| Many rural areas in the western United States are undergoing marked Immigration and shifts toward a service economy accompanied by residential and commercial encroachment into agricultural and forested areas. These land use changes threaten many land-based values including biodiversity preservation, agricultural preservation, economic health, and scenic beauty. Citizen responses to these issues, specifically the emergence of private, non-profit land preservation organizations, are rarely examined in the academic literature. Recent political rhetoric has begun to question the role of federal, state, and local government in directing environmental outcomes. NGOs play an increasingly important role in the environmental issues in the United States; the traditional research focus on governmental policies alone is no longer sufficient.; I draw on theories of NGOs as a basis for understanding the actions of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Colorado's Yampa Valley. My case illustrates the relationships between TNC and institutions of the state, market, and civil society. I ask whether TNC's new strategies of engagement with local civil society and government can enhance accountability in the communities where TNC works, reduce conflict with local residents, allow for synergy with local government, and increase overall effectiveness.; Using a combination of interviews, participant observation, and archival material, I determined that the Yampa Valley is undergoing transformations typical of those taking place across the New West. I also found that issues of performance, accountability, and transparency are relevant to an US-based NGO working in a local US community. Local citizens are suspicious of powerful (and sometimes arrogant) outsiders in the United States just as they are in the Third World. I found that The Nature Conservancy did improve its relationships the Yampa Valley by changing the way it interacts with local government and civil society.; Conceptualizing state, market, and civil society highlights how NGO strategies may shift as relationships between state, market, and civil society outside the NGO change with time. While this framework is an integral part of the theoretical foundation of my analysis of The Nature Conservancy, it has relevance for understanding NGO behavior in general. |
