Unequal sustainabilities: The role of social inequalities in conservation and development projects

In this article, I examine the efforts of a national marine protected area in Loreto, Mexico, to create sustainable development through regulations and economic development programs. I argue that these kinds of efforts can ignore social aspects of sustainability, particularly the ways that existing economic, political, and social inequalities interact with sustainability efforts through flawed participatory processes, misunderstandings of community values, and the lack of attention to the impact of a larger socioeconomic context. Instead, we should focus on how inequalities are reproduced, altered, challenged, and constructed by the policies and practices of sustainability. I propose that greater commitment to an integrated social, environmental, and economic sustainability can provide the space needed for alternative visions and values as well as real progress toward sustainability.