Introduction

Population growth, poverty and problems associated with common property resource management have been common themes when trying to explain overexploitation and degradation of natural resources of the countries of the South (Hardin, G. 1968). However, insufficient attention has been paid to how traditional political relations and local perceptions affect natural resource capture and resource allocation. This is especially evident with respect to groups and communities at the political and geographical peripheries of state influence and control for whom selfidentity is constructed around notions of autonomy and food self-sufficiency.