5 - Surveillance and Evasion

Summary

This chapter addresses how the enforcement of park boundaries shaped the society and environment across a porous international border. It offers an extensive examination of the movements of hunters, loggers, and park rangers in and out national parks. The chapter combines primary sources with geographic information science (GIS) to explore how hunters, heart-of-palm harvesters, and rangers negotiated the two parks’ spaces. By mapping three decades of surveillance and poaching activities, this chapter shows how the boundaries dividing park and non-park territories, as well as Argentina and Brazil, became the frontline of the clash between national park officials and the local settler population engaged in extractive activities.