ABSTRACT
Since 1990 many important events have occurred in the Southeast Asian region, notably the economic crisis that began in 1997, the fall of long-time Indonesian state leader President Suharto, and the rapid development of capitalist economies in countries like Vietnam and increasingly Laos and Cambodia. Catastrophic environmental disasters have transpired, including the December 2004 tsunami, powerful landslides in the Philippines, and Nargis, the 2008 cyclone that hit the coast of Burma, while environmental pressures such as the annual smog episodes covering southern Malaysia and Singapore as a result of extended forest fires in Borneo continue. Noteworthy transformations have also taken place in rural sectors throughout the region, linked to the increasing reach of the market and the relentless commoditization of the commons, production and social relations (Nevins and Peluso 2008). Today, substantial land conversions are proceeding, oftentimes the result of private and public actors, ranging from small tenants to large transnational conglomerates, interested in taking advantage of the rising demand in globalized markets for exotic commodities, including timber, biofuels and export food products (from pineapples to prawns). These dynamics are combining to intensify and deepen the agrarian transition in Southeast Asia.
