Under King Louis XIV, France experienced a severe shortage of timber. Minister of State Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683) warned the king that ongoing exploitation of French forests would threaten French warship construction, and accordingly, French political and economic power. Colbert introduced broad forest reforms that adopted the idea of bon usage de la nature as one of its guiding principles, a move that would influence other forest reformers in Europe.
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Further Readings:
- Grober, Ulrich. Die Entdeckung der Nachhaltigkeit: Kulturgeschichte eines Begriffs. Munich: Antje Kunstmann, 2010.
- Mukerji, Chandra. “The Great Forestry Survey of 1669-1671: The Use of Archives for Political Reform.” Social Studies of Science 37, no. 2 (2007): 227-253.
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1669