Forest in the making

Liberian forests, particularly those within the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, are not passive biophysical spaces but actively constructed socio-natürliche territories shaped by competing claims of governance, conservation, and development. This dissertation reveals how scientific forestry, legal reforms, and global conservation agendas—such as REDD+—have transformed traditional land-use mosaics into administratively controlled spaces, often marginalizing local communities and reinforcing historical inequalities. Through a genealogical approach combining political ecology and environmental history, the study traces how narratives of scarcity, degradation, and biodiversity crises have reshaped forest governance, while also exposing the tensions between state authority, corporate extraction, and indigenous land rights. A key insight is that conservation in Liberia operates within an extractive political economy, where ecological protection is tolerated only if it does not disrupt capital accumulation, leaving local communities structurally disadvantaged despite occasional benefits.

Kerwillain, S. (2026). Forest in the making [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München]. https://doi.org/10.5282/EDOC.37389