Vol. 21 NO.3 Summer 1999 PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY STRUGGLES OVER RESOURCES ON THE NICARAGUAN FOREST-FRONTIER By Anja Nygren I n recent years, nature-based conflicts over forests, land, and wildlife have emerged with growing intensity in the international public sphere. Transnational movements have joined forces with local communities in defense of local rights of access to natural resources, while media reports on tropical deforestation and declining biodiversity have brought local conflicts over natural resources to the attention of a broad international audience. This article examines the conflicts between local populations, nongovern- mental organizations (NGOs), and state authorities' regarding the access to natural resources in the protected buffer zone of Rio San Juan, in southeastern Nicaragua. The aim of this case study is to show how the control over natural resources is defined and contested within the political arenas at different levels, from localities and regions to state and multilateral institutions. The study analyzes the debates over the fate of forests in the buffer zone of the Indio-Maiz reserve by examining the multiple struggles over natural re- sources, and the forms of authority and power beyond these struggles. The study is based on my anthropological field research in the region in 1996-98. The primary information consists of ninety hours of tape-recorded inter- views, with dozens of informal meet- ings, daily conversations and participant observations involving the local people and forty-five development institutions andNGOs. By connecting the nature-based conflicts of Rio San Juan to the corre- sponding processes and discourses at regional, national and global levels, the study aims to shed light on wide-ranging debates over conservation and sustain- ability. There are diverse social actors, such as local smallholders, forest extractors, absentee cattle raisers, timber dealers, conservation authorities, develop- ment experts, NGOs, transnational companies and international aid agencies competing over natural resources in Rio San Juan. Each of these actors suggest their own solution to the local nature- based conflicts and this way attempt to strengthen their power in the control over resources and environmental images. The Forest-Edge Communities of RIO San Juan: Diversity of Actors and Policies Inspired by the ideology of nature conservation and by the international concern over tropical deforestation and loss of biodiversity, Nicaragua is transforming much of its remaining forests into protected areas such as national parks and wildlife reserves. At present, 18 % of Nicaragua has been set aside as protected areas. The biological reserve of Indio-Maiz, located in the humid tropics of the department of Rio San Juan, is one of the biggest protected areas in Nicaragua, covering 295, 000 hectares of land. The reserve has acquired a great international reputation as one of the most outstanding protected areas in Central America with a magnificent diversity of tropical flora and fauna. The only activities permitted inside the reserve are scientific investi- gation and wilderness protection. Indio-Maiz has many implications for the livelihood opportunities of surrounding forest-edge communities. The buffer zone of Indio-Maiz covers 180,000 hectares of land and has some 10,000 inhabitants. It belongs to one of the most intensive agricultural frontiers in the country, with high rates of immigration and deforestation. To secure the support of the local popu1a- tion, programs working for the protec- tion of Indio-Maiz are linked to compensatory rural development AnjaNygren projects in the buffer zone. In 1994-98, there were thirty projects with a total budget of $21,000,000 (U.S.) underway in Rio San Juan, involving agricultural diversification, community forestry, ecotourism, environmental education, non-timber forest products, and women in development. Financing came from USAID, Inter-American Development Bank, the European Union, Danish Aid Agency, and various NGOs from Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. Most of the projects were imple- mented by Nicaraguan state institutions, NGOs, and local municipalities. Until the 1950s there were scattered hamlets of smallholders in this buffer zone. These households cleared small patches of forest for crop production, and they also practiced hunting and gathering. The extraction of rubber, chicle, wild animals, and precious timber species was an important part of the local livelihood strategies. During the 1960-70s, a wave of new colonists entered the region. They were princi- pally smallholders from Pacific areas who had lost their lands to cattle estates