ABSTRACT
This chapter explore the symbolic relevance of a flagship species the hawksbill turtle in constructing community through a culturally based competition that strives to protect the species and improve the wellbeing of local residents in El Salvador and Nicaragua. It demonstrates how endangered hawksbills as a shared symbol of identity and the Hawksbill Cup as a mobilizing force function together as a constructive instrument in the formation of a conservation community. Given Cnaan three-dimensional concept of community, the analysis demonstrated that these recently crafted conservation communities are relatively robust, but remain vulnerable to destruction if direct payments for hawksbill egg protection cease. The chapter demonstrates that the symbolic construction of community can gradually dismantle the array of context-specific constraints to resource management provoked by the historic marginalization and systematic disfranchisement of impoverished residents; this does not remove economic and other material constraints.
