Protected Areas: A Strategy to Protect Local Livelihoods in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

"Social science oriented literature on protected areas has hitherto focused mostly upon how protected areas have been implemented at the expense of the interests of people living in and around the protected area and have often resulted in conflict. This paper reports on a case from Nicaragua which viewed in the above context is counter-intuitive, namely a case of small-scale farmers struggling to have their area, Miraflor, declared a protected area. This paper explores the underlying reasons for this apparent paradox of farmers wanting to have their land recognized as protected area and thus accepting all the restrictions on land use, this entails. Based on fieldwork conducted in the area in 1999 and 2001, the paper proposes that small-scale farmers conceived the strategy of having their area declared a protected area in an effort to make it less attractive to resourceful landowners who had started buying up of land from small-scale farmers during the period of liberalization in the 1990s. Thus, protecting the area becomes a strategy to also protect the livelihood of small-scale farmers. The paper describes how individual and collective interests are formulated and negotiated, the roles played by farmers' own organizations as well as by national agencies external NGOs and donor organizations and concludes by discussing the potential threats, which may prevent this strategy from leading to genuine protection of natural resources."