“Saigon’s Swamp: The Metabolic History of a City and its Mangrove Frontier”
A lecture on environmental history of Vietnam by Professor David Biggs, UC RIverside
Oct 29, 2020 7:00 pm EDT on Zoom. Registration required HER†E.
Ho Chi Minh City ( Saigon) has long been the commercial and political center of southern Vietnam, and is one of southeast Asia’s largest manufacturing and export centers. The climate crisis has brought renewed attention to coastal mangrove ecosystems. What roles has this ecosystem played in the history and politics of Vietnam’s largest city? This talk explores the ways Saigon’s mangrove frontier helped power key metabolic flows and commercial exchanges that animated and sustained city life and, at times, played directly into larger political struggles.
David Biggs is a Professor of History at UC Riverside focusing on environmental and Southeast Asian history. He is the award-winning author of Quagmire: Nation-Building and Nature in the Mekong Delta (2010) and Footprints of War: Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam (2018).
Sponsored by History Department and LIASE (Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment).
Professor David Biggs from the Department of History at UC Riverside discussed the historical and environmental impacts the mangrove trees have had on the development of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam on zoom. Around 50 participants joined the webinar and enjoyed a spirited Q&A session following the talk. The use of Zoom allowed for the production of a reduced carbon footprint in the facilitation of this webinar (pretty much none)! For those interested in further study, some points made during the lecture are listed below:
- Mangrove forests
- The biome of incredible biodiversity
- Mangroves formed late cretaceous period
- Mangroves take in saltwater
- Seeds fertilized on a branch before being dropped into water
- Help protect coastal communities from flooding
- Many successful mangrove forest managers were women!
- Many of the women were widows but they were invested in bringing the ecosystem back to life
