Conservation and Development in Chilean Patagonia: Assessing Value Orientations, Cultural Truths, and Rural Change in the Context of Public and Private Protected Area

This dissertation explores the nexus of protected area (PA) conservation and development in southern Chile. In a three-manuscript format and employing an array of methodological approaches (e.g., principal component analysis, ethnography, personal interviews, surveys, thematic analysis, and cultural consensus analysis), I explored the relevance of value orientations (VOs), utility of cultural consensus analysis, and impacts of private development-based conservation on human wellbeing (HWB). The aim is to show how protected area conservation-development agendas can more fully articulate with peoples' culturally specific worldviews in Latin America.;Chapter 2: Debates about PA wildlife conservation often occur because stakeholders hold divergent VOs. This exploratory study examined differences in the socio-demographic characteristics and policy preferences of Strong Protection and Mixed Protection-Use VO groups in Tamango National Reserve (TNR), Chile. TNR visitors (N = 97) were interviewed during the Chilean summer of 2012. I grouped respondents into Strong Protection (63%) and Mixed Protection-Use (37%) VO subgroups using K-means cluster analysis. Respondents in the mixed groups included residents and non-residents, were more likely to be male, and were less supportive of several huemul (hippocamelus bisulcus ) conservation policies than respondents in the Strong group. These findings can help the TNR administration devise appropriate responses to tourism, husbandry, and hydroelectric energy production in the region grounded in local perspectives and context.;Chapter 3: Large-scale privately owned protected areas (PPAs) in the biodiversity-rich Los Rios region in southern Chile have generated controversy over their effects on the development pathways open to local residents. This study employed cultural consensus analysis (CCA) and compared PPA conservation officer (CO) and community members' cultural models of private development-based conservation. A cultural consensus survey was administered between May and August 2013 near the Valdivian Coastal Reserve (RCV) and Huilo Huilo Reserve (HH). Analysis confirms a monolithic CO culture exists for COs and that differences between COs in RCV and HH community members exist. Gaps in communication, inequitable decision making, differences about livelihood impacts and trajectories, and PPA purpose may explain variability in responses, while variability in response between and within communities appear historically contingent. We conclude CCA can help PPA administrations improve their community interactions and refine or replace underperforming authoritative conservation and development models to better achieve conservation and development goals.;Chapter 4: As part of the so-called global green-grab movement, PPAs are expanding rapidly in less industrialized nations, transforming geographic borders, influencing politics and economies, and creating socio-political tensions within neighboring communities. This work explored how PPAs impact human wellbeing (HWB) using three case studies in Los Rios, Chile where three large-scale PPAs were engaging in-situ forest protection. Results from semi-structured interviews suggest residents perceived PPA ownership type affected security and empowerment, while degree of interaction impacted opportunities. These results help establish large-scale private conservation as a social and political process by adhering to principles of "good" governance and chronicling how the green-grabs impact HWB..