Presentation short abstract

The presentation looks at the forms and practices of political ecology in post-imperial Yugoslavia (1919-1940) by looking at the modes of extraction of state-owned forests by private enterprises.

Presentation long abstract

The paper analyzes the political ecology of Southeastern Europe by examining the interplay between (global) capital flows, nature, and state governance in Yugoslavia's post-imperial state-building between 1919 and 1939. It does so by analyzing the so-called ”forest affair”, a nationwide political scandal involving the (mis)management of long-term contracts for export-oriented exploitation of state-owned forests by (foreign) private capitalist enterprises. At the center of economic, political, and environmental debates was the question of legitimate exploitation of forests as Yugoslavia's most important natural resource. The emergence of different transformative visions of forests and the role of foreign capital in them coincided with major natural disasters, including two bark beetle epidemics that caused extensive damage to economically important forest areas. Conflicts between politicians, forestry experts, and private capitalist entrepreneurs over modes of extraction and responsibility emerged and were shaped by domestic political developments, a fluctuating global timber market, and the agency of nature in the region.

The paper brings the history of Southeastern Europe into dialogue with environmental perspectives that emphasize ecology as a condition of governance and capitalism. It proposes a longue durée perspective on both the governance of nature and the ways in which nature sets limits and possibilities for this governance and its (re)configurations across different political regimes.