Chapter 4: Beneficiaries and Forest Citizenship
“The imperative to reduce climate-changing deforestation meant that the socioenvironmental relations of forest citizenship were about mutual dependence, as well as mutual benefit.” (Greenleaf 118)
Synopsis
“Chapter 4 examines the forest beneficiary as a figure of environmentally mediated and negotiated citizenship, in conversation with the Acrean state’s understanding of the concept of florestania—a term often translated as forest citizenship. It traces negotiations between agricultural technicians and smallholders over what it should mean to be a beneficiary, pointing to the mutual dependence in the Anthropocene that the term ultimately reveals.” (Greenleaf 32)
Discussion Questions & Key Concepts
Key concepts: Beneficiaries, forest citizenship, dependence
What did it mean to be a forest beneficiary in Acre, according to different groups of people introduced in the chapter?
What is the relationship between being a forest beneficiary and citizenship?
What makes the relationships intertwined in forest citizenship mutual and what is the significance of this?