Contested Lands and Incompatible Images: The Political Ecology of Struggles Over Resources in Nicaragua's Indio-Maíz Reserve

Abstract

This article analyzes the contested struggles over protection and production in the Nicaraguan biological reserve of Indio-Maíz as a local example of broader conflicts over wilderness preservation and local livelihoods in the developing world. The main focus is on conflicting views of different stakeholders concerning the access to and control over natural resources. Special attention is given to the local inhabitants’ struggles for everyday survival and social justice on the fringe of the restricted-use reserve. The study emphasizes that in densely populated rural areas, such as Central America, inclusionary conservation represents the politically most feasible and socially most just form of conservation possible.

Keywords:

• Nicaragua
• political ecology
• protected areas
• resource access
• social justice
• tropical forests

This article draws on research financed by the Academy of Finland. I am grateful to the people of Río San Juan and to the many ministries, development institutions, and NGOs in Nicaragua that cooperated with my field research. I am also grateful to the University of Missouri-Columbia for providing logistic support. Chad Berry, Carmen Ferradas, Joseph Hobbs, Charles Perdue, Nancy Martin-Perdue, Sandy Rikoon, Reed Wadley, and the anonymous reviewers of this journal provided valuable comments on previous versions of this article. Of course, I remain solely responsible for any errors of facts or interpretation.

Notes

1 For conflicts over access to natural resources in protected areas, see Brechin et al. (2002), Colchester (1997), Fairhead and Leach (1995), Ghimire (1994), Neumann (1997), Novellino (2003), and Young (1999).

2 The only question related to local support in the questionnaire is: “How is the P.A. [protected area] viewed by local communities?” The results concerning the significance of local involvement in park management are based on a single question: “How actively involved are local communities in the management of the P.A?” (original questionnaire data received from Dr. Bruner on 19 April 2001). Surprisingly, the report does not make any reference to numerous studies documenting the serious social consequences caused by biodiversity protection policies that are indifferent to local involvement in conservation endeavors (see, e.g., note 1). For an excellent effort to reconcile local needs with protected area management, see Hobbs (1996).

3 For more information of the strategic selection of qualitatively representative ethnographic informants, see Johnson (1990).

4 To avoid doing any harm to these organizations, I am unable to give more exact information about them in this connection.

5 Non-Numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching & Theorizing Qualitative Data Analysis Program; version 6.0, 2002. QSR International Pty Ltd, Australia.

6 Originally, Indio-Maíz was established as a part of the Peace through Parks program (Sí-A-Paz), which joined various protected areas between Nicaragua and Costa Rica into an Integrated System of Protected Areas for Peace (IRENA 1992).

7 Author's interview, Ministry of Natural Resources, San Carlos, 7 April 197.

8 According to regional planning officials, some 150–200 new families enter the region per year.

9 Author's interview, 4 March 1998.

10 Of those conservation experts interviewed, about 70% supported strict nature protection, while 30% saw the conservation issues from a more integrated perspective, supporting local involvement in protected area management.

11 Officially, 37% of the population has been classified as former refugees, demobilized people, or internally displaced people (Alcaldía del Castillo 1996).

12 For these struggles in the case of indigenous people, see Conklin and Graham (1995), Fisher (1994), Jackson (1995), and Li (2000).

13 Author's interview, 19 November 1996; field data 1996–1998.