Community-based management of environmental challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean

Publication Name
Ecology and Society
Volume, number, page
22:1, 9 p.
Year of Publication
2017
Author(s)
DELGADO-SERRANO Maria del Mar
MISTRY Jayalaxshmi
MATZDORF Bettina
Organization Name
Department of Biology - Acadia University
Publisher
Resilience Alliance
City
Nova Scotia
Country of Publication
Canada
Full Date
2017
ISBN or ISSN
1708-3087
Considered Countries
Brasil
Bolivia
Mexico
Argentina
Colombia
Costa Rica
Category
Academic articles
Theme
Subregion - European Union
Country - European Union
BIREGIONAL DIALOGUES UE-LAC
Academic
Civil Society
Keyword(s)
Environment
Environmental policy
Environmental protection
Civil Society
Local Governance
Governance Models
Local and Scientific Knowledge
Society
Science
Knowledge transfer
CIVINET
COBRA
COMBIOSERVE
COMET-LA
ECOADAPT
European Union
Latin America
Caribbean
International environment policy cooperation
International environmental policy
Community development
Development policy cooperation
Development Co-operation
Development Policy
Sustainable Development
Sustainability
Development Models
Abstract
This Special Feature gathers the results of five research projects funded by the 7th Research Framework Program of the European Union and aims to identify successful cases of community-based management of environmental challenges in Latin America.The funding scheme, Research for the benefit of Civil Society Organizations, fostered innovative research approaches between civil society and research organizations. More than 20 field sites have been explored, and issues such as trade-offs between conservation and development, scientific versus local knowledge, social learning, ecosystem services, community owned solutions, scaling-up and scalingout strategies, the influence of context and actors in effective environmental management and governance, and the conflicts of interests around natural resources have been addressed. Based on our experiences as project coordinators, in this editorial we reflect on some of the important lessons gained for research praxis and impact, focusing on knowledge of governance models and their scaling-out and scaling-up, and on methods and tools to enable action research at the science–civil society interface. The results highlight the richness of community-based management experiences that exist in Latin America and the diversity of approaches to encourage the sustainable community-based management of environmental challenges.
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