Tim Wallace

Private protected areas, ecotourism development and impacts on local people's well-being: a review from case studies in Southern Chile

ABSTRACT Private protected areas (PPAs) are expanding rapidly in less-industrialized nations. This paper explores cases in Los Ríos, Chile, to understand how local people living in and near three PPAs viewed impacts of tourism development on human well-being and local governance asking: (1) Why and how do governing PPA actors engage local people in conservation and ecotourism? (2) How do local people perceive the impacts of PPAs? (3) How do perceived impacts differ between PPA ownership types and contexts? We used an Opportunities, Security and Empowerment research framework derived from local definitions of well-being. Results suggest that governing PPA actors (PPA administrations and Chilean government officials) viewed local people as threats to forest conservation goals, embraced exclusion from reserve governance, but encouraged self-governance among local people through educational campaigns promoting environmental stewardship and ecotourism entrepreneurship. PPA administrations avoided emerging participatory democracy approaches to ensure local resistance did not threaten their authority. Despite asymmetrical power relations, PPA–community partnerships were viewed locally as both improving and damaging well-being. Our findings suggest that the social impacts and consequences of PPAs facilitating ecotourism development should be subjected to the same level of scrutiny that has been given to public protected areas.

Private development-based forest conservation in Patagonia: comparing mental models and revealing cultural truths

Private protected area (PPA) conservation agents (CA) engaging in development-based conservation in southern Chile have generated conflict with locals. Poor fit of dominant development-based conservation ideology in rural areas is commonly to blame. We developed and administered a cultural consensus survey near the Valdivian Coastal Reserve (RCV) and Huilo Huilo Reserve (HH) to examine fit of CA cultural truths with local residents. Cultural consensus analysis (CCA) of 23 propositions reflecting CA cultural truths confirmed: (1) a single CA culture exists, and (2) RCV communities were more aligned with this culture than HH communities. Inadequate communication, inequitable decision making, divergent opinions about livelihood impacts and trajectories, and PPA purpose may explain differences between CAs and communities. Meanwhile, variability in response between and within communities may reflect differing environmental histories. Private protected area administrations might use CCA to confront cultural differences and thereby improve their community interactions.

Indigenous Perspectives on Private Protected Areas in Chile

ABSTRACT: It is no longer conventional nor desirable practice for protected area managers to disregard the needs and desires of indigenous people. Several frameworks attempting to identify the roots of indigenous-external conservation actor conflict have emerged in recent decades. The rise of private protected areas (PPAs), however, is yet to be fully represented in these frameworks. We conducted interviews with Mapuche leaders and community members at three PPA sites in Chiles Los Ríos region to explore how they perceived PPAs and their social impacts. Our analysis suggests Mapuche were not resisting constraints on resource rights and use created by Chiles property-rights system. Informants, particularly community leaders and elders, adopted a deliberate and cautious approach to relationship building with PPA administrations, perhaps because of a Mapuche history negotiating colonialism, corporate exploitation, political marginalization, environmental degradation, and capitalism. Our results suggest that to be inclusive of PPAs in Los Ríos, future conflict frameworks should attend less to the notion of controlling territories and people and more on how private property regimes inhibit park-people partnerships, what global and state mechanisms contribute to conflict at the local level, and how locals respond to PPA creation.