Paper short abstract:

This paper presents a comparative examination of the impacts caused by conservation policies on the local population inhabiting two Protected Areas in Andalusia, southern Spain.

Paper long abstract:

The analysis of social conflicts in Natural Protected Areas (NPAs) raises interesting questions about the redefinition of human-environment relations and the very idea of nature in today's ecological crisis. This paper comparatively examines two different case studies in Andalusia, Southern Spain: the Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park and Los Alcornocales Natural Park. Our goal is to reflect the multiple transformations and outcomes derived from the introduction of conservation measures in both places, paying particular attention to changes in land-use rights, the reshaping of environmental meanings and the physical displacement and/or sentimental alienation of many local inhabitants from their homelands. This examination follows two different strands. On the one hand, we discuss the 'naturalisation' of the environment using western, modernist accounts of nature, that follows on from the introduction of conservation policies in NPAs. We analyse how this redefinition not only affects places, but also the people that inhabit them, in some cases negating the historical role they have played in the shaping of conservation-targeted places. On the other hand, we demonstrate how this 'naturalisation' becomes a source of social conflict, disempowering and in extreme cases evicting certain local groups from natural resources and their management. We analyse how this phenomenon triggers negotiations and resistance, where the idea of nature becomes a central theme of debate surrounding changing identities, questioned belongings and threatened land-use rights.