management practices employed), Oscar
provided no evidence. Instead, he simply
replied, “the immigrants are not familiar
with the ecosystems here in Petén, the
soils are poor, and people just don’t know
how to manage their parcels.” Narratives
such as this, I suggest, serve to highlight
why petenerosshould be given positions
of power within the reserve’s decision-
making circles.
In sum, peteneroswere able to take
advantage of the ways in which NGOs
frame their environmental practices and
cultural traits. Through employment in
NGOs, petenerosboth influence and
appropriate conservationist discourses as
a means of repositioning themselves in
relation to new structures of environmen-
tal governance and power.
Immigrants and Discourses of
Lack
As noted, immigrants are framed as igno-
rant of the lowland forest environment
and as practicing an inappropriate land
use practices, namely slash and burn
farming. This has meant that migrants are
viewed as targets of sustainable natural
resource management projects, but not as
participants in decision-making processes
determining the reserve’s future. In this
section, I focus on how one community of
migrant farmers negotiated the discourses
of conservation to achieve goals consis-
tent with their own interests.
San Diego is a community of migrant agri-
culturalists living within what is now the
multiple use zone of the reserve; the 18-
20 ladino and indigenous families have
been in the area for 20-25 years.^37 After
the creation of the reserve, these families
faced an uncertain future and many
feared they would be forced off lands to
which they had no legal rights. In 1991,
the Center for Education and Investigation
of Tropical Agronomy (CATIE) based in
Turrialba, Costa Rica approached commu-
nity members about establishing a com-
munity forestry concession. Approved in
1994, the concession gives the residents
rights to manage a 7,039 hectare area
zoned for agriculture, sustainable forestry,
and forest conservation.^38
From the start, the project framed com-
munity members as unknowledgeable
about appropriate resource management.
For instance, CATIE’s stated goal was to
involve families in the “sustainable man-
agement of the area’s natural resources in
a way that permits them to better their
quality of life while collaborating in the
conservation of nature.”^39 A statement in
the Management Plan suggests that the
“community will gradually gain the experi-
ence needed to ensure the sustainable
management of the resources under their
responsibility.”^40 As these narratives sug-
gest, the CATIE project was conceptu-
alised as a means of teaching sustainable
practices to those lacking knowledge of
appropriate practices. The notion of lack is
woven into the everyday discourses of
conservation. For example, Marco, CATIE’s
director of community relations said, “we
have tried with these people, but they just
don’t have a culture of planting trees.”
Because they are said to lack knowledge
of appropriate management practices, the
project staff consistently exclude migrants
from decision-making. Andrés’ comment
about the project’s initial stages is indica-
tive of how San Diego’s inhabitants view
their exclusion from major decisions
affecting their lives.
“At first, they [CATIE] came and they held
meetings and gave us talks and they col-
laborated with us in everything until they
succeeded in convincing us of the forestry
concession – because the land wasn’t
going to be parceled out. In that they told
us the truth, although they have tricked
History, cculture aand cconservation
