Gregory Bankoff, born in London, UK, in 1954. Ph.D. from Murdoch University, Perth. Associate Professor at the School of Asian Studies, University of Auckland.
Fellow (1 September 2003 – 30 June 2004)
RESOURCE CREATION IN THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO BETWEEN THE SEVENTEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
As part of the research group Environmental History of Southeast Asia 1500-2000, I have been writing a study on pre-World War II forestry in the Philippines, a subject hitherto almost completely neglected, focusing not only the usages of timber and levels and effects of deforestation but also on issues to do with community rights, the ancestral domain and illegal logging. In addition to this work, I was able to co-author the compilation of a volume that explores the ‘invention’ of specific breeds of horse in Southern Africa and maritime Southeast Asia that share a common genetic lineage. This study will be completed by the beginning of next year and is due to be published by the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Publishing later in 2005. Aside from these major projects, I found time to finish several articles that I was either in the process of writing or that needed revision before publication on labour history and human-animal relationships and to write several new pieces on other subjects in which I am interested in to do with natural hazards and development studies. Moreover, as a result of the conferences that I was able to attend as a guest of the German Historical Institute in Washington, I am contributing chapters to two volumes on various aspects of environmental history to be published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2005 and 2006.