ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some important dimensions of environmental protection in Middle America. It relates to globalisation and has a series of contradictory outcomes. On the one hand, it will increase pressure on the environments of Middle America for agricultural exports, and on the other it will offer new opportunities with consumer preferences for environmentally friendly products and services. The crucial process is sustainable development with its guiding principle of inter-generational equity and its recognition of the symbiosis between socio-economic development and environmental change. All these trends are heavily influenced by economic and social change and are related to environmental change since most livelihoods in the region remain tied to natural resource exploitation. The 'political ecology' approach focuses on actors, agenda-setting and decision-making issues in environmental change. A key issue in the debate over power relations and environmental decision-making is the extent to which poverty has forced poor people to exploit marginal lands beyond sustainable levels.
