Under the canopy of development aid: illegal logging and the shadow state

The term ‘Shadow State' refers to illicit extraction and patrimonial resource grabs. This paper documents the history of Cambodia's Shadow State and its interlocutors in the timber trade, drawing connections to contemporary timber extraction involving syndicated logging, government officials, and USAID. We use this to discuss three interrelated things: How infrastructures for Shadow State extraction morph with policy changes and persist through time. How climate change politics connect a long history of violent resource extraction, and how the ‘shadow’ state is knowingly hidden within the modern state. The implications of our findings for social and environmental justice cannot be ignored.

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