In this fascinating book, Gerry Nagtzaam questions why some regimes seek to preserve and protect some parts of nature from development, some seek to wisely manage certain parts of nature for development, whilst others allow the reckless exploitation of nature without accounting for the consequences. He tracks the fate of the three over-arching norms of environmental politics - preservation, conservation and exploitation, using case studies on whaling, mining in Antarctica and tropical timber to illustrate how international political battles to shape environmental regimes inevitably result in clashes between these competing environmental norms.
