Object/context:

Natural parks are usually presented as the most important state-led strategy to promote the environmental conservation of a particular area. However, scarce anthropological and political science literature on this topic suggests that natural parks contribute to consolidate state power as well. This article explains how natural parks achieve said goal by studying the declaration and the initial years of the Alto Fragua-Indi Wasi Natural Park (located in Caquetá, Colombia).

Methodology:

The data for this study was gathered from official documents, historical archives and at least twenty in-depth interviews with state officials and social leaders.

Conclusions:

The article argues three central points. First, natural parks favor state power because they tend to make population and territories more legible. Second, there are six types of state legibility (convergent, denied, agreed, imposed, stopped and indifferent), which correspond to the historical moment and the social actors that relate to the state. Third, state legibility in the Alto Fragua-Indi Wasi Natural Park increased as the result of a political process characterized by the convergence of state and social interests.

Contribution:

The article provides conceptual and empirical tools to illustrate how natural parks strengthen the state and make state-society relations more complex. In general terms, this research paper is an invitation to study problems related to the state’s environmental and territorial planning from the optic of political science.