Greg Bankoff “Deep Forestry”: Shapers of the Philippine Forests Abstract Little attention has been paid to writing a more inclusive forest history of the Philippines, one that combines a biocen- tric and anthropocentric focus. Deep forestry is an attempt to do just that. It shows how the forest was shaped by climate, soil, fire, and animals as well as by human actions. Not only did people shape the forest, but the forest shaped the people. This article examines how these deep historical processes have worked out over time and explores the implica- tions of adopting such a perspective. INTRODUCTION The forest is a dynamic place, a complex ecosystem that has adapted over time to climatic and edaphic conditions. More than trees, it is also about plants, animals, and the other agents that live in, use, and consume the forest. Yet when it comes to writing forest history, the com- plexity of this biophysical system often vanishes and is replaced by a simple chronicle of human wants, needs, and actions. Much forest history becomes a narrative of humans in the forest or, more precisely, the rate at which men and women destroy the forest over time. However, human actions are not alone in determining the composition of the forest; other shapers both precede humanity and continue along- side it. When deciding who the shapers of the Philippine forests are, this Greg Bankoff, “‘Deep Forestry’: Shapers of the Philippine Forests,” Environmental History 18 (July 2013): 523 – 556. doi:10.1093/envhis/emt037 Advance Access publication on April 21, 2013 # 2013 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com at University of Hull on September 18, 2013 http://envhis.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from