French Overseas Territories at the Ecological Crossroads

Preface. France’s Global South as a Political Laboratory for Ecological Transition Soraya Boudia

General Introduction – Re-enchanting the Overseas Territories with Green and Blue

The Overseas Environmental Issue

Environmental Policies Like Any Other?

Re-enchanting the Overseas Territories with Green and Blue: Challenging the Laboratory Narrative

The Atlantic Overseas Territories as Study Sites

Overseas Ecopolitics

Part 1 – Biodiversity, the Exceptional Under Influence

Chapter 1 – Trouble in Nature

In the Age of Ecological Imperialism

Another History of Departmentalization

Conclusion – A Paradoxical Need for Nature

Chapter 2 – Recovering Biodiversity

“An Exceptional Asset, International Responsibilities”

A Source of Legitimacy with Shifting Boundaries

Conclusion – Biodiversity at a Crossroads

Conclusion of Part 1 – From Uprooting to Attachment

Part 2 – Facing Risks, Resilience in Limbo

Chapter 3– Territories “Naturally” at Risk?

Between Learning, Unlearning, and Forgetting

In the Face of Climate Change

Conclusion – Less Responsible, More Vulnerable?

Chapter 4 – Ecological Health Inequalities

Health-Risk Environments

Risks on the Way to Normalizing?

Conclusion – Restoring Life Possibilities

Conclusion of Part 2 – Politics of Cascading Risks

PART 3 – Transition, the Impossible Change?

Chapter 5 – Changing the Nature of Development

The Magic Formula for Sustainable Development

Reconciling Catch-Up and Sustainable Development

Conclusion – “Modernize or Ecologize?”

Chapter 6 – The Challenge of the Energy Transition

Inventing Another System

Toward Energy Autonomy

Conclusion – An Accelerated Transition Under Constraint

Conclusion of Part 3 – Involuntary Dependencies, Chosen Dependencies

General Conclusion – At the Ecological Crossroads

Pioneering Territories?

(Post)colonial Continuities and Discontinuities

From Re-enchantment to State Contestation

“Creole Laboratories”

Bibliographic References

Documentary Sources

Main Acronyms and Abbreviations