Saving Forests, Protecting People?

John Schelhas is research forester with the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service stationed at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Max J. Pfeffer is International Professor of Development Sociology and chair of the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University.

• PrefaceIntroduction: Parks and protected areas in the process of environmental globalizationStudy SitesDiverse cultural models to manage competing interests in natural resource use in Costa RicaForest conservation, park management, and value change in HondurasConclusion: Situating environmental values in a globalizing worldAppendices 1-5

What happens when global concerns about conserving forests and wildlife run up against the reality that people rely on those resources to make a living? Schelhas and Pfeffer examine how rural communities in Costa Rica and Honduras think about forests and conservation—and they find that global discourses about the environment have reached the farthest corners of the earth, though local people reinterpret them to meet their needs. Saving Forests, Protecting People? brings these processes sharply into focus, which is essential if we are to find realistic solutions to the problems of conservation.