Landscape Transformation under Slavery, Indenture, and Imperial Projects in Bras d'Eau National Park, Mauritius

Haines, Julia Jong

doi:10.4324/9781003121527-4

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…An established understanding based on some 100 years of colonial science developed specifically to transform and align the ecosystem to French agricultural ideals, was integrated into the huge infrastructure and globalized trade network of the British empire. Sugarcane had been introduced by the Dutch, and was important to the French, but they also cultivated a variety of crops, and the Bras d'Eau sugar estate for example began as a working farm (Haines, 2019). For the British, sugar was the major cash crop (Walvin, 2019).…”

Section: Profound Colonizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1st Process, "Human Impacts" Bras d'Eau National Park is located within a former estate, spanning some 5,000 acres (20.2 km 2 ), which has undergone numerous phases of ecological transformation due to agricultural intensification, use of local resources by laboring peoples, and as a consequence of both colonial and post-independence land management (Haines, 2019(Haines, , 2021. The site is characterized by basalt outcrops; vesicular basalt also forms part of the fabric of the underlying soil.…”

Section: Sites and Themes Aligned With Crumley's Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colonization During Colonialism: Developing a Framework to Assess the Rapid Ecological Transformation of Mauritius’s Pristine Ecosystem

et al. 2022

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The colonization of Mauritius exemplifies the role played by humans in altering the ecosystems of remote oceanic islands. This paper focuses on how we study those islands first colonized under the global mantle of colonialism. Here we aim to provide a theoretical framework for historical ecological investigations to disentangle the processes, impacts, and outcomes of colonization during colonialism, considering local, regional, and global drivers. The paper provides a review of existing literature, outlines a proposed research program encompassing paleoecology, paleoclimatology, archeology, and history, and offers details of potential research sites. We present “historical ecology” as a framework to aid future work, and argue that a refined understanding of the impact of human colonization can help create a nuanced chronology of environmental degradation that typifies Mauritius. Such detailed assessment is necessary to inform contemporary ecological conservation efforts. Finally, we argue that narratives of changing ecosystems and practice can help construct “usable pasts,” often missing from historical records, for the multicultural populace of the island.

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Section: Profound Colonizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sites and Themes Aligned With Crumley's Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%