This review examines the social, economic and political effects of environmental conservation projects as they are manifested in protected areas. The paper provides special attention on people living in and displaces from protected areas, analyzes the worldwide growth of protected areas over the past 20 years, and offer suggestions for future research trajectories in anthropology. It focuses on social, economic, scientific and political changes in places where there are protected areas and in the urban centres that control these areas. The paper examines the violence, conflict, power relations and governmentality as they are connected to the processes of protection.