental history is expanding, with various groups working in diff erent areas, and a distinctive approach that applies methodologies and interpretive proposals directly to the co-evolution of human societies and the environment in contemporary times.

GE179 “Bridging Divides for Water”: The 5th World Water forum (WWf) and the Alternative Water forum

Eugenia ferragina he World Water Forum held at Istanbul from 16 to 22 March 2009 marked a further stage in the very heated debate on the actions the international community needs to take for the safeguarding and management of water resources. Th ese actions concern both political balances – wherever hydraulic basins are a bone of contention between coriparian states – and standards of living and social justice, Tsince access to water is one of the principal indicators of the existing gaps between developed and developing countries. Th e fi rst World Water Forum was held at Marrakesh in 1997. Its purpose was to set guidelines for hydraulic policies at the planetary level and reinforce international cooperation in the sector. Th e event is held every three years and witnesses the participation of public and private operators, international organizations, NGOs, and user groups. It provides an echo chamber for major water-related political and social issues, but also an occasion to develop market-conquering strategies for the large multinationals in the sector, such as Vivendi-Veolia and Suez, which by themselves control 70% of the world trade volume. Private sector operators also sit in the World Water Council, an organism which has gained a key role in the funding and organization of the World Water Forums, in collaboration with the Global Water Partnership, an institution promoting public-private partnerships. Th e stepping in of multinationals in the organization of the Forum has shifted the center of gravity of the world water question from the safeguarding of rights to water to the need to promote economic effi ciency in the management of the resource. Th e fi nal declaration of the Hague Forum of 2000 sig- naled this reversal in trend. Th e declaration defi nes water as a need, not a fundamental right, since a consecration of the right of people to water is seen as too constraining for management policies entrusting the satisfaction of water demands to market mechanisms. Since then, this duality has marked all the water forums: on the one hand, a concern for social issues and the theme of water security, expressed by the United Nations and its agencies; on the other, the prima- cy granted to the economic aspects of water management. International fi nancial organisms – notably the World Bank and the International Money Fund – have been constantly calling attention to the need to mobilize funding in this sector to make up for the inability of the governments of the poorer and more indebted countries to meet one of the great challenges of the new millennium: the granting of access to water to a billion 200 million people who are still denied this right. Th is year’s title of the World Water Forum, “Bridging Divides for Water”, has called attention to unequal access to water resources at the global scale. Th ere were six main themes: Climate Change and Risk Management; Advancing Human Development and the Millennium GE181 Development Goals; Managing and Protecting Water Resources; Gov- ernance and Management; Finance; Education, Knowledge, and Ca- pacity of Development. Collateral events included a trade show and an exhibition, organized to favor the meeting of operators and present technical innovations. On the political front, the opening ceremony saw the participation, among others, of the president of the World Water Coun- cil, the mayor of Istanbul, the Turkish minister of the environment, the Sub-Secretary General of the United Nations in representation of Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon, the prime minister of Morocco, and the Turkish president Gul. During the Forum, the prime minister of the Turkish republic gave awards to exponents of Turkish agencies and press organs that had distinguished themselves for their commitment in the water sector, and Morocco assigned the Hassan II Prize to the director of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. The Forum hosted the presentation of the Third United Na- tions Report on the world water situation, which highlighted factors that will increase pressure on water resources in the years to come, first and foremost climate change and future transformations in the economy and living standards of emergent countries. The report also stressed that the Millennium objective of reducing the quota of world population lacking access to water and adequate hygienic and sanitary conditions by 2015 appears increasingly remote. Theme 1 of the Forum, centering on global change and environmental risk management, was coordinated by the UNEP and the World Metereological Organization. Speakers in this section stressed that water security and the management of water-connected environmental risks in an interdependent world depend on global dynamics such as migration, climate change, and virtual water flows, i.e., the water contained in commodities exchanged on international markets. Water security thus goes hand in hand with energy security and food security. Managers of water resources must hence take account of this complexity and call on multiple skills and adopt different approaches as required. It is especially crucial to transfer technology to risk-prone areas, and involve local authorities and consumers in innovation processes in the sector. Theme 2 – human development and the Millennium develop-

AROUND THE WORLD / FERRAGINA 182 ment objectives – was coordinated by UN-Water and the FAO, and focused on some currently pressing issues: poverty, hunger, and the lack of access to water and decent hygienic and sanitary conditions aff ecting a huge percentage of the world population. Special attention was given to the role of careful water management in the struggle against world hunger. Agriculture – the sector that consumes the most water resources – today is called upon to undertake a major eff ort at modernization, notably as regards irrigation systems, cultivation patterns, and land ownership. Much depends, however, on the changing of the market mechanisms whereby today developed countries limit the agricultural exportations of poorer countries, such as subsidies to their own agricultures, non-tariff restrictions, and protectionist attitudes. Even the subsidies granted by the USA and the EU to biofuel production are at least in part responsible for the recent price hike of basic agricultural products on international markets. Th is price increase has favored large producers exporting on international markets rather than small landowners, and has certainly gone to the detriment of the poorer urban classes. Th e third theme of the forum was the management and protection of water resources, organized by UNESCO and the International Net- work of Basin Organisation (INBO). Th e various sessions under this heading analyzed political agreements and institutional frameworks capable of safeguarding water sources and reinforcing cooperation within international hydraulic basins. Little space was devoted to confl ict for trans-boundary water resources, such as the Turkish GAP project, which envisages the building of a system of 22 dams and 18 electric power plants on the Tigris and Euphrates in the Anatolian southeast, whose population is in majority Kurdish. Th is project has a high potential for confl ict generation, not just at the national but also at the international level, since it is destined to heavily impact water availability in Syria and Iraq and threatens to completely disrupt the life systems and the very existence of Kurdish communities in the aff ected area, through the submersion of whole villages and the forced moving of the population. Th e lack of a debate on the problematic aspects of major hydraulic projects refl ects the policy of the forum, which, on the one hand, avoids all judgments of merit on actions undertaken by GE183 governments – represented at the forum by political delegations that actively participated by holding a number of meetings –, and, on the other, never explicitly condemns projects benefiting the multinational companies of the sector. Some sessions devoted special attention to the sustainable management of underground reservoirs. These are strategic resources, being less exposed to climate change, but are subject to what Spanish expert Ramon Llamas calls a “silent revolution”, i.e., intensive exploitation that often eludes all form of state control. Only in 2002 the United Nations finally stress the need for a mapping of large trans- boundary underground aquifers, setting out a first body of international norms regulating the use of trans-boundary aquifers (Resolution no. 63/124). UNESCO’s International Hydrologic Programme (IHP) has recorded all of 274 trans-boundary underground reservoirs. The fourth theme was that of water management and governance, coordinated by the UN-Habitat agency of the United Nations. Participants in these sessions emphasized that the current global water and sanitary crisis essentially depends on constraints that are institutional and political in nature. The main issues discussed were the need for a system of transparent rules and controls to improve the public management of water, and the advantages of leasing out water-supplying systems to private companies in developing countries to improve these systems’ efficiency and fight corruption. The fifth theme of the Forum was that of financial problems. It was coordinated by the World Bank. The focus was the price of water, where a distinction was made between resource and service. Water-supplying services require high investments, which can only be funded by fixing tariffs completely covering costs, from the extraction of the resource to its distribution to users. To deal with the gap between investment costs and private subjects’ willingness to invest – which threatens to widen as a result of the current international financial crisis – one must attract investors’ attention by putting on the market financial products, such as stocks and obligations, connected to the sector. A crucial resource for investments by developing countries is the granting of long-term loans guaranteeing private financers against the high risks involved in the implementing and management of water-supplying systems. Planning investments

AROUND THE WORLD / FERRAGINA 184 and diversifying funding sources through a joint use of tariff s, taxes, and transfers was presented as the only viable strategy to cover the high costs of water-supplying and sanitary systems. Th e sixth and last theme of the Forum, coordinated by UNESCO, was the creation and development of managerial and organizational capabilities in the water sector. Th e focus was on technology transfers, research, and the raising of users’ awareness of the water problem. Some of the sessions were devoted to the cultural aspects of water management. Th ese concentrated on two fundamental but so far underrecognized aspects of the management of water resources: cultural diff erences in the perception of water and its social value, and the role of such diff erences in dynamics of confl ict and cooperation between countries. Th e fi nal statement that emerged from the eight ministerial round tables that concluded the forum reaffi rmed the international community’s interest in some questions it regards as strategic. Th ese include the reduction of the impact of climate change on the world water supply; strategies to minimize environmental risks; the connection between water politics, energy politics, and the world food crisis; and increasing access to water in countries where this basic right is still denied. Th e document stressed the need for “improved hygiene and sanitation” as an important “step towards decreasing worldwide deaths related to water shortages.” Th e drafting of this fi nal statement once again witnessed a rift between those countries that wanted it to acknowledge access to water as a right, and those that opposed this. Th e defi nition “water need” fi nally prevailed. Th is choice of terms is signifi cant. By accept- ing that the satisfaction of water needs is subordinate to the paying of a price, the forum has given its support to an approach advocating a role for multinational companies in the creation and management of water-supplying systems. Th is decision of the Istanbul forum follows in the steps of the previous ones by granting legitimacy to the role of private companies both in the creation and management of networks in the framework of ongoing privatization processes, as well as in the production of bottled water, a continuously expanding sector thanks to the ineffi ciency of public water supplying services, which force local populations to turn to the market to make up for continuous interruptions in the supply and the bad quality of tap water. Nongovernmental GE185 organizations stressed their dissatisfaction with the final declaration, which they saw as a step backward from the commitment that every government should make to protect water rights as an extension of the right to life as affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In parallel with the official Forum, an alternative Forum was held from 20 to 22 March, which saw the participation of more than 600 people, about 30 nongovernmental organizations, the Committee for the World Water Contract – a vast movement that opposes the privatization of water – and the Foundation for a New Water Culture – an organization founded in Spain in 2005, which has mobilized hundreds of world experts in support of a public, just, and participative management of water resources. The event was also attended by many Europe- an Parliament members and ecological and human rights associations. An especially significant presence at the alternative Forum was that of Maude Barlow, a consultant on water issues of the President of the General Assembly of the United Station, an activist for water rights, and the author of books such as Blue Gold and Our Water Commons. Barlow has become a spokesman for all movements that do not recognize the legitimacy of the official Water Forum and are urging the Gen- eral Assembly of the United Nations to take control of the next forums as the only organism that is truly super partes, and can hence represent the international community and all the organizations that are struggling for the recognition of water as a common good of humanity. The final statement of the alternative Forum rejects all forms of privatization of water, affirms intergenerational solidarity as the guid- ing principle for natural resource use, and stresses the need to maintain the integrity of the water cycle and contrast the economic and environmental crisis. It also insists on the interdependence of climatic change and water crisis, and rejects approaches that, while they do nothing to contrast the rise of global temperature, threaten to further deteriorate the quantity and quality of water sources and life conditions, such as the construction of dams and nuclear power plants, and the cultivation of biofuels. The alternative Forum gave ample voice to the movements opposing the GAP project in Turkey and abroad, and especially to initiatives against the creation of the Ilisu dam and the submersion of the archaeological site of Hasankeyf.

AROUND THE WORLD / FERRAGINA 186 GE187 LibraryLibrary

Shawn William Miller An Environmental History of Latin America New York: Cambridge university Press, 2007 Collection: New Approaches to the Americas Stuart Schwartz Editor

Reinaldo funes Monzote

Th is book makes a laudable eff ort to systematize and synthesize some of the main results of studies on the environmental history of Latin America. It is an excellent example of the potential of environmental history for the analysis of historical processes. Following the concise defi nition of environmental history as the study of the mutual interactions between human beings and the rest of nature, it embraces a wide range of themes within the environmental history of Latin America, not only that of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, but also of the English, French, and Dutch Caribbean. Studies of the environmental history of Latin America and the Caribbean are beginning to show a growing maturity, although we may agree with the author that they are still in their childhood (p. 203). By the mid 1990s only a handful of studies on the region inspired by environmental history had seen the light. Authors from academic circuits out of the region, mainly United States and linked to ASEH, had produced several pioneering works, and, parallel to this, some dispersed studies by Latin American authors had begun to appear. In recent years, however, Latin American and Caribbean environmental historians have been increasing their output and one remarks a growing consolidation of scholarship in individual countries and at the regional level. Any reader or specialist interested in exploring the environmental history of the American continent south of the Bravo river will fi nd in this book an excellent starting point. It is useful for beginners as well as for experienced scholars, and provides a helpful reference at diff erent educational levels for teachers who want to present a history granting a central place to the complex problem of the sustainability and survival of human cultures and civilizations. Moving from this perspective, although he is aware of its limitations, the author places the greatest emphasis on four variables that appear in one way or another at diff erent moments in the book, viz., population, technology, attitudes toward nature, and attitudes toward consumption. Th e analysis of these variables starts from the principle that neither nature nor culture are able to entirely determine their respec- tive outcomes. Th erefore, a history that does not take into account interactions with nature is at least inaccurate and of limited purpose, and at most dangerous. Th e main body of the book comprises seven chapters, preceded by an introduction that combines a statement about the importance of environmental history with an outline of the specifi c issues raised by the study of the historical experience of the region presently known as “Latin America”. Chapter 1, “An Old World Before It Was New”, examines some of the main cultures or civilizations that existed in the continent before the arrival of the Europeans, particularly the Aztecs, the Incas and Tupis from Brazil. Among various topics exam- ined, the author devotes special attention to the controversial debate about cannibalism among several Latin American cultures before the arrival of Columbus. In 1492, the future America was in no way an uninhabited continent with pristine landscapes, but rather just the opposite. Some of its cities rivaled in population with its contempo- raries in Europe, and its agricultural systems showed a high degree of productivity and great adaptation to unequal ecological conditions. Th us, as Miller affi rms, “If Columbus discovered paradise, it was a humanized paradise.” GE189 Some of the demographic and environmental consequences of the arrival of Europeans are discussed in chapter 2, “Nature’s Conquest”, including epidemics, the introduction of new sources of food, such as bovine meat, and the reactions of Europeans in front of the nature of the New World, which opposed allegories of paradise and hell. Chapter 3, “The Colonial Balance Sheet,” centers on topics such as the environmental impact of the sugar industry in Brazil and in the non-Spanish European islands in the Antilles from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; silver mining; pollution and its harmful effects on human health; and the metropolitan monopolies dedicated to preserving, in the name of mercantilist interests, certain natural “products” such as timber, rubber, diamonds, salt, and whales. The author makes some very interesting considerations on the – usually ineffective – natural resource conservation policies implemented by imperial politicians. The remaining chapters are devoted to the situation after independence. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries have received the most attention from environmental historians. Chapter 4, “Tropical Determinism”, examines the implications of certain European ideas about the influence of climate and race that prevailed until beginning of the twentieth century. These ideas presupposed not only the inferiority of the inhabitants and nature of the tropics, but even the degeneration of European white immigrants. In close relationship with these conceptions, Miller discusses tropical illnesses such as yel- low fever and Chagas disease, as well as plagues that affected com- mercially valuable crops such as rubber and banana. In both cases, he emphasizes their socioeconomic implications, as he also does in his analysis of some of the natural disasters that have affected the region historically, for example the hurricanes in the Caribbean and Central America. Chapter 5 presents some of the most notorious examples of what Miller designates as “Human Determination”, through cases such as the drainage of the lakes of Mexico City; guano and nitrate extraction on the coast of the South American Pacific to supply a potent fertilizer for European and North American agriculture; and the construction of large dams to generate electrical power. Chapter 6

LIBRARY / FUNES MONZOTE 190 treats of one of the biggest challenges for Latin American nations in the twentieth century, viz., the formation of gigantic cities. Th e author regards the city as an unavoidable reality in any Latin American environmental politics, due to the deep urban tradition of the region. Related topics include the growing use of the automobile since the mid twentieth century and politics to reduce population, such as the discriminatory practice of female sterilization in countries like Puerto Rico or in impoverished areas like the Northeast of Brazil. Chapter 7 discusses Latin American historical experiences in conservation politics since the XIX century. Miller fi nds here less of a romantic attitude towards nature than in the United States, a fact which he explains, in part, by later industrialization. He observers, however, that when Latin American environmental history is better known new personalities may emerge who may force us to revise this impression. Th e author examines in more detail recent examples of environmental issues in places such as the Dominican Repub- lic (where president Balaguer played an important part), Sandinista Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, “the darling of biodiversity conservation.” Miller warns against the hypocrisy of modern environmentalism: “while collectively we can agree to save the earth, individually we consume the earth at an astounding rate” (p. 215). He gives the example of tourism, which is but a continuation of the exploitation (and spoliation) of natural resources; he includes as representative cases Acapulco, Cancún, cruises, and “eco theme parks.” Not everything in the book is a succession of disasters or setbacks in humans’ relationship with nature. Th e author mentions some hopeful examples indicating that a concern for nature does not confl ict with aspirations to social justice or equality, or even with urban growth. Under this regard, the recent experience of the Brazilian city of Curitiba stands out. Curitiba has implemented an urbanization policy emphasizing public transportation and the use of bicycles, although Miller does not omit to point out some potential risks. Th e author’s concern for connecting the past, the present, and the future is an especially commendable aspect of the book. It is no coincidence that Miller’s history concludes with an epilogue entitled “Cuba’s Latest Revolution”, which examines the consequences for GE191 the island’s economy of the collapse of the Socialist block and the USSR, which caused petroleum imports to decrease more than 50 percent, and consequently stimulated an effort on the national scale to shift from an industrial agriculture that was highly dependent on external inputs towards a sustainable and organic agriculture. Those more familiar with the topic of this book, will be able to quickly find the sources that stimulated the author to carry out this synthesis. In the chapters we can find the results of pioneering studies in this field, including those coming from historical geography, mainly works published in United States. One may perhaps object to the absence of some authors and topics, but in any work with such a broad scope this is unavoidable. One may also criticize the lack of references to works in recent years in Latin America, as well as the fact that the author puts too much emphasis on topics he has dealt with in previous studies, and hence pays more attention to some countries, such as Brazil and Mexico, and less to others. Furthermore, some topics that are discussed for one period disap- pear in the next, even when their environmental implications may be greater in this subsequent phase. None of these remarks, however, can eclipse the contribution of this book to the goal of constructing an environmental history of Latin America. Certainly, the book does not call attention to some of the deepest causes of environmental deterioration in the region, notably the ways in which the region was integrated into the world system beginning in 1492 and, above all, during the nineteenth century; nonetheless, this does not diminish its merit as one the first works of its kind. Miller’s book is a valuable contribution and a stimulus for all who are attempting to construct a history that is not just a history of humans.

LIBRARY / FUNES MONZOTE 192 Abstracts

Sustaining Soil fertility: Agricultural Practice in the Old and New Worlds Geoff Cunfer, fridolin Krausmann

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tens of millions of Europeans migrated to the Americas. Many traded rural lives for industrial jobs in growing cities, while a signifi cant number travelled west to make farms on the Great Plains. Using case studies from Austria and Kansas, this paper compares the socio- ecological structures of the agricultural communities immigrants left to those that they found and created on the other side of the Atlantic. It employs material and energy fl ow accounting (MEFA) methods to examine the social metabolic similarities and diff erences between Old World and New World farm systems at either end of the migration chain. Nine indicators reveal signifi cant diff erences in land use strategy, labor deployment, and the role of livestock. Indicators include population density, average farm size, land availability, grain yield, area productivity, labor productivity, marketable crop production, livestock density, and nitrogen return to cropland. Whereas Old World farms had abundant human and animal labor and a shortage of land, Great Plains farms had excess land and a shortage of labor and livestock. Austrian farmers returned over 90% of extracted nitrogen to cropland, thus sustaining soils over many generations, but they produced little marketable crop surplus. A key diff erence was livestock density. Old World communities kept more animals than they needed for food and labor, primarily to supply manure that maintained cropland fertility. Great Plains farmers used few animals to exploit rich grassland soils, returning less than half of the nitrogen they extracted each year. Farmers depleted soil fertility over six decades, relying on a stockpiled endowment of nitrogen. Th ey produced stupendous surpluses for market export, but watched crop yields decline steadily between 1880 and 1940. Austrian immigrants to Kansas in the late nineteenth century found that their return on labor could increase by 20 times over what they were used to. But by the early twentieth century Austrian productivity had increased while in Kansas it dropped steadily lower. Both farm systems were effi cient in their own way, one producing long-term stability, the other remarkable commercial exports. Kansas farmers faced a soil nutrient crisis by the 1940s, one that was solved in the second half of the twentieth century by the massive importation of fossil fuels. Austrian and Great Plains agriculture converged thereafter, with dramatically increased productivity based on oil, diesel fuel, petroleum-based pesticides, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers manufactured from natural gas. GE193 Peasent Protest as Environmental Protest. Some cases from the 18th to the 20th century Manuel González de Molina, Antonio Herrera, Antonio Ortega Santos, David Soto

This article analyzes peasant conflicts from an environmental perspective. First, we show a general theory about the environmental conflicts making a clear differentiation between environmental, environmentalist conflicts and green movements. We realize this differentiation using as criterion the goals of the actors in relation to the sustainability of the agroecosystems and depending on the types of discourses used on the protests. Second, we analyze the peasant use of agroecosystems and the differences between the agricultural systems based on organic energy in contrast with those based on fossil energy. Finally, we try to sort in several types the environmental conflicts of the peasant that took place between 18th and 20th centuries. In this sense, we analyze, using different bibliography, some examples of environmental peasant protests in the Mediterranean Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. We discuss about conflicts produced around different resources like water, common goods or conflicts against pollution, Land Reform, reactions opposite to environment policies or defence of indigenous territories. These examples show that we have to pay attention to the environmental dimension of the peasant protest in order to understand the conflicts, although sometimes it is mixed with gender and class dimensions.

History and Governance in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania: 1959-1966 Peter J. Rogers

This article investigates the early history of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Tanzania, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, a period which has been overlooked in almost all the literature on the NCA. The article develops a governance perspective to argue that the NCA was heavily influenced by international thinking about wildlife conservation and Maasai pastoralism, and thus what was intended to be a multiple land use area was instead managed primarily as a national park. Several key episodes in this early history are dealt with in detail – the creation of the NCA; its early management difficulties; the role of Henry Fosbrooke, the NCA’s first Conservator; the impact of the international 1961 Arusha Conference on wildlife conservation; and the Canadian-funded management planning process of the mid-1960s. This leads to an exploration of some of the links between this period and contemporary practices in the NCA, and how practices of governance established over forty years ago still play a significant role in the present day. The case of the NCA illustrates the importance of appreciating the complexity of protected area governance and histories.

ABSTRACTS 194 Macroeconomic and Environmental History: The Impact of Currency Depreciation on forests in British India, 1873-1893 Sashi Sivramkrishna

Th e impact of the macroeconomic context, particularly monetary disturbances, on the environment has been hitherto ignored in the study of Indian environmental history. Th e links between macroeconomics and the environment, however, have been extensively studied and debated in recent times in connection with the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) that many developing countries have been induced to adopt. A closer examination of India’s monetary history reveals that there exist many similarities between the eff ects of SAPs and those of monetary disturbances in the last quarter of the nineteenth century due to the depreciation of the rupee. Th is paper traces out how an exogenously induced change in the macroeconomic environment may have led to policies that prompted increased deforestation. Moreover, in the private sector too the depreciation of rupee may have led to higher levels of investment and exports of environmentally sensitive products, further accentuating the adverse impact on forests. Although not conclusive in quantitative terms, this study nonetheless attempts to show that colonial policies cannot be studied from a purely ideological, political, or real-economic point of view; the macroeconomy, particularly monetary variables that were sometimes beyond control of governments, may also have induced changes in deforestation rates.

Agroecosystem, Peasants, and Conflicts: Environmental History in Spain at the Beginning of Twenty-first Century Antonio Ortega Santos

Th is article deals with the city of Belo Horizonte, founded in 1897 in south-eastern Brazil, and designed after European models of what would constitute a “civilized” town in terms of sanitation and hygiene. Over the decades, however, its inhabitants have been confronted with challenges and obstacles determined by the specifi c historical context of Latin America. I focus here on an emblematic event, viz. the cutting down of 350 Ficus benjamina planted along the principal avenue of Belo Horizonte, just before the 1964 military coup d’état. Th is decision split the inhabitants and took on emotional, urban, social and, above all, political signifi cance. Rather than restricting myself to an analysis of this case study, I want to use it as a springboard for a discussion on the relationship between nature and society in Latin American urban environments. Th e case of Belo Horizonte exemplifi es how studies of this theme must necessarily take into account the political and historical peculiarities of Latin American societies, and how these societies are enmeshed in transnational networks whose political and social signifi cance is manifested in phenomena such as the accli- matization of fi cus trees, the introduction of sparrows, and the attack of thrips. GE195 “Bridging Divides for Water”: The 5th World Water Forum (WWF) and the Alternative Water Forum Eugenia Ferragina

The article reports on the activities and debates of the 5th World Water Forum held at Istanbul in March 2009. The Forum saw the participation of various international and financial organizations, and marked a further stage in the debate on the actions the international community needs to take for the sustainable management of water resources. The Forum’s title, “Bridging Divides for Water”, is a testimony of the centrality of the issue of unequal access to water resources at global level. The other themes regarded other major issues such as social inequalities and water as a denied right, the effects of climate change, water security, and water management and policies.

ABSTRACTS 196 Biographies

Geoff Cunfer is an environmental historian of the Great Plains in the Department of History and School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan. He directs the Historical GIS Laboratory where he researches dust storms and wind erosion, material and energy fl ows in agricultural landscapes, and historical geography. He holds a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Texas and is the author of On the Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment (Texas A&M University Press, 2005) and As a Farm Woman Th inks: Life and Land on the Texas High Plains, 1890-1960 (Texas Tech University Press, forthcoming 2010).

Eugenia ferragina is a senior researcher at the Institute for Studies on Mediterranean Societies (ISSM) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). Since 2002, she is also Professor of Economics and Institutions of Mediterranean Countries at the University “l’Orientale”, in Naples (Italy). Her main fi eld of study is water resource management in South Mediterranean countries. She has visited these countries many times and published articles about the geopolitics of water in the Middle East, with special reference to the Israeli-Palestinian confl ict. In 2007 she carried out research on water and environment in the Mediterranean, focusing on the eff ects of global warming on water resources and the economic and social impact of the depletion of water reserves in the arid countries of the Middle East and North Africa. She is currently conducting a research on the Disi- to-Amman hydraulic system, which conveys water from the Disi aquifer – a huge fossil aquifer shared with Saudi Arabia – to the capital of Jordan. Th is project is an emblematic example of a “silent revolution”, since the unsustainable exploitation of this huge fossil aquifer, which will never recharge, is going on amidst the silence of public opinion and international institutions.

Reinaldo funes Monzote (Havana, 1969) is a graduate in History, University of Havana, 1991. PhD Universitat Jaume I, Spain, 2002. Director of the Program in Geographical Historical Research of the Antonio Núnez Jiménez Foundation of Nature and Man, based in Havana. Associate Professor at the De- partment of History of the University of Havana. Author of El despertar del aso- ciacionismo cientíﬁ co en Cuba, 1876-1920 (Madrid, CSIC, 2004) and De bosque a sabana. Azúcar, deforestación y medioambiente en Cuba: 1492-1926 (México, Siglo XXI, 2004). He has participated in collective works published in several countries focusing on history of science and Cuban environmental history. GE197 Manuel González de Molina is Professor of Contemporary History at Pablo de Olavide University (Seville, Spain). He was Director of the “Organic Agriculture Department” for the Regional Government of Andalucía (Spain). He was Regional Representative of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) and founding member of the “Sociedad Latinoamericana y Caribena de Historia Ambiental” (SOLCHA). He specializes in rural history of Spain, environmental history and agroecology. He has studied the rural world of Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries and published many books and articles on peasantry, nationalism, and environmental issues. He is coordinator of the Agroecology His- tory Laboratory, which conducts research in historical agroecology, agrarian metabolism, and environmental history.

Antonio Herrera is Associate Professor in History at University Pablo Olavide (Seville, Spain). His PhD dissertation (2003) was about peasant conflicts during the transition to the democracy in Spain. His book La construcción de la democracia en el campo was published by Ministry of Agriculture in 2007. He is a specialist on rural social history and has studied the role of peasants in de- mocratization processes. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at the University of Pittsburgh (University Center for International Studies). He is presently involved in a research project on Social Movements and Democracy in the Countryside.

Fridolin Krausmann is Professor of Sustainable Resource Use at the Vienna-based Institute of Social Ecology of Alpen Adria Universität Klagenfurt. He coordinates the research group on Social Metabolism and is co-founder of the Austrian Centre for Environmental History. Having a natural science background, he has been involved in interdisciplinary research linking socio-economic and ecological approaches in sustainability science for 15 years. In his research he focuses on socio-ecological transition processes and has intensively studied changes in socio-economic use of energy, materials and land during recent centuries in local rural and urban systems, in national economies, and at the global scale. He has also contributed to the development of methods for socio-ecological research (e.g. material flow analysis, human appropriation of net primary production) and their adaptation for application in environmental history. He regularly publishes in interdisciplinary journals such as Ecological Economics, Journal of Industrial Ecology and Land Use Policy. Among his recent papers are: “The global socio-metabolic transition: past and present metabolic profiles and their future trajectories”, in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, 12 (5/6), 637-656 and “Growth in global materials use, GDP and population during the 20th century”, in Ecological Economics, 68 (10), 2696-2705.

Antonio Ortega Santos was born in Granada (Andalusia) on March 27, 1967 and obtained his PhD Degree in Contemporary History at Granada

BIOGRAPHIES 198 University. He worked as postdoctoral guest researcher in Instituto de Ecologia (UNAM, Mexico) and in Agrarian Program Studies (University of Yale, USA) since September 1999 to September 2000. From 2000, he is Full Professor at Depart- ment of Contemporary History, Faculty of Humanities, University of Granada. Recently he has been researching as invited professor at the CERMA, Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Americains, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, November-December 2007. His research interests lie in environmental history, with special attention to the socioenvironmental movements in Latin America and Europe in a comparative perspective. Apart from this, he has been developing research projects about historical forms of management of Mediterranean agroecosystems – proposing new read- ings of agroecology applied to the olive production – and a study of the role of collective property in southern Spain communities. He has publised more than 25 scholarly articles in professional and scientifi c journals. His books areLa Tragedia de los Cerramientos. Desarticulación de la Comunalidad en la Provincia de Granada. Alzira, 2002 (Centro Francisco Tomás y Valiente/Fundación Instituto de Historia Social); Estudio de los Precios Agrarios y la formación del mercado regional en Anda- lucía en la segunda mitad del siglo XX, 2003 (Universidad de Jaen/CajaGranada) and Las Montañas del Mediterráneo (Centro de Investigaciones Antropológicas de la Diputación Provincial de Granada), 2003. From 2004 to 2007, he has been Coordinator of Studies at the International Master about “Social Movements and Construction of Citizenship in Latin América and Europe” proposed by Interna- tional University of Andalusía, University of Granada, Jaen and Pablo Olavide (Seville, Andalusía). He is a member of the Executive Board of the European Society for Environmental History.

Sashi Sivramkrishna After completing his M.A. in Economics from the University of Mumbai, Sashi Sivramkrishna went on to pursue doctoral studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. On completion of the programme in 1990, he returned to India and continued research in economics and history at the Foundation to Aid Industrial Recovery (FAIR). His research papers have been published in international journals like the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JESHO), Environment & History, Journal of International Development and Journal of Human Development & Capabilities. In addition to research, he teaches Managerial Economics and makes documen- tary fi lms. His fi lm, Th e Curse of Talakad (2005), was screened at several international fi lm festivals and in 2007 he was awarded the U.K. Environmental Film Fellowship for a fi lm on climate change.

David Soto fernández is Assistant Professor of Contemporary His- tory at Pablo de Olavide University (Seville, Spain). He obtained his PHD at the University of Santiago de Compostela with a dissertation on the environmental history of Galician agriculture (NW of Spain) in the contemporary world. Today GE199 he is engaged in three lines of research: Environmental history and sustainability, environmental conflicts and commons and sustainability. He has studied the rural world in Atlantic and Mediterranean Spain during the 19th and 20th centuries and published books and articles on the history of commons, peasant conflicts, and agrarian change. He is involved in several cooperative research projects with scholars from Austria, Canada and Italy on new methodologies (notably “social metabolism”) in environmental history. Some of his publications are: “Política forestal e conflictividade nas terras comunais de Galicia durante o franquismo (1939-1975)” in D. Freire, I. Fonseca, P. Godinho (eds.), Mundo Rural, Transfor- maçao e resistencia na Península Ibérica (século XX), Colibrí, Lisboa, 2004; Histo- ria dunha agricultura sustentábel. Transformacións productivas na agricultura galega contemporânea, Xunta de Galícia, Santiago, 2006; with A. Herrera, M. González de Molina, A. Ortega: “La protesta campesina como protesta ambiental, siglos XVIII-XX”, in Historia Agraria, 42, pp. 277-301, 2007; with A. Herrera, M. González de Molina, “Una aproximación a la Historia del movimiento ecologista en España”, in A. Rivera, J.M. Ortiz de Orruño, J. Ugarte (eds.), Movimientos sociales en la España Contemporánea, Universidad del País Vasco, Asociación de Historia Contemporánea, Madrid, 2008; with A. Herrera, M. González de Mo- lina M., “Crisis ecológica y movimientos sociales en la segunda mitad del siglo XX”, in Movimientos sociales en la España del siglo XX, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, 2009.

BIOGRAPHIES 200