ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that local level active involvement in creating new rules and platforms for the democratic management of cultural and environmental resources in the Serra de Tramuntana has reversed some of the domination of “elite capture” related to environmental corruption issues and introduced new sustainable practices to the island’s “development culture”. It suggests that growing bottom-up process has been able to reverse some of the effects of environmental corruption, by introducing a new culture that supports the sustainable management of natural resources. Many anthropologists and other social scientists have criticized weak participatory approaches to common-pool resources management as “Trojan horses”. “Tradition” has gained much social value in the past years, as the identity of the region, and the island’s common resources have been under perceived threat. The corruption cases coupled with the continuous destruction of these resources did invoke a feeling of emergency among all actors, who tried to prevent their elite capture.
