The emergence of new modes of governance of natural resources use and distribution in Latin America and Ecuador

Abstract

This report presents a first attempt to look for the historical origins of environmental thinking in Latin America. The two papers attempt to sketch a framework that will allow concrete historical research into the development of environmental thinking in Latin America. They depart from the observation that the quest for the exploitation of natural resources has been the central feature of Latin American history. They suggest a clear interconnection between views on the socio-cultural management of the campesino‐indígena, world and the exploitation of nature. At the same time, they show that this interconnection was embedded in concrete political and economic power struggles among Latin American elites. In the course of the 20th century, emerging state elites started to realize that the future of the export-oriented developmental model would depend on the responsible and sustainable use of natural resources. This led to a new and mainly technical interest in productivity and ways of improving agricultural production, but also to a new interest in nature, national landscapes and natural resources. Eventually, these new political and economic ideas would lead to new conservationist policies in the second half of the 20th century.