Zimmerer's Analysis: Agriculture and Conservation in Latin America

This essay critically evaluates the proposition that increasing agricultural land use is incompatible with expanding protected area networks, referencing Zimmerer's (2011) work on Latin America. It examines the incongruity between environmental conservation and land-use modernization in Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Mexico, highlighting conflicts between governments and agencies regarding land usage in agriculture and protected areas. The essay discusses how agricultural expansion, driven by population growth and neoliberal policies, clashes with conservation efforts, despite international initiatives to promote biodiversity and expand protected areas. It further analyzes changes in environmental governance, the rise of social movements, and the increasing importance of sustainability discourses and participatory development in balancing agricultural interests with environmental protection. The essay concludes by noting the shift towards integrating environmental conservation into broader political perspectives on social welfare, poverty alleviation, and economic development in Latin American countries.

Running head: CONSERVATION AND AGRICULTURE
CONSERVATION AND AGRICULTURE
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Author's note:

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This assignment discusses the practices of conservation and development that go
beyond the protected area. The chief aim of this assignment is to find the congruity between
environmental conservation and land-use modernization in the five Latin American countries
namely, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru and Mexico (Zimmerer 2011). There is a conflict
among the governments of the five Latin American countries along with various agencies
regarding proper usage of land in the agricultural sector and land entitled for the protected
areas. These two facets of development have attracted the researchers. They have found that
despite the fact that numerous Latin American countries are selected to be the hotspot of
environmental conservation, the legislation of these countries have not been supportive to the
process of expanding protected areas for conservation. To them, it can be said that increasing
amount of land used for agricultural purposes is incompatible with the expansion of protected
area networks. This is due to the fact that with the increase of population, the land for
agricultural use is also increasing but the method of conservation through enhancing
protected area within the country has been creating issues and debates among various
agencies (Zimmerer and Carter 2002). The conflict between these two is instigated among
various agencies and groups attached to support the conservation system and the
organizations in support to restore the agricultural lands. This issue of land sharing between
agricultural land and land of the protected areas, has been affecting the national conservation
“booms”. The chief problem has been pointed out in this case that both these facets are
important for development as well as sustainability. The government’s initiatives of using
land resources to serve the agriculture prioritizes like the production of crops and livestock
have become more important than the many other benefits of maintaining natural ecosystems
that can nurture biodiversity of a place, balance carbon storage and help in water purification.
The changes in the mentality to support natural conservation only started during
recent decades. This initiative to increase land for conservation was started when the

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governments of these countries focused on expanding protected natural areas like parks and
reserves. This is due to the fact that the governments of these countries were instigated and
motivated by the international entities to utilize their land as the medium to conserve and
promote biodiversity. This ultimately led to have more than 15% of global coverage of
protected areas in these lands (Speratti et al. 2015). In order to give this initiative a national
agenda, various organizations such as civil society groups most importantly numerous
national as well as international nongovernmental organizations, the national indigenous
groups along with federations, political networks and various communities. In addition to
this, the state agencies even from municipal to the national levels along with international
organizations and multilateral lenders are associated with this campaign to increase the
protected area for conservation. In order to gain the best result of this campaign in support of
increasing protected areas and promote environmental conservation in these five Latin
American countries, increased scientific and legal capacities and technological provision
have been designed (Zimmerer and Carter 2002). In other areas across globe where the
similar agendas have been initiated in support of acquiring land for conservation also become
place of agitation and conflict. The balance between the political, economic feasibility and
the measure to expand the protected areas. With the increase of protection in the land use by
the government, the land used for the agriculture purpose had been reduced ultimately.
However, later with change in time and situation, the concept of sustainability was
introduced through modernized method of land use. Through this the importance of
agricultural land was balanced with that of conservation process. This ultimately had a good
outcome as modernist had produced the environment-friendly as well as socially favorable
consequences such as expanded fair trade, organic and certified “sustainable” production.
This also propelled the adoption of essential environmental as well as sustainability themes in
the previously powerful international agricultural centers. ((Zimmerer 2014). However,

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gradually, due to the green revolution in the Latin American countries, there was an increased
agricultural export and expanded national production on the whole. The neoliberal policies
supporting this agricultural expansion for increasing GDP of the countries harmed the
protection of the environmental resources.
To Zimmerer (2011), intensified interactions among the various communities and the
governments since 1985, included both conflicts and compatibility, of protected-area
conservation units and land-use modernization but there is incongruity associated with land
use. Despite the fact that the government of these five countries have focused on the
estimates of the areal interactions as well as their future prospects, they have not yet
examined the combined trends of conservation, and agriculture thoroughly. The issues
associated with conservation are associated with political as well as resource-use interactions.
These include forestry, military, narcotics, mining, energy development, tourism, urban
growth and coastal, marine resource use ((Zimmerer 2011). The conservation types are
central but the political and economic condition of these countries have affected the
conservation booms. The governments of these five countries have followed the paths of
agricultural modernization where the applications of sustainability and the natural protection,
participatory development and payment for environmental services became mandatory. For
doing this, these countries have employed the nontraditional agricultural exports (NTAEs).
The widespread extension of the famous soy agriculture in these countries of South America
is another reason, why the method of conservation is not getting the appropriate place to
express. According to the critics, despite the government has been trying hard to apply the
agricultural methods in favor of conservation, for which the methods of new agricultural
cropping, developing transportation infrastructure and cattle ranching have been employed,
these have become the most significant causal forces of the tropical deforestation and
conservation threats in Latin American countries. In addition to this, the countries mainly

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focusing on the conservation method, are operating under tremendous political and social
pressure (Zimmerer and Carter 2002). The situation has actually got complicated due to
neoliberal governments with their resource policies. These policies are different in different
Latin American countries.
The mixed political models in these countries had created issues for land and natural
resources use. The conflict took more pace as the social movements of various indigenous
organizations and the conservation supporters pressurized the governments to follow
typically depoliticizing national technocratic approach toward the conservation of the
protected areas for effective environmental stability as well as sustainability. In this context
Zimmerer has referred to the case of Yellowstone Park model which is associated with the
issues of protected area in North America (Zimmerer 2011). This included the social issues
associated with the conservation campaign in this particular region along with the territorial
role of the peasant, indigenous people and resource users. Similar to this incident, there has
been a shift in the environmental conservation policy and these have been incorporated into
the wide spectrum of political perspectives on social welfare, poverty alleviation,
development, demographic growth and economic markets of the Latin American countries.
Through a chart the author has discussed the difference among the five Latin American
countries in percentage change of protected area expansion in the total percentage area from
1985 in which Costa Rica achieved the most (Zimmerer and Carter 2002). There are NGOs
and other international organizations which partner with the government of the countries like
Peru and Mexico to issue projects like Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. These are all
initiatives to manage Significant national involvement in protected-area conservation. The
changes in the agricultural sector has not yet helped the conservation initiative taken by the
governments but gradually showing positivity in bringing changes in the legislation to serve
the associated actors through governmental scholarships.

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According to the researchers like Zimmerer and Carter (2002) sustainable farming in
the protected areas has been initiated by the government of these regions for which many
methods have been employed. This is how there has been a change in the mindset of the
responsible governments have been seen. Through analysis of country-level estimates of
changes in the protected-area conservation and land-use coverage and operations of the state
agencies and the institutions of environmental governance and management in five Latin
American countries have disclosed the fact of changes. In each of the five countries like
Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil and Costa Rica, the focus is on the sustainability institutions as
well as sustainability discourses. An analysis of the work of Zimmerer (2011) makes it clear
that the author has laid significant stress on the policies and institutions functioning at the
national level in these countries. The author states that these institutions and policies and their
territorializing are both a form and outcome of extended environmental governance in these
Latin American countries. The interests of the agricultural sector have been balanced through
the method of participatory development. It has been approached in the study. This is due to
the fact that they have been facing the pressure from the environmental organizations, social
groups and the private interest groups to eliminate the effect of the agricultural land use over
the land of the protected areas for conservation (Zimmerer 2011). The national policies of
statecraft have started to manage the environmental and political agendas of the
environmental organizations. In addition to this, there are persistent tensions between the
successful political activism of the civil society groups. It has also been observed that apart
from environment protection, conservation of land areas has received political and economic
attention. Due to this, the discussion has involved territorial, business-based and legal aspects
as well.
These Latin American nations have also witnessed political winners who focused on
increasing protected area networks and environmental governance and change in land-use.

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This shows that environmental governance in these nations have seen and welcomed various
changes (Zimmerer and Carter 2002). These are gaining pace and relevance with time and
creating space for development from both the perspectives. This is the reason why the
concept of nature and society hybridity have gained importance in order to balance the
environmental planning and management both the conservation as well as agriculture in these
Latin American countries. This are the reasons why the governments of these particulate
Latin American nations are aiming to bring changes in the special distribution of land in the
recent decades as these social, political and environmental activists have come to prominence
to get the governance scholarship.
As already mentioned in the previous sections, the actors involved in conservation
and environmental governance include the social movements by indigenous people,
indigenous federations, citizen groups, NGOs and environmental activists (Zimmerer 2011).
These actors although had least support from the government initially, are starting to attract
attention and receiving more and more funds and other assistance from the government.
Numerous examples of the social movements started by the indigenous inhabitants in
countries like Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica and other Latin American nations reveal the increasing
importance given by governments to conservation movements. The national policies in Brazil
have witnessed a shift in the environmental conservation policies. This has contributed
towards the development and implementation of various state and donor-led programs for the
conservation of the Brazilian Rain Forests (Zimmerer 2014). Social movements by
indigenous people were also part of these new changes that contributed significantly towards
the construction of chief conservations units throughout the country.
Within the last few decades, the government institutions and agreements on
conservation of protected areas have reached new heights within the Latin American nations.
Several agreements were made and international and national NGOs were formed with the

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help of government funding. In Bolivia, agreements like the CBD, Cartegena Protocol and
ILO Convention was ratified while NGOs like Conservation International, World Wildlife
Fund and The Nature Conservancy amongst others were formed. These were funded by
international organizations like World Bank, which contributed around 4.5 million dollars
(Speratti et al. 2015). The USAID also contributed towards the conservation programs
however; it was replaced in 2008 by the Morales administration (Zimmerer 2011). The
agencies like SNUC and FNMA, international agreements including similar ratifications as
that of other Latin American countries and NGOs like Amapa, TNC in Brazil also reflect the
changes in the environmental governance strategies in the Latin American countries (Estrada-
Carmona et al. 2014). The governments in other Latin American nations like Mexico and
Costa Rica also pursued neoliberal policies following the footsteps of Brazil and came in
support of the non-state social groups. The Mexican governments have created a trio of
sustainable community development institutions in order to guide the land use in the
conjunction with the implementation of CONANP of the protected areas. The community
forestry programs also gained prominent place in the Mexican environmental governance,
which was, supported the international environmental NGOs (Ruiz-Mallén et al. 2015).
Despite the fact that the state programs were supposedly participatory as well as sustainable
which can be found in the other states. These inclined not to offer the important
empowerment and more essentially, resembled the disappointments of the supposedly
participatory non-governmental organizations’ projects the treatises of Mexican state
institutes on this participatory as well as sustainability development. These have continued as
the central to the environmental governance and include the initiatives for the protected area
conservation.
On the other hand, Costa Rica gets the loan of US$2.2 billion by the Inter-American
Development Bank, which the government uses as the fund to help the NGOs for supporting

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conservation policy within the country (Epanchin-Niell et al. 2014). These helped the NGOs
to assist the small holder farmers and maintain the protected lands. Market-based approach by
the government of Costa Rica has represented the best-developed as well as distinctive
response to intensify the intersections of the environmental conservation along with land use
which helped to the services of the NGOs concerning watershed, carbon and biodiversity-
related environmental services (Zimmerer 2014). Moreover, the government has also
included the new programs referred as PSA in order to connect the land-use activities of the
people with the land used for conservation. These match the goals of the country’s national
program for securing the protected areas for environmental conservation. The government of
Peru had been suffering from economic as well as political turmoil for a decade from 1990 to
2000 but there has been a fourfold increase in the conservation coverage after 2000. Before
its political turmoil, the initiative of Peruvian protected area conservation was quite
productive as the government had created a huge number of conservation unites in the
country (Graesser et al. 2015). After the change of ruling party, the number of new protected
areas have been established which included three sizable national parks in the country
making it one of the most important biological hotspots of the world. Designation and
implementation of legislation to secure the protected areas in the country have helped the all
the international agencies which predominantly include the multinational lenders as well as
international NGOs (Zimmerer 2014). These legislations have supported the sustainable
development align with participatory developments which claimed ample environmental
safeguard in the region.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the trend in the Latin American countries
regarding the fostering of conservation and modernization of land use in the recent decades
has been a positive sign for the people of this region. The funding of institutions like NGOs,
multilateral agencies and indigenous people working towards conservation on national as

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well as global levels have received national importance. The amalgamation of business and
government agencies along with non-profit organizations have contributed largely towards
the success of conservation movements.
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