ABSTRACT
This chapter examines community involvement in the planning of two protected areas designated for biodiversity conservation in Belize: Bacalar Chico and Caye Caulker. It presents a critical view of participatory rhetoric applied to the planning of protected areas. The chapter argues that attempted containment is not just a likely outcome, but a structural feature of the planning of externally-driven, biodiversity-oriented protected areas. Protected areas in developing countries have traditionally been founded on the principle of separating human populations from sites of biodiversity conservation. Protected area projects began to come under increasing criticism for generating and failing to address social impacts on neighbouring rural populations. The concept of 'counter-containment' refers not to opposition as such, but to actions by non-planners that had the effect of undermining the containment actions of the planners. Conservation agencies remain imbued with attitudes of managerialism that have flowed from scientific rationalist approaches to the management of biodiversity combined with traditions of top-down governance.
