This article cannot solve this problem, but I
hope that it demonstrates several ways in
which social processes articulate with envi-
ronmental change. I contend that these
matters, typically relegated to the realms of
historical geography and environmental his-
tory, can help forge new
links between social jus-
tice and nature conserva-
tion. After examining the
role that political and eco-
nomic forces have played
in the long-term historical
relations between people
and tigers, I conclude with
the proposition that
nature conservation can
no longer be viewed as a
domain separate from the
realms of political econo-
my^3 at large (macro- scales of geographic
analysis, and of political ecology^4 at micro-
and meso-scales.The Tiger and the Pangolin
From 1992 to 1999 I conducted research on
village resource management, environmen-
tal perception, nature conservation, and the
history of people and wildlife in southern
China. I spent a total of one year in three
protected areas, the Meihuashan,
Longxishan, and Wuyishan nature reserves,
which lie in the Wuyi-Daiyun Mountain
Range of western Fujian province (Fig. 1).
The upland region is noted for its rich
assemblage of subtropical fauna and flora
that until recently included the last surviving
wild South China Tigers (P.t. amoyensis),
one of eight original subspecies or races of
tigers, four of which persisted in China at
least into the 1990s. My work depended on
the good will, cooperation, and close com-
panionship of local people who reside in vil-
lages of the reserve buffer zones, settle-
ments established between 200-800 years
ago. Not only did local people help with
field surveys of ungulate habitat use, bam-
boo cultivation patterns, and sacred forestpreservation, but they were also the sub-
jects of study and primary informants on a
wide range of topics involving the environ-
mental history of their communities and of
the region as a whole. The results of the
study were published in a book called The
Tiger and the Pangolin: Nature, Culture,
and Conservation in China (Coggins 2003).The tiger and the pangolin are prominent
players in the environmental history of
southern China, and I invoked them in the
title, not only as subjects of study, but also
to represent two distinctive vectors of
anthropogenic environmental change that
have operated at different spatial and socio-
political scales in the region for many cen-
turies. I chose the tiger, which is associated
in Chinese tradition with celestial forces andHistory, cculture aand cconservation
...nature cconserva-
tion ccan nno llonger bbe
viewed aas aa ddomain
separate ffrom tthe
realms oof ppolitical
economy aat llarge
(macro-)) sscales oof
geographic aanalysis,
and oof ppolitical eecolo-
gy aat mmicro- aand
mesoscales...
Figure 1.The three most important nature
reserves of the Wuyi-Daiyun Mountains.