Latin American drylands: Challenges and opportunities for sustainable development

Authors

  • Anahi Ocampo Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation at the University of Chile (Chile).
  • América Lutz-Ley Centre for the Study of Development at El Colegio de Sonora (Mexico).
  • Adriana Zuñiga Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona (USA).
  • Claudia Cerda Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation at the University of Chile (Chile).
  • Silvana Goirán San Francisco Regional Faculty of the National Technological University (Argentina).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.13.21458

Keywords:

drylands, Latin America, water, sustainable development, environmental justice, desertification

Abstract

The drylands of Latin America sustain their countries’ economies. However, governance and economic models focused on exports and the short term have resulted in environmental injustice, unsustainable development, and the promotion of desertification. Addressing development challenges in water-limited ecosystems requires a thorough understanding of their complex socio-environmental interactions. In this document, we examine two of the most important economic activities in Latin American drylands: agriculture and mining. We use representative cases from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico to illustrate the complexity of socio-environmental interactions in which climate change affects the availability of water resources and results in power struggles. We also discuss how the approach to ecosystem services and transdisciplinary research can result in development models that benefit and protect ancestral communities and the ecosystems that make these territories unique.

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Author Biographies

Anahi Ocampo, Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation at the University of Chile (Chile).

Assistant professor in the Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation at the University of Chile (Chile). She is an environmental engineer and has a PhD in Arid Lands Resource Sciences from the University of Arizona (USA). Her research explores the adaptive capacity and knowledge integration in water management and ecological restoration. She is interested in the co-production of knowledge for environmental decision making.

América Lutz-Ley, Centre for the Study of Development at El Colegio de Sonora (Mexico).

Professor at the Centre for the Study of Development at El Colegio de Sonora (Mexico). She is a political scientist with a PhD in Arid Lands Resource Sciences (University of Arizona, USA). She researches society-environment interactions, with an emphasis on the sustainable use of water resources, the socio-environmental impacts of large-scale activities, environmental justice and political ecology, and human and institutional dimensions of adaptation to global change.

Adriana Zuñiga, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona (USA).

Assistant professor at the School of Geography, Deve­lopment, and Environment at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona (USA). She is an architect and has a PhD in Arid Lands Resource Sciences (University of Arizona, USA). Her research focuses on the study of the interactions between society and landscape in the urban environment, drawing upon theories related to environmental justice, urban resilience, water security, and public health.

Claudia Cerda, Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation at the University of Chile (Chile).

Professor at the Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation of the University of Chile (Chile). She is a Forest Engineer and has a PhD in Agricultural Sciences (University of Gottingen, Germany). Her main research interests are the economic and socio-cultural evaluation of ecosystem services in different socio-ecological systems throughout Chile.

Silvana Goirán, San Francisco Regional Faculty of the National Technological University (Argentina).

Teaching assistant at the San Francisco Regional Faculty of the National Technological University (Argentina). She is an agricultural engineer and has a PhD in Biological Sciences (National University of Cuyo, Argentina). Her work and research focuses on the evaluation and sustainable management of agroecosystems in dry and semi-dry lands, using remote sensing and biophysical analysis.

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Published

2023-02-23

How to Cite

Ocampo, A., Lutz-Ley, A., Zuñiga, A., Cerda, C., & Goirán, S. (2023). Latin American drylands: Challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. Metode Science Studies Journal, (13), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.13.21458
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Issue

Science. The genesis of ideas (vol. 13, 2023)

Section

Drylands. Opportunities, challenges, and threats

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