Ecosystem Services in Latin America. From research to action
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.17.27.1.1.611Abstract
The research on ecosystem services (ES), driven by the potential of this approach to guide decision-making towards more sustainable and socially just territories, currently represents one of the most active fields in ecology (Abson et al. 2014; Hevia et al. 2017; Seppelt et al. 2011). The importance of ES for human well-being and the need to halt the alarming loss of the biodiversity that supports them have led to significant international efforts for their dissemination, such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005) or, more recently, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (Díaz et al. 2015). However, the pace at which ES are being integrated into public and private decision-making is still far from what was expected from these efforts (Laurans et al. 2013; Laurans and Mermet 2014; Martinez-Harms et al. 2015).
In this special issue of Ecología Austral, we offer a brief overview of the ES approach from the perspective of Latin American researchers, based on 7 out of the 205 papers presented at the Fourth International Congress on Ecosystem Services in the Neotropics (CISEN4), held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in October 2015 (available at CISEN4 2015). Although it's a small sample, reading it highlights the achievements and challenges of different stages that aim to connect human well-being with the promotion of biodiversity, as well as the unique characteristics of the ES approach in Latin America.
(*Foto: http://www.territorioancestral.cl)
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Copyright (c) 2017 Pedro Laterra, Berta Martín-López, Matías Mastrángelo, Lucas A. Garibaldi
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