Policymaking For Conservation In Latin America

The book, a study of policymaking for conservation in Latin America, employs comparative analysis to explain the policy process in three countries-Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica. Case studies and examples of important policy decisions made in the three countries are employed to help illuminate variations in the policy process from country to country.

The analysis is set against the constant conflict between demands for economic development and conservation. Hopkins has selected important examples of policy problems in the areas of conservation, national parks, and environmental protection in the three countries and set these against the political system in each country for comparison.

The cases range from the controversial issue of Lago Chungara in Chile to Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica to the Yacyreta hydroelectric project in Argentina. The study aims at beginning to fill an important gap in the literature on national parks, conservation, and environmental protection in Latin America.

As such, the volume will be of interest to students of contemporary Latin America, policymaking, and environmental studies. Review: ?Despite tremendous pressures for economic growth, infrastructure expansion, industrial development, and resource exploitation, several Latin American countries have created impressive systems of mational parks and protected areas.

Hopkins focises on policy issues and policy process related to countries in that region that arguably have been most successful at developing protected area systems: Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica. Through a comparative public policy approach that relies on detailed case studies, he identifies the most important issues involved in protected area policy development, and the particular variables that explain the degree of success each country has achieved in creating protected areas...Suitable for upper-division undergraduates through preofesionals.?-Choice