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This paper addresses the issue of new local governance models emerging from nature conservation projects in rural communities of Southern Sri-Lanka. Through a case study, this paper focuses on local governance as an interactional process through which different stakeholders and institutions (local communities, NGOs and civil society, State, international institutions, etc.) negotiate public resources management.
First, this paper briefly presents the case study, the local background and the historical context of development and conservation in Sri Lanka. Second, I question the emergence of ¿new¿ models of local governance through the implementation of nature conservation projects in Southern communities, through a case study of a local NGO. Following an interactionist approach, the study of ¿governance¿ requires focusing on three level of analysis. First, any nature conservation action implies the participation of multiple local actors and groups who appropriate the projects in line with their interests and strategies. Second, the outcomes of these projects strongly depend on local social structures; likewise they can transform those structures. Third, the institutional level of environmental governance is important to structure and legitimate any conservation action. This paper focuses simultaneously on those three dimensions. The increasing number of projects in rural communities may lead to new forms of state intervention, as well as external entities, in people¿s daily lives, and participate to the appearance of new local figures of power. Finally, this paper shows how such kind of project can lead to complex hybrid form of governance locally.
This article uses a Sri Lankan example in order to analyze the current stakes of environmental governance in Southern rural societies. My aim is to develop a better understanding of the social and cultural issues of biodiversity protection from an anthropological point of view. The final objective is to improve the relevance of these projects in regards to local populations.
