ABSTRACT
Over the last decade some of the most important changes and conflicts involving the use of land and water in rural South-East Asia have stemmed from the regional and global expansion of the pulp and paper industry. Natural forests have been chipped, vast monocultures of eucalyptus and acacia established, and giant pulp mills built along major waterways, provoking rural strife and political debate throughout the region. This chapter will sketch some of the pressures behind, and some of the dangers of, the expansion of the pulp and paper industry in South-East Asia. It will then describe some of the mechanisms by which the industry has enclosed land and water in two of the countries most affected, Indonesia and Thailand, and outline the various forms of opposition the industry is meeting. Finally, it will indicate some of the strategies by which the industry is attempting to manage this resistance.
