Título en español.

Abstract

Collaborative management, or co-management, of forests has increasingly become an alternative to traditional state management. Utilizing a Political Ecology perspective, this article highlights the conflictive dynamic between the state and community grassroots organizations about their perceptions and understandings about the meanings, objectives, goals, and politics of co-management. It is argued that forest co-management is primarily a social relation mediated by power relations and social nature, in which priority is given to scientific knowledge and Western rationality over what it means local groups. The article also analyzes the discursive strategies used by local groups to defend their management views. Finally, using a Puerto Rican case study, the article discusses which strategies and discourses have been effective and ineffective in the implementation of co-management.