Nature and Protected Areas in North America

Nature has a central role in the making and the organization of North American spaces. The Wilderness, as faced by the Pionneers, is part of the national identity and fostered the early creation of National Parks – mostly in the Rocky Mountains – soon followed by national protected areas networks among the most ambitious in the world. However, the discovery of new oil and gas layers, the urban sprawl or the damages in the forested areas, in Canadian ecological fronts or in the metropolitan areas of the United States and Mexico, are destabilizing the relationship between societies and Nature as well. This is rekindling the question of governance and power-sharing with Native Americans at the same time.