Empire forestry and the origins of environmentalism

When and where did the environmental movement begin? To understand how a pu blic endued with the principles of laissez-faire reversed in such short ord er a century-old policy of government land disposal, this paper examines ho w public ownership of land came to be celebrated, with a newly defined prof essional corps of government foresters such as Dietrich Brandis and Gifford Pinchot feted as popular heroes. Hard-headed envirorimentalists and legisl ators found in empire forestry a ready-made model to construct vast areas o f the public domain as a utensil for not only environmental but state purpo ses-industrial, settlement, and budgetary. The empire forestry matrix of go vernment reservations, fire protection, and revenue-enhancing forests solve d the tension between romantic preservationist notions and laissez-faire id eals and gave the compromise from which modern environmentalism emerged: it posed environmental problems and solutions as a means to construct the sta te. This article traces the international trail of modern environmentalism from India, under Lord Dalhousie's forest charter, to the British colonies in Africa and Australasia where it matured, and finally to Canada, the Unit ed States and other parts of the globe where environmentalism permanently e ntered the pantheon of democratic political creeds. (C) 2001 Academic Press .