Coastal artisanal fisheries and community-conservation in Costa Rica

This research paper studies an initiative of community-conservation in an artisanal fishery on the Pacific of Costa Rica. The case-study is linked with the wider history and situation of conservation and development in Costa Rica in order to understand the context in which it is embedded. The case of the Community-based Marine Area of Responsible Artisanal Fishing of Tárcoles (MARAFT), in the light of its context, conceptualization elements and process of recognition, is analysed focusing on the issues of the politics of conservation, natural resource management and development that an initiative of community conservation entails and pretends to transform.