Services on Demand
Journal
Article
Indicators
Cited by SciELO
Access statistics
Related links
Cited by Google
Similars in SciELO
Similars in Google
Share
Revista de Estudios Sociales
Print version ISSN 0123-885X
Abstract
ANDRADE, Germán I. Closing the Frontier? : Reflections on the New Social Construction of Protected Nature in Colombia. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2009, n.32, pp.48-58. ISSN 0123-885X.
Using protected areas to conserve nature has, in recent decades, acquired significant importance in the international policy-making arena. Despite a solid legal base, protected areas in Colombia face various obstacles. The divergent narratives between the natural and social sciences underline these challenges: i) defining the object of conservation in terms of exclusion through positive scientific analysis; ii) the concept of the natural in opposition to the cultural; iii) an emphasis on the object of conservation that can sometimes cause the stakeholders involved to become invisible; iv) that the conservation of nature has limited legitimacy since it is perceived to be the historical product of conquest and frontier expansion; v) the emergence of confiicts between human rights and collective environmental rights, vi) the socio-environmental perspective of conservation in which the devolution of land rights to local communities and the conservation of nature are sometimes confused as a decision that benefits the larger society. Nature conservation could be pursued through the integration, at a national scale, of a protected nature which arises as a legitimate social decision, and in a multi-cultural perspective.
Keywords : Protected Areas; Ecological Systems; Socio-environmental Conflicts; Resilience; Global Change.