1. Environmental governance and sustainable development in Latin America 2. Elites, classes and environmental governance: Conceptual and theoretical challenges Part 1: Agriculture and biotechnology 3. El Salvador: The challenge to entrenched elites and the difficult road to a sustainable development model 4. Bolivia: Emerging and traditional elites and the governance of the soy sector 5. Argentina: Government-agribusiness elite dynamics and its consequences for environmental governance 6. Ecuador: Changing biosafety frames and new political forces in Correa's governmenet Part 2: Mining 7. New elites around South America's strategic resources 8. Staying the same: Transnational elites, mining and environmental governance in Guatemala 9. Elite views on the use of water and energy in mining in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador Part 3: Forestry 10. REDD+ and forest governance in Latin America: The role of science-policy networks 11. State governments and forest policy: A new elite in the Brazilian Amazon? 12. Conclusion

Based on case-studies in eight Latin American countries, this book investigates the extent to which there have been elite shifts, how new governments have related to old elites, and how that has impacted on environmental governance and the management of natural resources. New groups are emerging related to political and economic shifts, and the rise of new cadres of technocrats, while old economic and political elites struggle to remain influential. However, the combination of opposition from old elites, the commitment to social distribution of resource-rents, and the prerogative of state construction has often hampered initiatives to ensure a more sustainable and equitable governance of natural resources. Yet, in other cases constraints related to structural inequalities and entrenched elites have been overcome.

Benedicte Bull is a Professor at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Norway.

Mariel Aguilar-Støen is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Norway.