This article argues that local religious institutions are used by ruling lineages for political control, to grant preferential access to particular resources, and to enhance political hegemony.

This paper contends that recent scholarly interest in systems of colonising knowledge, whether called ‘scientific forestry,’ or ‘development,’ has paid inadequate attention to the historical processes shaping such knowledge production in specific colonial locations.

Coutinho’s analysis compares and contrasts claims put forward in the journal The Ecologist between 1970 and 1993, with those advanced in the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development published in book form under the title Our Common Future in 1987.

The issues discussed provide an interface between ‘green history’ and frameworks for sustainable development. An overview of groundwater exploitation is presented with case studies of low flows, the nitrate issue and salinisation of chalk aquifers.