Do global statistics represent local reality and should they guide conservation policy?: Examples from Costa Rica

Recent analyses of global population change data have indicated accelerated human population growth near protected area edges in Latin America and Africa. The authors hypothesised that this growth is driven by opportunities created by integrated conservation and development. This paper highlights three Costa Rican protected areas that illuminate the problems inherent with the use of context-independent global statistics. This paper employs grounded, contextual data to suggest that hypotheses derived from global level analyses must be cautiously applied to conservation policy and praxis.