Ecosystem Services and social conflicts: an interdisciplinary approach to the sustainability of socio-ecological systems in Latin America

CÁCERES D., DÍAZ S., TAPELLA E., SILVETTI F., QUÉTIER F., PÉREZ-HARGUINDEGUY N., RODRÍGUEZ-BILELLA P.

Cape Town (Sudafrica)

Congreso; 4th. IGBP Congress -- Sustainable Livelihoods in a Changing Earth System; 2008

International Global an Biosphere Project

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment represented a major advance in identifying the role of ecosystem services as a key concept linking society, ecosystems and biodiversity. On its basis, our approach goes one step forward in three directions: (1) We identify ecosystem services which are more specifically linked to the needs and perceptions of specific stakeholders. (2) We build conceptual and empirical links between stakeholder-specific ecosystem services and different components of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. (3) We address the conflicting interests of, and power relationships among, different social actors in a context of rapid land-use change. We are testing our interdisciplinary approach in a situation of rapid land use change and acute conflict for the land and the services it provides in central Argentina. Through the IAI Collaborative Research Network DiverSus, we propose to extend our approach to socio-ecological systems in Latin America, involving different biomes and land-use trajectories.