THE ENVIRONMENTAL STATE AND THE FOREST: OF LOOKOUTS, LUMBERJACKS, LEOPARDS, AND LOSERS.

The article focuses on the issue of tropical forest destruction, which has both global and local dimensions and has become an important theme for states in the first and third worlds. Contemporary societies are facing the realisation that environmental changes are entering a new phase, one which challenges the old structural order. Whether viewed from the national, regional or international perspective, the modern technologies, institutions and systems of organisation that mediate relationships between people and the environment, have profoundly altered the relationship with the material world, at the same time as affecting how one perceive, understand and attempt to manage environmental resources and services. The concept of "globalisation" forces a re-examination of the concept of the state because, at one level, states are defined only in relation to other states, a situation which presupposes globalised relations and now prompts discussion about their power and autonomy relative to other modern global institutions. Since the emergence of modern nation states on the global stage, state- sponsored bioscience has played a major role in driving the twin processes of industrialisation and capital accumulation, aiding the transformation of nature into ever more managed environments and reformulating traditional nationally-bound relations of production into globally fluid conditions of production "where everything is treated as a commodity, even if it is not produced as a commodity."