This book explores the overexploitation of river-sand and its impact on Zhuang communities in China. A topical phenomenon, the book engages with the concept of authoritarian environmental management through a detailed analysis of state laws and policies on river-sand mining. Additional rich ethnographic material shows that riverfront Zhuang villagers and their indigenous ecological knowledge cannot compete with government policy, economic forces, and development trends in gaining control over river sand governance. This book provides appealing case studies in the interdisciplinary field of political ecology. As an example of "anthropology of home", it is of specific methodological interest.