Practising Nature: A Phenomenological Rethinking of Environmentality in Natural Protected Areas in Ecuador and Spain (original) (raw)
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The worldwide expansion of nature conservation initiatives has attracted a great deal of attention among political ecologists. Concerned about the effects on people and the environment, critical scholars have attempted to identify the drivers of conservation, and how power operates. Conservation policies, practices and conflicts have generated a large literature about the role of states, expert bureaucracies, private corporations, NGOs and technologies of government. In this article I aim to extend this literature by paying attention to a largely neglected field of power relations, defined by the efforts made by new inhabitants of natural protected areas, who have moved to these new locations and have strived to construct and maintain an idyll wherein they can enjoy a new, 'natural life.' Using Bourdieu's notions of cultural capital and habitus, I demonstrate that, in certain places, it is in the everyday practices of making a natural protected area a new home where power relations unfold more subtly, although no less intensely. I illustrate this empirically with a particular case study: the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in southeastern Spain. I examine the role played by neo-rurals in the establishment of this protected area, present an ethnographic account of their everyday practices, and link them to the conflicts that have emerged with other social groups, with whom they compete for the right to use and access local resources. L'expansion mondiale des initiatives de conservation de la nature a attiré beaucoup d'attention chez les écologistes politiques. Préoccupée par les effets sur les personnes et l'environnement, les chercheurs critiques ont tenté d'identifier la façon dont le pouvoir fonctionne dans la conservation. Il y a maintenant pluiseurs ouvrages sur la politique, les pratiques et les conflits sur la conservation de la nature, avec un accent sur le rôle de l'état, des bureaucraties d'experts, des entreprises privées, des ONG et des technologies de gouvernement. Dans cet article, je fais attention à un domaine largement négligé: les relations de pouvoir entourant les efforts déployés par les nouveaux habitants de zones naturelles protégées, qui ont déménagé dans ces nouveaux lieux et se sont efforcés de construire et d'entretenir une idylle dans laquelle ils peuvent profiter d'une nouvelle «vie naturelle». Les notions de Bourdieu, le capital culturel et habitus, sont utiles, afin de démontrer qu'au cours des pratiques quotidiennes de fonder un nouveau foyer dans une zone naturelle protégée, où les relations de pouvoir se dérouler de façon plus subtile, mais non moins intense. J'illustre cela avec une étude de cas: le parc naturel de Cabo de Gata-Nijar dans la région sud-est de l'Espagne. Je examine le rôle joué par les néo-ruraux dans l'établissement de cette zone protégée, et je présente un compte rendu ethnographique de leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Ces pratiques sont liées aux conflits qui ont émergé avec d'autres groupes sociaux, avec lesquels ils sont en concurrence pour le droit d'utiliser et accéder aux ressources locales. La velocidad con la que las políticas de conservación se han expandido a lo largo y ancho del planeta en épocas recientes ha atraído poderosamente la atención de aquellos que desarrollan su trabajo dentro de la ecología política. Preocupados por el impacto de estas políticas sobre las poblaciones locales y los ecosistemas, numerosos autores se han esforzado por desenmascarar las relaciones de poder y el papel jugado por determinados actores clave, como son el estado, los mercados, las tecnologías de gobierno, los procedimientos burocráticos y las ONGs medioambientalistas. Mi intención en este artículo es contribuir al estudio de las relaciones de poder en las políticas de conservación mediante el análisis de un campo por ahora bastante inexplorado: el de las prácticas cotidianas y los estilos de vida de aquellos que cambian su lugar de residencia habitual y se mudan a espacios naturales protegidos en busca de una vida alternativa dentro de lo que para ellos es un ambiente idílico. Mi estudio se centra en un caso concreto: el Parque Natural Cabo de Gata-Níjar, en el sureste del estado español. En estas páginas muestro el papel que la población neorrural ha jugado en la declaración de este espacio como protegido, analizo etnográficamente sus estilos de vida y prácticas cotidianas y exploro, haciendo uso de las nociones de capital cultural y habitus de Bourdieu, la relación que existe entre estos estilos de vida y estas prácticas cotidianas con los conflictos que han surgido en este espacio desde la introducción de políticas de conservación.
Land, 2019
In a wave of global conservationism, Ecuador established two large protected areas in its Amazon region in 1979. One of these is the Reserva de Produccion Faunistica Cuyabeno (RPFC), located in the northeastern corner of the country. Given that this land was previously managed as commons by local indigenous groups, the establishment of protected areas has had numerous consequences for these people. The research conducted comprised three months’ fieldwork in three of the affected Siona communities, primarily through the use of participant observation. Based on the framework developed by Ensminger, this paper demonstrates how institutional change has occurred in the last few centuries with the arrival of various frontiers overriding the region. This has led to the almost total eradication of traditional institutions and the introduction of a new ideology, namely conservationism. In order to legitimize their existence in the Reserve, indigenous groups are compelled to argue in a conser...
Journal of Political Ecology, 2019
The naturalization of protected areas is based on the discursive redefinition of both the environment and the social actors that inhabit it. This article studies how, within the processes associated with the creation and management of protected areas, discourses are generated that define humanity in relation to nature and its effects on access to resources and power relations. These processes are analyzed on the basis of a comparative ethnographic case study of El Manu National Park (Amazon, Peru) and the Galapagos National Park (Ecuador). Finally, it is concluded that discourses on humanity are instrumental in the processes for legitimizing or delegitimizing the role played by locals within protected areas, depending on attributed proximity or distance of humans to nature. La naturalisation des aires protégées repose sur la redéfinition discursive de l'environnement et des acteurs sociaux qui l'habitent.Cet article étudie comment, au sein des processus associés à la création et à la gestion d'aires protégées, nous générons des discours qui définissent l'humanité en relation avec la nature. Les processus sont analysés sur la base d'une étude de cas ethnographique comparative du parc national El Manu (Amazonie, Pérou) et du parc national des Galapagos (Équateur). L'humanité joue un rôle déterminant dans les processus de légitimation ou de délégitimation du rôle joué par les populations locales au sein d'aires protégées, en fonction de la proximité ou de la distance qui leur est attribuée par rapport à la nature. La naturalización de las áreas protegidas tiene su base en la redefinición discursiva del entorno y de los actores sociales que lo habitan. En este artículo se estudia cómo en los procesos asociados con la creación y gestión de áreas protegidas se generan discursos que definen lo humano en relación con la naturaleza, así como los efectos de esos discursos sobre el acceso a los recursos y las relaciones de poder. Estos procesos son analizados en el contexto de un estudio de caso comparativo del Parque Nacional del Manu (Amazonía, Perú) y el Parque Nacional Galápagos (Ecuador). Finalmente, se concluye que los discursos sobre lo humano tienen un papel instrumental para legitimar o deslegitimar el rol que juegan los habitantes de las áreas protegidas, dependiendo de la proximidad o distancia que se le atribuye a lo humano respecto a la naturaleza.
Trapped in nature: discourses on humanity in processes of environmental naturalization
Journal of Political Ecology
The naturalization of protected areas is based on the discursive redefinition of both the environment and the social actors that inhabit it. This article studies how, within the processes associated with the creation and management of protected areas, discourses are generated that define humanity in relation to nature and its effects on access to resources and power relations. These processes are analyzed on the basis of a comparative ethnographic case study of El Manu National Park (Amazon, Peru) and the Galapagos National Park (Ecuador). Finally, it is concluded that discourses on humanity are instrumental in the processes for legitimizing or delegitimizing the role played by locals within protected areas, depending on attributed proximity or distance of humans to nature.Key words: nature, naturalization, humans, discourse, protected areas, Amazon, Galapagos
A natural life: neo-rurals and the power of everyday practices in protected areas
Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 21: 493-515., 2014
English: The worldwide expansion of nature conservation initiatives has attracted a great deal of attention among political ecologists. Concerned about the effects on people and the environment, critical scholars have attempted to identify the drivers of conservation, and how power operates. Conservation policies, practices and conflicts have generated a large literature about the role of states, expert bureaucracies, private corporations, NGOs and technologies of government. In this article I aim to extend this literature by paying attention to a largely neglected field of power relations, defined by the efforts made by new inhabitants of natural protected areas, who have moved to these new locations and have strived to construct and maintain an idyll wherein they can enjoy a new, 'natural life.' Using Bourdieu's notions of cultural capital and habitus, I demonstrate that, in certain places, it is in the everyday practices of making a natural protected area a new home where power relations unfold more subtly, although no less intensely. I illustrate this empirically with a particular case study: the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in southeastern Spain. I examine the role played by neo-rurals in the establishment of this protected area, present an ethnographic account of their everyday practices, and link them to the conflicts that have emerged with other social groups, with whom they compete for the right to use and access local resources. Spanish: La velocidad con la que las políticas de conservación se han expandido a lo largo y ancho del planeta en épocas recientes ha atraído poderosamente la atención de aquellos que desarrollan su trabajo dentro de la ecología política. Preocupados por el impacto de estas políticas sobre las poblaciones locales y los ecosistemas, numerosos autores se han esforzado por desenmascarar las relaciones de poder y el papel jugado por determinados actores clave, como son el estado, los mercados, las tecnologías de gobierno, los procedimientos burocráticos y las ONGs medioambientalistas. Mi intención en este artículo es contribuir al estudio de las relaciones de poder en las políticas de conservación mediante el análisis de un campo por ahora bastante inexplorado: el de las prácticas cotidianas y los estilos de vida de aquellos que cambian su lugar de residencia habitual y se mudan a espacios naturales protegidos en busca de una vida alternativa dentro de lo que para ellos es un ambiente idílico. Mi estudio se centra en un caso concreto: el Parque Natural Cabo de Gata-Níjar, en el sureste del estado español. En estas páginas muestro el papel que la población neorrural ha jugado en la declaración de este espacio como protegido, analizo etnográficamente sus estilos de vida y prácticas cotidianas y exploro, haciendo uso de las nociones de capital cultural y habitus de Bourdieu, la relación que existe entre estos estilos de vida y estas prácticas cotidianas con los conflictos que han surgido en este espacio desde la introducción de políticas de conservación.
Ecological Economics, 2019
Over the last five decades the discursive debate on sustainability has reached prominence as the socio-ecological impacts of the human presence on Earth have grown rapidly. Nature discourses are interwoven with those of sustainability. Within this discursive field, a diverse set of competing discourses have emerged. Among the most radical ones, the discourse of Buen Vivir has recently gained relevance in Latin America. This position aims to depart from modern western ideologies, mainly those of nature-society dualism and Eurocentric universalism. In this study, the social perspectives about nature-society of subnational policy makers and other social actors involved in territorial planning in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador are examined. Four main social discourses are identified, which instead of breaking away from the society-nature divide, embrace it. Therefore, the case of Cuenca suggests that Ecuadorian citizens (including policy-makers) are still captured by the same discourses on nature-society belonging to the discursive field of modernity and its more contemporary corollaries: development and sustainable development. Hence, relational ontologies promoted by the discourse of Buen Vivir still do not resonate among Ecuadorian policy-related actors.
Protected Areas, Conservation Stakeholders and the Naturalization of Southern Europe
Forum for Development Studies, 2014
The critical analysis of conservation conflicts in Protected Areas (PAs) raises interesting questions about the redefinition of human-environment relations in the current ecological crisis. In recent years these debates have unveiled that, in the attempt to define the ‘proper’ place of humans in nature, PAs have embodied modern dualistic worldviews, which understand nature as a realm different from society, culture and ’civilisation’. In this paper, I suggest that the utilisation of these worldviews should be understood as part of the conceptual apparatus that enables a transition in management roles in Protected Areas, through which new empowered groups are granted the right to control and use natural resources. By analysing the practices and discourses of conservation stakeholders at the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, in southern Spain, I show that modern ideas of nature are essential to the collective appropriation of Cabo de Gata by new empowered groups because these ideas justify a new way of managing local resources in accordance with their own interests and desires. I conclude that this has deep implications for the study of people-park conflicts and the problems associated to the promotion of more environmentally friendly ways of mastering the environment, which must be approached in the light of the power relations associated to the appropriation of territory and natural resources. I also conclude that, in order to understand how the nature-society dualism still dictates the way we should relate to the environment, we must trace the practices of those who bear this worldview and unveil the strategies and mechanisms that are used.
Changing Protection Policies and Ethnographies of Environmental Engagement
Abstract: Attempts to protect nature by control of human intervention in areas demarcated for biodiversity have given rise to difficult questions of practicality and social justice. This introduction to a set of studies by anthropologists on the relationship between conservation and local community responses to protection measures, looks at the twin processes of rethinking conservation in socially inclusive ways and theoretical developments in viewing human relationships with environments that emphasise their interactive qualities. Whereas oppositional contrasts between nature and society characterised both conservation and anthropology in most of the twentieth century, more mutualistic frameworks are now emergent. Participatory conservation seeks to give voice to local concerns and indigenous perspectives, while social theory has increasingly recognised the cultural and political baggage that accompanies attempts to impose natural states on environments characterised by histories of human–environmental engagement. A central focus is given to the dynamics of place in this special issue, so that the impacts of global agendas for nature protection are viewed from the grounded positions of people’s lives and their ways of thinking about and dealing with the changes brought about by conservation measures, which reconfigure relations of community, territory and resources
In 2008, the Republic of Ecuador became the first country to grant legal rights to nature. In this article, I examine how this new category of rights became incorporated into the country’s constitution. My analysis shows that while proponents of nature’s rights effectively took advantage of a key political moment, it is unlikely their efforts would have succeeded without two historical developments: first, the presence of environmentalist social movements that elevated the environmental agenda at the national level during prior decades, and second, the power of indigenous organizations and their call to recognize Ecuador as a ‘plurinational’ polity, a form of multiculturalism which, along with demanding respect for indigenous territories and ways of life, incorporates politicized versions of indigenous beliefs about the environment. The study considers the consequences of mobilization for legal innovation and institutional change, as well as showing the complexity of struggles over the environment in the global South. The article is based on research at the Ecuadorian National Legislative Assembly archive, semi-structured interviews with respondents involved in the politics of nature and the constitutional assembly, and secondary historical sources.
Nature as a Subject of Rights? National Discourses on Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature
Forum for Development Studies, 2019
currently researching discursive and spatial effects of oil extraction in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon. Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank Associate Professor Jemima García-Godos and two anonymous reviewers whose insightful feedback greatly improved and clarified this article, and all informants for sharing their knowledge and opinions. All omissions are my own.