New Book on Tiger and Pangolin by Christopher Coggins

Christopher Coggins, faculty member in geography and Asian studies at Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, has published a new book, The Tiger and the Pangolin: Nature, Culture and Conservation in China (University of Hawai'i Press, October 2002). The book is an accumulation of Coggins' extensive study of nature, culture and conservation in the rugged interior uplands of southeast China. The work is a reconstruction of village environmental histories and focuses on contemporary mountain resource practices, seeking to establish an understanding of the complex relationship between rural peoples and wild landscapes. The Tiger and the Pangolin also examines the history of the tiger as a dynamic force in the political culture of China. Coggins places recent tiger conservation efforts in the context of 2,000 years of recorded tiger attacks—the oldest documentation of human-wildlife encounters in the world. He uses the tiger as a metaphor for state control of rural resources. In contrast, the pangolin, a scaly-anteater that is important in local folk tradition, symbolizes local, traditional rural resource management.

The University of Hawai'i Press recently nominated the book for the Kiriyama Prize, an annual award given to one work of fiction and one work of non-fiction that help improve mutual understanding between Asia and the West. In his book Coggins explores the nature reserves of southeast China's rugged interior uplands, where generations of Hakka, She and other mountain peoples have shaped the vegetation of the valleys and altered the mountain ecosystems of the higher scrub, meadows and wetlands. Coggins believes that as international conservation organizations strive to develop successful conservation policies, they must respect the strong ties between the villagers and their environments. Through linking economic development to land use practices, Coggins argues for the integration of nature conservation efforts with land tenure and other socio-ecological issues found in China and beyond.

Coggins has lived and traveled in East and Southeast Asia for a total of three years and has worked extensively with cultural landscapes, biodiversity and protected area management in China. He is also co-author with Zhang Yongzu, Chen Liwei and Qu Wenyuan, of The Primates of China: Biography and Conservation Status—Past, Present, and Future, published in August 2002 by the China Forestry Publishing House. The book offers a synthesis and update of what is known about China's primates and is designed to provide a scientific basis for conservation planning. He has taught courses on geography and the cultural ecology of Asia at Simon's Rock College since 1997.