Development and Conservation of Natural Resources in Latin America

Abstract

This chapter focuses on themes that have been hallmarks of David W. Brokensha’s research: the study of social inequality and its decisive importance in shaping how people utilize natural resources in production. Drawing upon cases from the lowland areas of Latin America, it illustrates the social and economic processes that underlie environmental destruction and underdevelopment. The chapter argues that addressing issues of environmental destruction means dealing explicitly with the fact that both occur in complex societies joined to one another by global economy and ecology and characterized by social classes with fundamentally divergent interests. A major weakness of research and planning related to natural resource management in Latin America has been a narrow sense of agency, which has led observers to extrapolate inappropriately from local-level situations. While development efforts have looked primarily at the natural resource management problems associated with smallholders, huge areas are degraded by wealthy corporate and individual interests.