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.

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