In many parts of the Third World, where environmental degradatlon is often extreme, it is difficult to address issues such as conservation and environmental protection because of economic and political instability. International economic dependency, foreign debt, rural poverty, and social inequality all contribute to over exploitation of natural resources. Many experts argue that linking conservation to economic development is the best way of protecting the environment.

This study explores the complex relationship of social, political, and economic issues to environmental abuse in the Third World, using rural development in Nicaragua as a case study. It also addresses the ability of environmental professionals to adequately analyze and plan for the dynamlc forces affecting conservation of natural resources ln the Third World. Landscape planning is looked at as a possible tool for effectively combining analysis of natural and social system, even though landscape planning typically has not addressed social systems analysis in such depth.

Nicaragua exhibits Central America's historical patterns of environmental abuse that are rooted in Spanish colonialism and the extreme class divisions caused and served by latifundismo, the plantation land tenure structure. However, Nicaragua is experiencing radical social, economic, and political changes after its revolution of 1979 that play a major role in disrupting the forces of environmental abuse in the countryside. Analysis of those changes focused on land tenure, population dynamics, socioeconomic factors, cultural factors, community participation, and technical considerations as issues to be considered in the process of planning for conservation in Nicaragua.

The Nicaraguan case haa shown that land reform combined wlth social service, economic, and conservation progress can help to improve rural standards of living and stem environmental abuse. Unfortunately, many rural development and conservation programs have not been fully implemented due to Nicaragua's severe economic crises, the contra war, and conflicts with the indigenous groups of the Atlantic coast. The Nicaraguan case has also shown that, despite cultural and geographical differences, Nicaragua's land reform and environmental progress may offer insight into other Central American nations with similar environmental problems currently experiencing social unrest in the countryside.

Conservation planners are generally not prepared to address many of these issues, and this may have a lot to do with why conservation planning has generally been unsuccessful in the Third World. Training for conservation planners should include a broader range of social and cultural disciplines, as well as the ability to take on other roles such as the training of environmental professionals in other countries in order to let local leaders be responsible for environmental decision making.