Presentation short abstract

Public perceptions of Costa Rica’s “green exceptionalism” reveal emerging tensions as neoliberal conservation faces a shift towards populism that questions the legitimacy of environmentalism amid rising authoritarian values.

Presentation long abstract

Since late 20th century, Costa Rica has been celebrated as an exemplary case of neoliberal conservation: merging environmental technocracy, commodification of nature, social inclusion and sustainable development. This reputation – anchored in well-studied policies of payments of environmental services, protected areas, ecotourism and the expansion of renewable energy – has granted the country significant moral authority within the global political economy of conservation (Fletcher, Dowd-Uribe and Aistara, 2020). This “green exceptionalism” has thus consolidated both as a geopolitical imaginary in national identity and a code grounded in environmental liberalism.

However, this project increasingly confronts a context marked by growing illiberal tensions: mistrust of technocracy, populist discourses challenging environmental regulation, territorial conflicts and the reemergence of clientelist and extractivist logics that undermine commitments to ecological protection. The continuity of this supposedly green identity as stable foundation for the public legitimacy of conservation can no longer be assumed.

This work examines how these transformations manifest in public perception, by drawing on national survey data on environmental attitudes, identities and values (including dimensions of authoritarianism and populism), alongside qualitative analysis of shifts in policies and discourses associated with green exceptionalism. It explores whether citizens reproduce or contest the authority of neoliberal conservation and whether new cleavages emerge between environmental pride, tolerance toward extractivism and adherence to illiberal values. The objective is to situate Costa Rica within global debates of the fragility of liberal foundations of conservation and to illuminate what becomes visible when green technocracy loses it's moral anchoring amid broader political realignments.