La logique de la déforestation en Asie du Sud-Est

The Logic of Deforestation in-Southeast Asia. Throughout Southeast Asia, where most countries are involved in a race for economic growth, the forest cover is receding very rapidly. In some ways, the magnitude of the retreat of the forest is reminiscent of what has occurred in the past in the now industrialized countries. For, in Europe as well as in North America and in Japan (although somewhat less in the latter case), forests were taken to task during the various phases of demographic and economic growth, agricultural expansion and overall state territorial formation and consolidation. But this «logic of deforestation» was tamed, even reversed, firstly in Europe, thanks on the one hand to the globalization of trade and the contribution of the colonies to the metropolitan needs, and, on the other, to vigourous protection, management and reforestation policies. While such policies are applied throughout most of the industrial world, deforestation rates are increasing in Southeast Asia, including in Vietnam. Here, current agricultural expansion is carried out mostly at the expense of the minority peoples and forests of the Central Highlands, notably in the province of Lam Dong. However, the conditions, whether demographic, economic or environmental, whether local or global, which had prevailed during the economic expansion phases of the now industrial countries do not apply to contemporary Southeast Asia, where the logic of deforestation seems to have run out of control.Dans une région-clé de Bornéo, éléments environnementaux et éléments humains, et de même les interférences de ces éléments, sont envisagés de façon systématique comme des champs continus, dont l'étude intégrée, combinant sciences de l'homme et sciences de la nature, devrait offrir une vision différente du problème de l'interaction entre environnement et société et, par une reconstitution de l'histoire éco-culturelle de cette région, apporter un éclairage nouveau sur l'histoire de l'Asie du Sud-Est.De Koninck Rodolphe. La logique de la déforestation en Asie du Sud-Est. In: Cahiers d'outre-mer. N° 204 - 51e année, Octobre-décembre 1998. Déforestation en Asie du sud-est. pp. 339-366