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In Colombia, there have been two important reformist periods with regard to environmental public policies (1973-1976 and 1990-1993). In each case, after a certain degree of consolidation, they both entered into decline. This article describes and attempts to explain these processes. Ultimately, the Colombian case demonstrates the enormous difficulties of greening the State, a finding common in developing countries. Additionally, the article shows how each reform was accompanied by a new vision of the relationship between society and the environment. This vision, along with its corresponding policies, however, frequently entered into conflict with processes of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using protected areas to conserve nature has, in recent decades, acquired significant importance in the international policymaking arena. Despite a solid legal base, protected areas in Colombia face various obstacles. The divergent narratives between the natural and social sciences underline these challenges: i) defining the object of conservation in terms of exclusion through positive scientific analysis; ii) the concept of the natural in opposition to the cultural; iii) an emphasis on the object of conservation that can sometimes cause the stakeholders involved to become invisible; iv) that the conservation of nature has limited legitimacy since it is perceived to be the historical product of conquest and frontier expansion; v) the emergence of conflicts between human rights and collective environmental rights, vi) the socio-environmental perspective of conservation in which the devolution of land rights to local communities and the conservation of nature are sometimes confused as a decision that benefits the larger society. Nature conservation could be pursued through the integration, at a national scale, of a protected nature which arises as a legitimate social decision, and in a multi-cultural perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]