In this paper, we address the broad question of where to locate authority for tropical biodiversity conservation. In so doing, we advance four claims. First, the current fashion for CBNRM overreaches the indisputable place of local communities in tropical conservation efforts. An unfortunate...

Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower signed the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 into law as US Public Law 480, commonly known as PL480. Global food aid programs, the largest of which is PL480, have brought together governments, businesses, multilateral institutions...

Ecosystem degradation has motivated a search for successful conservation approaches. The perceived failure of state-directed protected areas in the tropics has prompted experimentation with community management and co-management strategies. Numerous case studies suggest that none of these are...