Forests Are Gold

"Very interesting and thought provoking, Forests Are Gold presents fascinating details about forest politics in Vietnam. This book will be a source of reference on Vietnam for some years."—Tim Forsyth, coauthor of Forest Guardians, Forest Destroyers: The Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Thailand

"Mirroring what the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz famously said about war, McElwee shows us that 'environmental rule' is politics by other means. Deeply informed by archival knowledge, intensive fieldwork, a knowledge of elite discourse, and a gift for theory, McElwee is, by turns, a consummate historian, botanist, sociologist, economist, and anthropologist. Inspiring, path-breaking, and sophisticated, Forests Are Gold will make big waves in Vietnam and in political ecology more generally"—James C. Scott, Yale University

"Forests Are Gold takes us on a historical trek through different eras of 'environmental rule' influencing Vietnam's little-known forest histories. McElwee deftly demonstrates the articulations of local and transnational forest imaginaries, socio-natural histories, and entanglements of culture, nature, and power."—Nancy Lee Peluso, author of Rich Forests, Poor People