VERNACONS - Vernacularising conservation: The forest economy in northern Pakistan, from illegal timber extraction to green capitalism.

The project "Vernacularising conservation: The forest economy in northern Pakistan, from illegal timber extraction to green capitalism" (VERNACONS), proposes an innovative approach to the study of the politics of conservation.

At the crossroads between the anthropology of crime, the sociology of capitalism, and the analysis of state formation in political science, it aims to better understand the effects of forest conservation policies on contemporary processes of state formation, by interrogating how they reshape economic practices to enable states to exert control over forest resources.

It puts forward the concept of the "vernacularisation of conservation", to analyse how policies enshrine themselves by finding an echo in local norms and registers of authority.

It will be based on an ethnographic case study of a large afforestation programme, known as the 'ten billion tree tsunami programme', that was launched by the Pakistani government in 2019.

This research project has three objectives: 1/ to document the field of conservation policy in Pakistan; 2/ to analyse how afforestation is changing economic practices in Pakistan's forested areas, from illegal resource extraction to state-sponsored "green" capitalism financing tree plantation, protection and regeneration; 3/ to evaluate how conservation practices are being vernacularised, as local actors rearticulate the state's policy objectives within their own social norms and imaginaries, thus enabling the reassertion of state control over forest resources.

The project will contribute to reaching the objectives of the European Green Deal, which aims to preserve forests both in the EU and in the rest of the world.

It will do so by reaching a better understanding of the conditions under which conservation initiatives may be successful in bringing an end to illegal timber extraction, and by proposing concrete solutions to enhance future policy formulation and implementation both in the EU and in the developing world.