Importance of inequality for natural resource governance : evidence from two Nicaraguan territories

Natural resources constitute an important axis around which rural territorial dynamics revolve. Based on empirical
registration of how applications for and denouncements of natural resource use are dealt with in two Nicaraguan rural territories, this
paper examines the importance of inequality for the institutional practices through which district-level governance of natural resource
use takes place. Notable differences are identified. The paper concludes that institutional practices which promote rule-based natural
resource governance and gradually curb the veto possibilities of powerful actors are more likely to emerge in territories where political
voice is not restricted to the economic elite.