Conservation’s Roots: Managing for Sustainability in Preindustrial Europe, 1100–1800(19 Environment in History: International Perspectives)

The ideas and practices that comprise “conservation” are often assumed to have arisen within the last two centuries. However, while conservation today has been undeniably entwined with processes of modernity, its historical roots run much deeper. Considering a variety of preindustrial European settings, this book assembles case studies from the medieval and early modern eras to demonstrate that practices like those advocated by modern conservationists were far more widespread and intentional than is widely acknowledged. As the first book-length treatment of the subject, Conservation’s Roots provides broad social, historical, and environmental context for the emergence of the nineteenth-century conservation movement.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Richard Keyser and Abigail P. Dowling Part I. Multiple-Use Resource Management in Preindustrial Societies: Pigs, Parks, Game, and Heathlands Chapter 1. Controlling Pigs in Countryside and City for Sustainable Medieval Agriculture Dolly Jørgensen Chapter 2. Sustainability and Natural Resource Management at Hesdin, Artois, France, 1302–1329 Abigail P. Dowling Chapter 3. Eating Your Game and Having It Too: North-Central Italian Conservation of Game Animals and Birds, 1300–1550 Cristina Arrigoni Martelli Chapter 4. Sustaining Premodern Heathlands (1400–1750): Collective Knowledge and Peasant Communities in the Campine, Belgium Maïka De Keyzer Part II. The Governance of Aquatic Resources: Fishing and Flowing Freshwater Chapter 5. Fisheries Regulations in Late Medieval Europe: Authorities, Concerns, Measures Richard C. Hoffmann Chapter 6. Managing the Lake Constance Fisheries, ca. 1350–1800 Michael Zeheter Chapter 7. Keep the Water Flowing! Premodern Swedish Water Management Eva Jakobsson Part III. The Deep Roots of Woodland Conservation Chapter 8. The Medieval Roots of Woodland Conservation: Northern France and Northwestern Europe, ca. 1100-1500 Richard Keyser Chapter 9. Managing Southern French Forests under—and before—Colbert: Between Law and Custom, ca. 1500-1700 Sébastien Poublanc Chapter 10. Conserving the ‘Vert’ in Early Modern Sherwood Forest Sara Morrison Chapter 11. Sustainability Prior to Carlowitz’s Sylvicultura? A Study Based on Cases from Schleswig-Holstein Oliver Auge Chapter 12. Traditional Woodland Management, Forest Legislation, and Modern Nature Conservation in East-Central Europe Péter Szabó Afterword Paul Warde Index

About the Author :
Abigail P. Dowling is an Assistant Professor of History at Mercer University.

Review :
“The volume reflects great editorial care. Almost every study supports the main thesis of the collection, which is that while there was a clear tendency for sustainable forest (land) and water resource management in pre-modern times, this motivation was social and economic, rather than ecological. Not only do the papers implicitly communicate with each other, but they also refer to each other, pointing to the commonalities or differences in practices in the areas studied. With very few exceptions, the papers draw on archival material that in many cases had seldom been studied previously, and even those that build on printed sources raise new perspectives and pose different questions than previous authors. Accordingly, the volume will undoubtedly become one of the key references in pre-modern sustainability studies.” • Historical Studies on Central Europe “The essays in Conservation’s Roots represent a thoughtful and compelling contribution to the field. They continue the scholarly conversation about the importance of pre-modern history to understanding sustainability, conservation, and the degrees to which people have both influenced their environments and understood the scale and import of their interventions.” • Ellen Arnold, Ohio Wesleyan University “This collection is valuable and timely, with fresh insights in abundance. It will serve as an excellent reader for students and scholars of environmental history, as both a contribution to scholarship in its own right and a point of entry into the specialist literature.” • Angus J L Winchester, Lancaster University