LA CONSERVACIÓN DE LA NATURALEZA COMO ARENA DE ACCIÓN POLÍTICA: DOS CONFLICTOS EN LA PROVINCIA DE MISIONES

In this paper I consider that conservation is an arena of political action. I consider conservation as a set of practices, ideas and institutions working on the conservation of considered natural territories, wildlife and plants. Conservation is not only generated in official and non-governmental institutions, that implements policies and create discourses about nature and territories, but it is built on multiple levels, andmaterializes in concrete field practices. These practices are generated in social relations between state agencies, NGOs, international development agencies and local communities. Here I analyze at two events that took place in the late 2000s in the province of Misiones (Argentina). Indigenous communities, on the one hand, and a rural community, on the other, articulated their demands and political action through participation in “a conservationist arena”. I analyze how these communities entered this arena, and the institutional conditions and ideas about  territory, in which this process took place. Key words: conservation policies, local communities, participation, Natural Protected Areas.