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C entral American nation-states have increasingly responded to global environmental agendas. As countries address these agendas, they also emphasize the need to develop legal systems that facilitate environmental protection and create protected areas. However, the role of Central American states in funding and implementing environmental protection has been consistently inadequate (Sundberg 2003). This has produced alternative responses to environmental protection, from the creation of certification programs to assess and audit facilities and products (Honey 2003; McLaren 2003), the development of formal mechanisms that allow landowners to transform their properties into privately owned conservation areas, to the creation of consortiums and trusts to manage these areas. As a consequence, national and international conservation NGOs replace governments in the quest for environmental sustainability. The environmental discourses and practices-as well as the morality accompanying resource use and conservation-privileged by the donor organizations become the environmental truth by which environmental sustainability is planned and designed (Worster 1990; Sundberg 2003). This article contributes to the relatively recent interest in environmental anthropology in discussing collaborations involved in "the production of environmental objects, projects, and political positions" (Tsing 2001:15) as well as the study of social movements centering on environmental and indigenous rights issues (Brosius 2001). The article focuses on the alliances developed among North American conservationist organizations, Panamanian authorities and NGOs, and Ngöbe indigenous peoples to create a master plan for the management of a marine protected area in the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro, Panama. Believing that the government was unable to protect the natural resources of the Archipelago, public, private, grassroots organizations, and indigenous communities united to create the Consejo Consultivo (Consulting Assembly), whose main goal was to develop a more

With its sustained emphasis on creating, implementing, and maintaining positive impacts on issues of local, national, and global importance, applied anthropology continues to be a crucial and relevant field of study. Its practitioners demonstrate their engagement in multifarious ways both in and outside the academy, showcasing their commitment not only to the tenets of academic rigor, but also to challenges shaped by real‐world situations. This unique volume of 14 articles by 16 academics and practitioners provides specific advice to students on both the tangible benefits and potential disadvantages of careers in applied anthropology in the national and international arenas. Contributors offer practical, step‐by‐step advice on practicing anthropology with an M.A. degree, careers in national and international consultancy, small consulting business development, executive leadership, combining careers in applied anthropology and the academy, field school training, collaborative research and public engagement, applied anthropology in nonanthropological settings, among others. Although most draw on their personal life histories and careers as illustrations, their focus is on reflection, analysis, and recommendations that result from their experiences. The contributors to this volume stress the contemporary relevance of anthropology, the advantages of obtaining training in anthropology, and the plethora of opportunities to put anthropology to use in the real world with exceptional results.

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