African Social Studies Book

This is a good introduction to conservation-as-development, conservation-and-development, etc. West writes very accessibly, and switches easily from theory to anecdote in relation to her time living and working with the people of Maimafu, Papua New Guinea.

She writes about Crater Mountain (the site of various conservation activities) as a produced space where the problems have been framed in such a way as to legitimize the interventions. She talks at length about the tension between how local people 'see' the forests and the exchange relations they've entered into, and how outsiders 'see' these same things.

I think this quote sums it up:
"Environmental interventions in PNG and elsewhere are not only acts of conservation, but also complex processes of social engineering and development where 'fundamental' notions of self, social relations, and the environment are engaged."