Idea formulated by social groups, recently, regarding protected areas in Brazil, bring back the old rural-urban conflict known as "urban bias". What is implied in this conflict is that the urban bias of public policies is a strategy for drawing resources from rural to urban areas, reproducing rural poverty. The paper focus on how rural owners react to public policies regarding forest conservation. Empirical observation is based on interviews of 22 rural owners of rural tourism business, around the Iguaçu Park, in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Findings show that almost all interviewees believe that forest conservation brings positive results to society, in general. But, when local development and the farm are taken into consideration, people tend to have a negative perception regarding public policies in favor of forest conservation. The rational of this negative perception and the need for reviewing public policies for protecting areas are discussed in the paper.
Protected areas; Social conflict; Urban bia; Public policies
