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Selling Sustainable Development and Shortchanging Social Ecology in Costa Rican Forest Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Eduardo Silva
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Abstract

Costa Ricans have worked hard to weave the norms and principles of sustainable development into their nation's environmental policies, especially with respect to natural renewable resources, such as the forest. As a result, the nation is known as a leader in innovative environmental initiatives. But sustainable development is a complex, evolving concept. This paper analyzes how the emphasis on biodiversity conservation during the 1990s and early 2000s has, rhetoric notwithstanding, neglected the social equality, or livelihood, component of sustainable development. This trend stands in sharp contrast to earlier periods, when decisionmakers crafted policies and institutions that supported social ecology. The article concludes with a few observations on building political will to revive the grassroots development component of sustainable development.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , Fall 2003 , pp. 93 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2003

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