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This article analyses the creation and implementation of two protected natural areas (PNA) in the city of Rio de Janeiro. It shows how this at once reveals both the social disparities in the urban evolution process and the potential for constructing the right to the city and the environment as a common good. The results of this process are conditional on balancing the main (often conflicting) goals of protected areas: nature conservation, public use and the land rights of local communities. Starting with a review of the literature on the relationship between the city and nature, the dichotomies and complementarities are presented between those two terms and the classification and designation criteria, which have given rise to a range of social representations, technical mechanisms and political effects in relation to the urban PNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a comparative study of the socio-state capacities developed during the processes of institutionalising protected natural areas (PNA) in Latin America. It sets them within a framework of their interdependence with global governance processes and in relation to the role human rights have played for these purposes. Taking an approach that combines analysis of multilevel collective action with process monitoring, this work traces the trajectories of national and multilateral institutions; analyses the main dynamics that arise in the delimitation of the protection of natural areas in the countries with the greatest biodiversity in the region; and explores the possibilities for new agreements on the global agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]