"Genese Marie Sodikoff takes us deep into the underbelly of conservation in one of the world's biodiversity "hot-spots." It is a world of timber barons, logging gangs, corrupt state functionaries, international conservation experts, worker-peasants, and poachers. She paints eastern Madagascar as a frontier of dispossession, exploitation, and violence. The plundering of the Mananara protected area is seen, in a brilliantly original way, from the subaltern vantage point of forest workers and conservation labor. Forest and Labor places present day conservation on the larger canvas of a century of forest-based social relations of labor that have entered into the making of what Sodikoff calls neoliberal conservation. It is a magnificently rich historical and ethnographic accounting of what passes as the making of global biosphere reserves. A tour de force."—Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley
"Brings a whole new angle and nuance to the crucial debates over conservation and development. Applicable not just to lush, humid eastern Madagascar, but all around the globe."—Christian Kull, Monash University
"An important and lively contribution to the study of 'green neoliberalism.' An obvious choice for undergraduate teaching on ecology, rights, international political economy, development, and a host of other topics."—David Graeber, University of London
"Forest and Labor in Madagascar . . . is a worthwhile contribution to [the] growing body of scholarship on the social ramifications of conservation efforts."—Anthropology of Work Review
"Forest and Labor in Madagascar is ethnographically rich, and anthropologists working in the developing South will recognize much that it covers."—American Anthropologist
"Those interested in conservation, tropical rainforest ecology, international political economy, and sustainable development will find Forest and Labor in Madagascar an insightful case study."—Choice
"Throughout the book, it is clear that Sodikoff has both a great knowledge of and a deep respect for the people and the environments of Madagascar. The result is a humane and approachable ethnography that would connect with both undergraduate and graduate students."—American Ethnologist
"Forest and Labor in Madagascar is a pertinent and well-timed contribution to the growing literature on green neo-liberalism and its consequences at a time when the term 'salvage frontier' is becoming applicable to ever-greater swathes of this planet."—Journal of Modern African Studies
"Through rich and thick ethnographic description, Forest and Labor in Madagascar delivers what its title promises: providing the reader with a historically informed and detailed overview of the relations between forest conservation and labour dynamics on the Malagasy Island. . . . [F]or those interested in a solid, rich, and detailed ethnography of socio-environmental change and those interested in the politics of nature and broader labour issues in Madagascar, this is an excellent read."—Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
"Clearly organized and wonderfully written, [this book] provides invaluable insights on how frontline conservation workers shape (or can't) and fit within (or don't) the convoluted workings of global conservation practice."—Intl Jrnl African Historical Studies
"[Sodikoff] takes her readers on a wonderful tour along the underbelly of conservation work in order to give them a clear understanding of how labour plays out in a political economy ruled mainly by conservation stakeholders."—Africa
