ABSTRACT
Natural spaces are defined in this book as spaces in which naturally occurring species, ecosystems, processes and phenomena dominate the physical landscape or characteristics of that space. This does not mean humans are absent in such spaces or that nature exists in some pristine or untouched condition, indeed apart from deep beneath the earth’s surface it is possible that no such spaces continue to exist. Instead human influence is present but is less dominant than in rural or urban spaces where landscapes are epitomised by rows of buildings or agricultural fields. Hence natural spaces in Southeast Asia include seas, rivers, forests, the atmosphere, soils and subsurface processes, all of which are shaped by natural processes but also bear the imprint of human actors. Humans have long fished from the seas and rivers, hunted from forests, released gases into the atmosphere and sprayed chemicals onto the soils. Other terms people use to refer to such phenomena include ‘natural resources’, which is rejected here for concentrating upon only those aspects of nature that have some economic value or human use; and ‘the environment’, which is a more general term that can refer to human and non-human surroundings. This chapter explores the role of natural spaces within Southeast Asian development in three main sections. The first looks at how natural spaces are conceptualised in development theory and applied to the Southeast Asian context; the second reviews the pressures and conflicts surrounding three types of natural spaces; and the third section looks
at the risks and dangers, some of which became horribly apparent during the Asian tsunami of 2004, natural spaces pose to human development.
