Raymond L. Bryant

First published in 1997. An introductory text on environmental management with a global coverage, including attention paid to the Third World. The perspective of the book is geographical and the treatment draws on the broad and complementary experience of the two authors.

Why are nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) so successful in today’s world? How do they empower themselves? This insightful book provides important new perspectives on the strategic thinking of NGOs, the way they identify themselves, and how they behave. Raymond L. Bryant develops a novel theoretical perspective around the concept of moral capital and assesses that concept through in-depth case studies of NGOs in the Philippines.The book’s focus is on perceptions of NGOs as moral and altruistic and how such perceptions can translate into social power. Bryant examines the ambiguous qualities of NGO strategizing, the ways in which the quest for moral capital is bedeviled by the need to compromise with political and economic elites, and the possibilities for NGOs to achieve political goals as moral leaders.

The author examines how the Burmese state has sought to control the country's forest activities, and the ways in which groups relying on the forest for their livelihood (loggers, transnational corporations, cultivators, peasants) have fought such control.

First published in 1997. An introductory text on environmental management with a global coverage, including attention paid to the Third World. The perspective of the book is geographical and the treatment draws on the broad and complementary experience of the two authors.