The Tiger and the Pangolin : : Nature, Culture, and Conservation in China / / Christopher Reed Coggins.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Coggins, Christopher Reed,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (360 p.)

This original and wide-ranging work examines historical perceptions of nature in China and the relationship between insider and outsider, state and village, top-down conservation policy and community autonomy. After an introduction to the history of wildlife conservation and nature reserve management in China, the book places recent tiger conservation efforts in the context of a two-thousand-year gazetteer of tiger attacks--the longest running documentation of human-wildlife encounters for any region in the world. This record offers a unique perspective on the history of the tiger as a dynamic force in the political culture of China. While the tiger has long been identified with political authority, the Chinese pangolin and its earthly magic have exerted a powerful influence in the everyday lives of those working and living in the fields and forests. Today the tiger and the pangolin, government officials and village communities, must work together closely if wildlife habitat conservation programs are to succeed. Extensive fieldwork in the Meihuashan Nature Reserve and other protected areas of western Fujian have led the author to advocate a landscape ecological approach to habitat conservation. By linking economic development to land use practices, he makes a strong case for integrating nature conservation efforts with land tenure and other socio-ecological issues in China and beyond.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: A Short History of Nature Conservation in China -- PART I. The Southeast Uplands: People, Landscapes, and Wildlife -- 2. A Mountain Mosaic: Biological and Cultural Diversity -- 3. Lord of the Hundred Beasts: A History of Tigers and People in Southeast China -- PART II. The Tiger and the Pangolin: An Environmental History of the Plumflower Mountains -- 4. The Wealth of Mountains: Settlement, Subsistence, and Population Change in Meihuashan before 1949 -- 5. Three Rises, Two Falls: Political Ecology and Socioeconomic Development in Meihuashan after 1949 -- 6. Burning the Mountains: A Historical Landscape Ecology of the Meihuashan Ecosystem -- PART III. Contemporary Village Resource Management and Nature Conservation Strategies -- 7. Habitat Conservation in the Post-Reform Landscape -- 8. White Tigers and Azure Dragons: Fengshui Forests, Sacred Space, and the Preservation of Biodiversity in Village Landscapes -- 9. Eating from the Mountain: Hunting Traditions, the Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Management -- 10. Vital Connections: Linking Nature Conservation and Cultural Ecology in Southeast China and Beyond -- Appendix. Life Histories of the Five Major Wild Ungulates of the Southeast Uplands -- Notes -- Glossary -- References -- Index