@article{635c8137ba144166be7ccf84bb66a428,
title = "The impacts of cocaine-trafficking on conservation governance in Central America",
abstract = "This research is motivated by the compelling finding that the illicit cocaine trade is responsible for extensive patterns of deforestation in Central America. This pattern is most pronounced in the region's large protected areas. We wanted to know how cocaine trafficking affects conservation governance in Central America's protected areas, and whether deforestation is a result of impacts on governance. To answer this question, we interviewed conservation stakeholders from key institutions at various levels in three drug-trafficking hotspots: Peten, Guatemala, Northeastern Honduras, and the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. We found that, in order to establish and maintain drug transit operations, drug-trafficking organizations compete with and undermine conservation governance actors and institutions. Drug trafficking impacts conservation governance in three ways: 1) it undermines long standing conservation coalitions; 2) it fuels booms in extractive activities inside protected lands; and 3) it erodes the territorial control that conservation institutions exert, exploiting strict “fortress” conservation governance models. Participatory governance models that provide locals with strong expectations of land tenure and/or institutional support for local decision-making may offer resistance to the impacts on governance institutions that we documented.",
keywords = "Conservation, Deforestation, Drug trafficking, Environmental governance, Protected areas",
author = "Wrathall, {David J.} and Jennifer Devine and Bernardo Aguilar-Gonz{\'a}lez and Karina Benessaiah and Elizabeth Tellman and Steve Sesnie and Erik Nielsen and Nicholas Magliocca and Kendra McSweeney and Zoe Pearson and John Ponstingel and Sosa, {Andrea Rivera} and Anayansi D{\'a}vila",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by PEGASuS/Future Earth grant number 1555596, funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Science Program and the NOMIS Foundation; The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center under funding received from National Science Foundation Grant DBI-1052875; The Open Societes Foundation's Global Drug Policy Program. The findings and conclusions in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. Funding Information: This work was supported by PEGASuS /Future Earth grant number 1555596 , funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation{\textquoteright}s Science Program and the NOMIS Foundation; The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center under funding received from National Science Foundation Grant DBI-1052875 ; The Open Societes Foundation's Global Drug Policy Program. The findings and conclusions in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102098",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "63",
journal = "Global Environmental Change",
issn = "0959-3780",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}