Guerrillas in the Midst

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kiwi in New Zealand. Another no-table contribution is an extensive re-

view by Blaustein et al. on amphibiandeclines, which synthesizes a num-ber of recent experimental results ona range of species and suggests futuredirections for research into interac-tions among multiple stressors.

The second section concentrateson biological invasions, with the fo-cus turning largely to plants. This partof the book is much shorter, but in-cludes a chapter by Richardson et al.about methods for analyzing histori-cal data from “natural” experimentson tree introductions and a contri-bution by Hoddle on the use of bi-ological control in managing inva-sions. For followers of the invasionsliterature, a number of the ideas and

issues touched on here will be fa-miliar. In addition, Corbin et al. re-

view recent experimental studies onmanagement of invasive plants andrestoration of native plant commu-nities in California grasslands, andtheir results will interest managersand researchers working in this sys-tem. They found that the outcomesof strategies such as grazing and burn-ing vary substantially in different con-texts and manipulations that sup-

press invasive species often fail topromote recovery of native species when carried out in isolation fromadditional restoration efforts such asseeding.

The final part of the book focusesexplicitly on policy, with three casestudies on desert tortoise manage-ment in California, approaches to in-tegrating conservation research andmanagement in Australia, and the ma-nagement of national parks in Africa,respectively. The overview chapter

in this section articulates two com-pelling reasons for connecting policy

with the theme of experimental ap-proaches in conservation: (1) man-agement itself is often experimentaland (2) one of the most importantchallenges in conservation is actu-ally translating scientific informationand experimental results into man-agement practices. In my view, thecontributions succeed more in ad-

dressing the second of these issuesthan the first. All too often in theconservation literature, we cite ideassuch as adaptive management with-out clearly defining what this meansor how to actually implement man-agement as a set of informative exper-iments. For the most part, the chap-ters in this section could do moreto meet this challenge. Nevertheless,the papers provide some interestingexamples of the problems that canarise when trying to integrate sci-ence into management, as well asideas about strategies for overcomingthem.

This book tackles such a broadrange of topics that inevitably it willleave many readers feeling partly un-satisfied. Forexample, I thought it un-

fortunate that the first two sections were so taxonomically segregated, with all the threatened species chap-ters focused on animals and almost allthe invasive species work on plants.In addition, the latter two sectionsboth have only one-third as many chapters as the first. The book suc-ceeds admirably, though, in achiev-ing its stated goals: providing a broadsampling of case studies that serveas models for connecting experimen-

tal research in organismic biology to conservation and speaking effec-tively to the interests of both con-servation researchers and practition-ers.

Diane Thomson

Department of Joint Sciences, The ClaremontColleges, 925 N. Mills Avenue, Claremont,CA 91711, U.S.A., email [email protected].

Literature Cited Beissinger, S. R., and D. R. McCullough, ed-

itors. 2002. Population viability analysis.

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Brigham, C. A., and M. W. Schwartz, editors.

2003.Population viability analysisin plants:

conservation, management and modeling

of rare plants. Springer, New York.

Ferson, S., and M. Burgman, editors. 2002.

Quantitative methods for conservation bi-

ology. Springer-Verlag, New York.

Morris, W. F., and D. F. Doak 2002. Quantitative

conservation biology: theory and practice

of population viability analysis. Sinauer As-

sociates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Schwartz, M. W. 1999. Choosing the appropri-

ate scale of reserves for conservation. An-

nual Review of Ecology Evolution & Sys-

tematics 30:83–108.

Guerrillas in the Midst

Guerra, Sociedad y Medio Am- biente [War, Society, and theEnvironment]. Cárdenas, M., andM. Rodŕıguez, editors. 2004. Foro Na-cional Ambiental, Bogotá, Colombia.545 pp. $20.00. ISBN 958-8101-17-4.Separate chapters available free on-line at http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/ bueros/kolumbien/01993/01993inf.htm.

Resumen de Revisi ́on: Pocos es-tudios sobre conservación de biodi-

versidad y recursos naturales en re-giones de conflicto interno ofrecenun contexto global e histórico ade-cuado. El libro Guerra, Sociedad y Medio Ambiente coloca la historia so-cioeconómica colombiana y el con-flicto armado al centro de las discu-siones sobre el medio ambiente. Losprimeros capı́tulos presentan marcos

generales sobre la relación entre losgrupos armados y el medio ambiente, y dos caṕıtulos intermedios evalúanel desarrollo de polı́ticas ambientalesen medio de la guerra. La segundamitad del libro está dedicada a lasmaterias primas, petróleo y cultivosiĺıcitos, y a las carreteras y su papel enla fragmentación de bosques. Segúnlos autores hace falta más democra-cia participativa y transparencia paraque los recursos naturales de Colom-bia no continúen alimentando el con-

flicto armado. En el fondo, la de-strucción del medio ambiente es el re-sultado de conflictos de interés entrepoderes desiguales. La protección delos recursos naturales dependerá delapoyo, voluntad y respeto de las co-munidades locales, pero nada se lograsi estas últimas no tienen voz ni voto.Esto hace que la democracia sea in-dispensable para la conservación enColombia y en todo el mundo.

Conservation Biology

Volume 19, No. 6, December 2005


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Although most conservationists would agree that war or peace mat-ters to their endeavors, few haveinvestigated the subject as centralto stemming the loss of biodiver-sity and ecosystem services. In themeantime, dozens of internal armedconflicts rage from Congo to In-donesia, seldom reaching the inter-national spotlight. We can expect atleast some of these wars to integrateinto regional and global power strug-gles, and thus escalate in magnitudeand visibility, as the national security agenda in the United States crystal-lizes into foreign policy and bringsthe considerable resources of thatnation to bear. And yet most bio-logical conservation studies in areasof armed conflict offer minimal his-

torical or global context, and thenmostly as an afterthought. Guerra,Sociedad y Medio Ambiente, editedby Martha Cárdenas and ManuelRodŕıguez, is unique in framing en-

vironmental conservation and degra-dation solidly within Colombia’s so-cioeconomic circumstance and itsarmed conflict. This book is the re-sult of discussions at the Foro Na- cional Ambiental (National Environ-ment Forum), an open medium aim-

ing to mainstream environmentalism within Colombian development poli-cies. As such, its 10 chapters em-body as many academic disciplinesand range from the mostly empirical(e.g., Rodŕıguez on community refor-estation programs) to the mostly con-ceptual (e.g., Fontaine on the soci-ology of environmental degradationarising from oil extraction).

The first three chapters (Rangel,Fajardo, and Andrade) provide ageneral introduction by analyzing

the complex interactions betweenthe biophysical environment andthe creation and maintenance of armed guerrillas and counterinsur-gencies throughout the country. Thisis where welearn that a single Colom-bian pipeline has spilled enough oil to fill the Exxon Valdez sev-eral times over courtesy of a thou-sand guerrilla attacks; that the war has forcibly closed dozens of field

stations, making resource manage-ment educated guesswork; and thatthe countryside is increasingly de-populated, but not better off for itbecause smallholder plots are con-solidated at gunpoint into unproduc-tive cattle ranches. Armed groupshave become agents and enablers of legal and illegal resource exploita-tion in the forested frontier, build-ing roads and burning forests asthey see fit and probably transform-ing their vast and remote dominionsinto megafauna-free forests. Fajardoblames this recent history on thestate’s commitment to economic lib-eralization and its unwillingness tostrengthen the smallholder economy.

An all-encompassing agrarian policy to maximize productivity, social jus-

tice, and food security is the pro-posed remedy. The current state of affairs, a mix of official market fun-damentalism and de facto survival of the most heavily armed, is an obvi-ous humanitarian and environmentalfailure. But Fajardo’s vision must giveus pause: Who decides where, when,and how to produce? What is the roleof individual initiative in this centralplanner’s dream?

For Andrade the answer lies in

greater governance and accountabil-ity within the current system—accountability because the stateseems to attend to external demandsmore readily than to the needs of communities within, and govern-ance to restore the rule of law tothe lawless hinterland. But this modelquickly breaks down when con-fronted with what Andrade rightly calls a globalized environment. Colo-mbia exports most of the legal andillegal commodities carved out of

its lush forests. These markets areshaped by policies articulated and en-forced globally (e.g., war on drugs,

war on terror, and free trade for agricultural and manufactured prod-ucts). Their tangible consequencesare local. This is probably why half the book is devoted to commoditiesand the roads that take them to the

world. Oil and illegal drugs receivetwo chapters each (Avellaneda and

Fontaine for the former, Ortiz and Var-gas for the latter), and Castaño offers

what might be the first article to re-late fragmentation by roads with cul-ture rather than only with economics.

Avellaneda describes the social andenvironmental costs of oil exploita-tion in Colombia in disturbing detail.In general, a multinational corpora-tion in collusion with the state opens

virgin land for exploration leading toa rush of colonization that displacesor exterminates local and/or indige-nous people and destroys the for-est. Over decades of extraction thecompany amasses inordinate profits,pays local workers a pittance, andlines the pockets of authorities thatlook the other way when the com-pany dumps waste into the soil and

waterways. Devastation and the con-solidation of land for cattle ranchingfollow in their wake. This processhas repeated itself for more than 100

years, unraveling the social fabric of countless campesino communities,along with the Kofán, Inga, Barı́, andU’wa, and ravaging formerly produc-tive fisheries from Amazonia to theCaribbean.

These graphic case studies con-trast with the abstraction inherent

to theoretical sociology in the fol-lowing chapter. For Fontaine, con-flicts between different stakehold-ers in oil exploitation in Colombiaand Ecuador are both expressions of the power asymmetry that separatesthe state and corporations from in-digenous tribes and campesinos, andexamples of clashing interests (eco-nomic or not) mediated by culturalidentity. As it stands, the chapter suc-ceeds in outlining a structural frame-

work for understanding the conflict

over oil, but proceeds no further. Theanalysis would be more valuable if itidentified strategies out of the confus-ing dynamics of social and environ-mental conflicts and thus suggestedspecific action.

This is exactly what Castaño doesin his essay on roads, forests, and so-cial conflict. After evaluating the con-dition of roads in the nation (poor overall), Castaño explains in detail




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the project to integrate to the legaleconomy the marginal areas wherearmed conflict and illicitcrops thrive.The V ́ ıas para la Paz project, oneof the social components of themuch criticized Plan Colombia iscurrently, paving roads in Putumayo(on the East Andes/Amazonia inter-face), southwestern Colombia (link-ing the West Andes and parts of thesouth Central Andes to ports on thePacific), and the Serrańıa de San Lucasand adjacent lowlands. If these namesare familiar it is because these areregions of high priority for the con-servation of birds ( ́ Alvarez 2002) andthe ecosystems that support them.How to curb the destruction of thesesensitive forests when fragmentationhas always followed road construc-

tion? The basic principles to amelio-rate conflict between conservationand development, as formulated ata workshop organized in part by the parks system (then headed by Castaño), and the recommendationsthat follow can be summarized in one

word: democracy.Three points deserve to be high-

lighted. First, conservation is morethan preservation; a strategy for parksis already in place, but a wider man-

agement agenda remains to be formu-lated in consultation with as many (particularly local) stakeholders aspossible. Second, the conflict over land tenure is a structural cause of both violence and deforestation. Pro-gressive taxation and the redistribu-tion of lands seized from drug traf-fickers, in combination with collec-tive tenure for traditional communi-ties, should be the instruments of anew agrarian reform. Third, conflict,not negotiation, has been normalized

in daily life. Only more participationand transparency in decision making

will reverse this condition.If government-built roads and

legally regulated oil companies havebeen accessories to so much environ-mental degradation, what then of il-legal drugs? In each of their chap-ters, Ortiz and Vargas examine thedamage caused not so much by illicitcrops per se but by the aerial fumi-gation with glyphosate that the gov-

ernment uses in its hitherto elusiveattempt to eradicate them. Neither author believes aerial spraying is en-

vironmentally innocuous (Cavelier & Etter 1995), and both marshal quanti-tative data from all regions of Colom-bia to show just how appalling a fail-ure fumigation has been. Together,these chapters read as empirical veri-fication of ideas introduced by the au-thors in an earlier volume (Castañedaet al. 2001). Vargas counters the re-port of 16% reduction in coca cultiva-tion between 2002 and 2003 (Green2004) with figures to show that fu-migated areas bleed refugees and thatthe number of departamentos whereillicit crops are grown has in fact in-creased. This means that illicit cropsand, eventually, aerial spraying, are

reaching new virgin lands and proba-bly ecosystems as yet untouched.

Contents of the interviews con-ducted by Ortiz hint at the obsta-cles to eradication. Campesinos con-fess that coca money allowed themto put their children through school.Local authorities wonder why alter-native development plans were im-posed from above and not concerted

with deference to their location, re-sources, or management capacity.

The conclusion is evident: a society where the opportunity cost of basiceducation is so high that marginalizedcampesinos can access it only with il-legal money is in a kind of troublethat cannot be solved with herbicide.Thus Ortiz exposes the marginaliza-tion that drives the growth of illicitcrops in the Andes and around the

world. In a strange twist, and de-tracting from otherwise sound argu-ments, we are informed that illegaldrugs are only so because of a fail-

ure in semiotics. If only we ascribeda different meaning to these sub-stances, then no harm would comefrom their production, commerce, or consumption. I doubt this. Although the current strategy seems hopeless,no amount of revisionism can erasethe long trail of blood and environ-mental destruction inherent to the in-ternational drug trade.

In a book including as many per-spectives as this, a silver lining is in-

evitable. Two chapters (Correa andRodŕıguez) are devoted to advancesin the implementation of environ-mental policy. Correa examines Par- ques con la Gente (Parks with thePeople), a translation into public en-

vironmental policy of the democra-tizing impulse that gave Colombia its1991 constitution and the necessary framework for protecting and manag-ing the fourth of the country ( >45million hectares) that officially en-compasses national parks and other protected areas, both public and pri-

vate, and the territories devolved toindigenous and black communities.The main goal is to strengthen thenational protected area system by fos-tering the participation of society inplanning and managing for conser-

vation from the bottom up. As with every other aspect of public policy in Colombia, war is a constant risk that the policy acknowledges and in-ternalizes. The construction of viabledialog in the midst of conflict couldgo a long way toward resolving thereal grievances underlying the strug-gle for land. The policy is too new toevaluate on the ground, but amongitschief weaknesses are the imminentclash with omnipotent national secu-

rity mandates and the lack of inde-pendent financing.Can democracy really bring about

the conservation and sustainabledevelopment of natural resources,even biodiversity? The results of the

Plan Verde (Green Plan) community reforestation project, as presentedand analyzed by Rodŕıguez, suggestit can. The project used money from the World Bank and the Inter-

American Development Bank to re-forest water catchments in depressed

campesino communities through re-gional conservation authorities ( Cor-

poraciones Aut ́ onomas Regionales

[CARs]). Each CAR prioritized areasto be reforested and then channeled80% of the resources to plant andmaintain forests over 3 years to thelocal community, which contributedlabor. About 87,000 ha out of the100,000 stated as a goal were refor-ested. The project planted more than200 species, 80% native to Colombia,




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in more than 2000 catchments. Intan-gible benefits included the develop-ment or strengthening of community agroforestry and the sense of commit-ment from campesinos, probably en-hanced by increased property valuesat the project sites.

Rodŕıguez acknowledges the limitsof this approach in conserving bio-diversity and devotes some thoughtsas to how similar strategies could ap-ply to other ecosystems or to natu-ral regeneration. Because it providedrural employment and involved localauthorities, most armed groups ac-quiesced in the projects. There are,of course, projects that could notbe completed because of the territo-rial disputes between armed groups,and Rodŕıguez wonders if the CAR

might not have excluded some areasfrom consideration for security rea-sons. It is also possible that armedgroups extorted Plan Verde money from the community. If so, this wouldprobably go unreported. That impov-erished campesinos were willing tochange the long-term use of part of their land, from field to forest, inexchange for what were doubtlessly modest incentives should be hearten-ing to conservationists. The fact that

they did so almost in the crossfire isnothing short of heroic. What Colom-bia’s armed conflict makes starkly clear is that a bloody conflict of in-terest between unequal powers is atthe core of much environmental de-struction. Only the commitment of empowered locals protects the landin the long run. This, more than any other reason, makes democracy crit-ical to conservation in Colombia andeverywhere else.

Mar´ ıa D. ´ Alvarez

Columbia University, Mail Code 5557, New York, NY 10027-5557, U.S.A., email [email protected].

Literature Cited

´ Alvarez, M. D. 2002 . Illicit crops and bird con-

servation priorities in Colombia. Conserva-

tion Biology 16:1086–1096.

Castañeda, D., M. V. Castro, A. A. Medina,

and M. E. Bernal. 20 01. Cultivos iĺıcitos en

Colombia: Memorias del foro realizado el

17 y 18 de agosto del 2000. Universidad de

los Andes, UNDCP, Fundación Compartir,

Bogotá (in Spanish).

Cavelier, J., andA. Etter. 1995. Deforestation of

montane forests as a result of illegal plan-

tations of opium ( Papaver somniferum ).

Pages 541–549 in S. P. Churchill, H. Balslev,

E. Forero, andJ. L. Luteyn,editors.Biodiver-

sity and conservation of Neotropical mon-tane forests. The New York Botanical Gar-

den, Bronx.

Green, E. D. 2004. News of reduced coca cul-

tivation in Andean Region hailed by U.S.,

Washington, DC. U.S. State Department,

Washington, D.C. Available from http://

usinfo.state.gov/wh/Archive/2004/Sep/14–

379834.html (accessed October 2005).

Farmers and the Forest: Can

Agroforestry Actually ConserveBiodiversity?

Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Land-scapes. Schroth, G., G. A. B. daFonseca, C. A. Harvey, C. Gascon, H.L. Vasconcelos, and A-M. N. Izac, edi-tors. 2004. Island Press, Washington,D.C. 576 pp. $45.00 (paperback).ISBN 1-55963-357-3.

Agroforestry and Biodiversity

Conservation in Tropical Landscapes

aims to evaluate the common claimthat agroforestry serves to promotebiodiversity conservation in tropicalmosaic landscapes. It is written for students and practitioners of agricul-ture, forestry, and related disciplines.The editors and authors range widely in disciplinary expertise, includingtropical agriculture, conservation bi-ology, resource economics, and fore-

stry. They hold positions in universi-ties, nongovernmental organizations,and research institutes.

The central goal of the book isto explore three hypotheses regard-ing the role of agroforestry in biodi-

versity conservation: (1) agroforestry helps reduce pressure to deforest ad-ditional land, (2) agroforestry pro-

vides habitat and resources for somenative plant and animal species, and

(3) the conservation value of the for-est fragments is greater if they areembedded in a landscape dominatedby agroforestry rather than in a sur-rounding matrix of intensive agricul-ture and pasture.

Agroforestry and Biodiversity

Conservation in Tropical Landscapes

is arranged in five parts and consid-ers each of these hypotheses in amultidisciplinary context. Part I in-troduces major concepts of tropicalconservation biology and landscapeecology and notes the potential andlimits of agroforestry to amelioratethe impacts of threats such as habitatfragmentation and deforestation.Part II, on socioeconomic aspects,includes chapters on economic

valuation methods, a critique of

the ability of agroforestry to reducedeforestation, a case study of cacaoproduction, and an introductionto conservation concessions. PartIII focuses on landscape-level bio-diversity conservation in a rangeof agroforestry practices, includingshifting agriculture and structurally complex agroforests such as rusticcoffee plantations, living fences, andisolated trees in pastures.

Parts IV and V are somewhat eclec-

tic groups of chapters. Part IV, enti-tled “Biodiversity as Burden and Nat-ural Capital,” addresses a range of is-sues, including local perspectives to-

ward protected areas, hunting, inva-sive species, and disease dynamicsin agroforestry systems. Part V de-scribes examples intended to com-plement the biological and economicevidence presented in the previoussections of the book. Chapters rangefrom an uncritical description of aconservation project in the Brazil-

ian Atlantic Forest to a thoughtfulreview of the silvopastoral and con-servation benefits of Acacia pennat- ula in Nicaragua. The final chap-ter revisits the book’s three origi-nal hypotheses in light of the evi-dence presented within, concludingthat whether each hypothesis holdstrue is highly context specific. In thischapter and throughout the book theauthors note knowledge gaps and




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Guerrillas in the Midst

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