Contextualize
When I read, “In South Asia, where the history of scientific forestry has perhaps been most fully documented, the forest department quickly became a reviled arm of the colonial state”. It reminds me that “Ecological Imperialism” from previous reading. The majority of those Asian countries that colonized by Europeans are following their way of environmentalism. However, is this the right way to apply one method to all the occupied lands? In “Ecological Imperialism,” Crosby states that “The human invaders and their descendants have consulted their egos, rather than ecologists, for explanations of their triumphs. But the human victims, the aborigines of the Lands of the Demographic Takeover, knew better, knew they were only one of many species being displaced and replaced; knew they were victims of something more irresistible and awesome than the spread of capitalism or Christianity”. Human has always been arrogant concerning nature. Humans did not realize the importance of nature for a long time and how we cannot live without nature. We must have enough knowledge of the landscape we are about to take action before doing our work. The experience we have can limit the negative impacts that we may do on the environment surrounding.
Crosby, A. W. (1988). Ecological Imperialism: The Overseas Migration of Western Europeans as a Biological Phenomenon. In The ends of the earth: Perspectives on modern environmental history (pp. 103-117). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Relate
There are many examples of humans taking advantage of nature in the colonized period and modern times due to the anthropocentric. That results in most of the natural ecosystem was damages during those human actions. For example, the Longleaf Pine ecosystem was once widely covered the southeastern region in the United States. Due to the fire burning and the timber industry's needs, the whole Longleaf Pine ecosystem was sharp decreasing in very short. Therefore, one of the most covered ecosystems became the most endangered ecosystem in the United States.
Ecology imperialism is apropos to describe the relation human and nature has, even though today many people have cared about nature's sustainability. However, humans have not found the right balance between us and nature, and it is imperative to figure that out. We are not the only living species existing on the earth. We are sharing it with thousands of other species. It is also essential to think the future generations, think it sustainably, what are we giving them if we take actions into nature with no control.