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Since the 1990s Madagascar has adopted a territorial-based biodiversity conservation policy. The institutional innovation of community-based resource management now coexists with the older expansionist protected areas model. Recent legislation has given the government the authority to enter into contractual arrangements with communities for the management of forests resources. This national environmental policy carries with it a set of regulations that has repercussions not only on physical spaces but also on access to and control of resources and their marketing. These regulations have generated conflicts over access to and use rights of natural resources. Our study of two rural territories in the Betsileo area examines these newly configured spaces of conservation associated with the transfer of renewable natural resource management (TGRNR) institutions to the western slope of the forest corridor. This paper explores the challenge of a community based forest management. The environmental regulations pose restrictions on resource users and their activities in the context of these conservation territories, knowledge systems, and power relations. The responses of local actors are inscribed in new socio-spatial strategies and practices. They raise questions about the territorial dimensions of biodiversity preservation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]