The politics of sustained yield forest management in Malaysia: Constructing the boundaries of time, control and consent

Abstract

Despite its lack of success in countries across the globe, scientific or sustained yield forestry remains the dominant discourse in tropical forestry. The main concern of this paper is to provide a conceptualisation of the inherent technological difficulties in sustained yield technology. In doing so, the paper goes to the heart of the debate surrounding the construction of scientific knowledge and the nature of technological development. The examples used are from Peninsular Malaysia and the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. However, the issue of science and the politics of scientific knowledge production, as well as the contingent nature of technological development, have more general applicability. Moreover, the examples from Malaysia may be equally useful in countries that are similarly mired, in coping with the effects of forest resource ‘development’. Our contention in this paper is that sustained yield categories, such as the annual allowable cut, emerge from a whole network of assumptions and negotiations that are both social and technical. Since scientific categories are often under-determined, they are subject to contestation. The paper ends by outlining the way in which sustained yield knowledge claims are being contested by forces encapsulated under the umbrella of sustainable forest management.