Nature under Neoliberalism and Beyond: Community-Based Resource Management, Environmental Conservation, and Farmer-and-Food Movements in Bolivia, 1985-Present

Abstract

Neoliberal trade and economic policies have incurred environmental consequences that are negative across much of Latin America and the Caribbean. Environmental destruction attributed to specific policies range from widespread deforestation, overfishing, soil and water degradation, damage due to mineral and energy resource extraction and processing; industrial waste and toxin contamination; and urban environment problems such as worsening air and water pollution (Hindery 2004; Liverman and Vilas 2006; Moog Rodrigues 2003; Speth 2003). If not dismissed outright, these environmental problems are often regarded as economic “externali-ties” that can be treated or regulated through the further privatization of resources and property. Increasingly, privatization approaches have been associated with market valuation policies—such as eco-certification and market-based conservation rewarding “ecological services” (Perreault and Martin 2005).