This text examines the contest for control of Burma'a forests since the early 19th century. It reveals that competition for scarce ecological resources is not new, and that both the colonial and post-colonial state have struggled struggled to impose their will on peasants and shifting cultivators. The author highlights how contemporary forest conflict finds its origins in colonial times. The text provides an introduction to, and discussion of, political ecology in the regional and comparative setting, and concludes with an assessment of the role of politics in tropical forest management in south-east Asia as a whole.