States-based environmental NGOs and local
people in the Maya biosphere reserve, a
protected area in Guatemala’s northern low-
lands. In particular, I examine how two dif-
ferent social groups negotiate, contest, and
appropriate the discourses and practices of
conservation NGOs. As I illustrate, the ways
in which local actors are framed within NGO
discourses have important implications for
whether or not they are included in the
reserve’s decision-making circles.My analysis draws from my on-going field-
work in the Maya biosphere reserve, which
began in 1993.^4 In this paper, I specifically
address the initial years of the United States
Agency for International Development’s
Maya Biosphere Project, which was the
most important source of funding in the
reserve between 1990 and 2001. The proj-
ect contracted U.S.-based NGOs to imple-ment conservation and sustainable develop-
ment projects. Thus, NGOs played a very
powerful role in constituting discourses,
policies, and practices, especially in the first
six years of the project. My goal in analyz-
ing the cultural politics of conservation dur-
ing this period in the reserve’s history is to
contribute to a broader understanding of
the uneven implications of conservation
projects in the lives of local actors. Such an
understanding is critical to the development
of more equitable conservation policies.Cultural Politics: Approach &
Methodology
In focusing on the cultural politicsof con-
servation, I treat culture and, by extension
nature as on-going sites of political strug-
gle. In other words, cultural and environ-
mental formations are seen as effects of
social relations, rather than pre-given, com-
monsensical, or natural ways of being
and thinking. Thus, I begin my analysis
with the assumption that conceptions of
resource management are necessarily
culturally defined; they emerge within
historically and geographically specific
conditions. As Northern-based environ-
mental organisations expand their reach,
they employ culturally informed visions of
nature and human land relations to make
sense of the causes of and solutions for
environmental degradation. As such, they
inevitably privilege particular ways of
seeing and engaging with nature, while
marginalizing or silencing others.In conservation projects, NGOs naturalise
their visions through the production of
knowledge, or empirical research describ-
ing the biophysical environment and
human land relations. Such studies are
taken to be objective, unbiased and
therefore true representations of the
world as it really is.^5 The specific sets of
social relations that empower NGOs in
Latin America, in conjunction with their
claims to technical expertise, impartiality,History, cculture aand cconservation
Figure 1.The Maya biosphere reserve accounts for
about one-third of Guatemala’s territory. (Cartography:
Paul Jance)