Research priorities for maintaining biodiversity’s contributions to people in Latin America

Maintaining biodiversity is crucial for ensuring human well-being. We participated in a workshop held in Palenque, Mexico, in August 2018, that brought together thirty mostly early-career scientists working in different disciplines (natural, social and economic sciences) with the aim of identifying research priorities for studying the contributions of biodiversity to people and how these contributions might be impacted by environmental change. Five main groups of questions emerged: (1) Enhancing the quantity, quality, and availability of biodiversity data; (2) Integrating different knowledge systems; (3) Improved methods for integrating diverse data; (4) Fundamental questions in ecology and evolution; and (5) Multi-level governance across boundaries. We discuss the need for increased capacity building and investment in research programs to address these challenges.

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Author and article information

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Publisher: UCL Press

Publication date (Electronic preprint): 22 February 2019

Affiliations

[1 ] Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK

[2 ] Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México; & Centro del Cambio Global y la Sustentabilidad AC, Villahermosa, México

[3 ] Centro del Cambio Global y la Sustentabilidad AC, Villahermosa, México

[4 ] Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina

[5 ] Procesos y Sistemas de Información en Geomática, SA de CV. Calle 5 Viveros de Peten No. 18, Col. Viveros del Valle, Tlalnepantla, CP 54060, Edo. de Mex, Mexico

[6 ] Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute, University of Exeter Business School, Xfi Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, UK

[7 ] Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile

[8 ] Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

[9 ] Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Córdoba, Argentina

[10 ] Instituto de Ecología, A.C. Carretera antigua a Coatepec 351, Col. El Haya, Xalapa, Veracruz, México

[11 ] Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Department of Geography, Munich, Germany

[12 ] Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano, Escuela de Geografía. Condell 343, Providencia. Santiago, Chile

[13 ] International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schloßpl. 1, Laxenburg, 2361, Vienna, Austria

[14 ] Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London, London, UK

[15 ] Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.

[16 ] Departamento de Manejo de Bosques y Medio Ambiente, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Chile

[17 ] Centro del Cambio Global y la Sustentabilidad AC, Villahermosa, México; & International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schloßpl. 1, Laxenburg, 2361, Vienna, Austria

[18 ] Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK; & Research Centre for Ecological Change, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

[19 ] Museo de Zoología, Departamento de Biología Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México City, México

[20 ] Centro de Estudios e Investigación en Desarrollo Sustentable, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca, México

[21 ] Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

[22 ] Department of Biology, University of York, York, UK

[23 ] Instituto de Conservación, Biodiversidad y Territorio. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile; & Center for Climate and Resilience Research, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

[24 ] NASCA Conservation Program, The Nature Conservancy, Bogotá, Colombia

[25 ] Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal, CONICET and Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

[26 ] Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile; & Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB), Laboratorio Internacional en Cambio Global (LINCGlobal), Centro de Cambio Global UC (PUCGlobal), The Santa Fe Institute, and Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad (C3), Universidad Autónoma de México, México

Article

DOI: 10.14324/111.444/000014.v1

SO-VID: 3b9323a8-4700-481b-b50a-f27823722540

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding

The workshop was supported by a Researcher Links grant under the Newton Fund. The grant was funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and delivered by the British Council. ID 2017-RLWK9-358985276

ScienceOpen disciplines: Ecology,Environmental change,General environmental science

Keywords: Environmental science,Data availability,Biodiversity,Governance,Knowledge systems,Ecosystem services,Capacity building,Environmental change,People and their environment,Investment in research,Conservation

Comments

UCL Open: Environment Editorial Office wrote:

Decision date: 8/3/2019

Handling Editor: Dan Osborn

This article is a preprint article and has not been peer-reviewed. It is under consideration following submission to UCL Open: Environment Preprint for open peer review.

2020-09-23 15:10 UTC

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