A partir de la implementación de un programa de conservación de bosques en comunidades nativas, analizo cómo población indígena entiende al Estado como institución rectora ambiental y cómo se desempeña como usuaria de política pública. Los resultados de este estudio etnográfico sugieren que la implementación del esquema de incentivos económicos para la conservación genera una débil conexión estatal como institución ambiental, pero refuerza su papel como proveedor de oportunidades de desarrollo. Con este programa, la población indígena ha construido interpretaciones alternativas a la conservación de bosques como un activo para atraer futuras oportunidades de desarrollo y de los incentivos económicos como recompensas y propinas. Finalmente, estas desviaciones sobre la conciencia ambiental del programa se entienden por el fuerte componente administrativo sobre la rendición de cuentas que las comunidades hacen al Estado. De hecho, el principal efecto de estado del programa es la burocratización de las comunidades, con el fin de que puedan adaptarse al ideal estatal de instalar la cultura de la auditoría.
This paper explores to what extend Lipsky's street‐level bureaucrat (SLB) model fits forest‐level bureaucrats implementing environmental policy. Based on the research of a state‐led payment for an ecosystem services scheme in the Peruvian Amazon, the common features of SLBs – discretion, distance from power, and closeness to public policy users – are key analytical tools to understand the work of SLBs in rural contexts, where the presence of the state is usually precarious. Results suggest that, for this case study, SLBs use their discretion to reshape formal regulation and procedures and even relegate the accomplishment of environmental activities to cope with the burden of bureaucracy and accountability reporting. The political but also geographical distance from the center of power is fundamental for SLBs to use their discretion. However, applying the SLB model to the margins also requires paying attention to alternative elements. SLBs are better understood as brokers rather than gatekeepers since they assume responsibilities to close the bureaucratic and administrative gaps between the state as provider of public services and the real capacities of indigenous peoples as policy users. It also demands paying better attention to the role of public accountability and the effect they produce on bureaucratizing the communities where they work.
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