Raising the carbonized forest: Science and technologies of singularization

Abstract

Recognizing the potential of forests to store carbon, various policies and programs have emerged to enhance this potential as a climate mitigation strategy. While the effectiveness of these policies is highly debated, there can be no doubt that they have profoundly affected how forests are conceptualized, valued, and governed. In this article, we discuss how science supports this increasing carbonization of forests not just by focusing knowledge production processes on carbon, but also by supporting policies and programs that aim to efficiently manage forests to optimize their carbon value. We situate this process in a longer history to show how science operates as technology of singularization that, guided by principles of optimization and efficiency, contributes to the depoliticization and normalization of specific versions of the forest that foreground singular priority values, while subsuming and marginalizing of other ways of knowing, valuing, and living with forests. Although emerging practices in techno-science, including the adoption of smart technologies and automated forms of data generation and analysis, can potentially enhance understanding of multiple forest values, we argue that they are likely to intensify singularization and create ever tighter relationships between knowledge production and forest management. We conclude by discussing the need to counter and refuse singularization.