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

Abstract

Maintaining biodiversity is crucial for ensuring human well-being. The authors participated in a workshop held in Palenque, Mexico, in August 2018, that brought together 30 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 programmes to address these challenges.

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): UCL Open Environ

Journal ID (publisher-id): UCLOE

Title: UCL Open Environment

Abbreviated Title: UCL Open Environ

Publisher: UCL Press (UK )

ISSN (Electronic): 2632-0886

Publication date (Electronic): 08 August 2019

Publication date (Electronic): 2019

Volume: 1

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, Mexico

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

[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, Mexico

[11 ]Department of Geography, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, 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; Current address: Global Water Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

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

[16 ]Laboratorio de Estudios del Antropoceno, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Chile

[17 ]Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Research Centre for Ecological Change, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

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

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

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

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

[22 ]Instituto de Conservación, Biodiversidad y Territorio, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

[23 ]Centro de Ciencia del Clima y la Resiliencia, 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

[27 ]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, Mexico

Author notes

*Corresponding author: Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK; Email: richard.pearson@ 123456ucl.ac.uk

Article

DOI: 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000002

Copyright statement: © 2019 The Authors.

License:

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

Page count

Tables: 1, References: 12, Pages: 4

Funding

The workshop was supported by a Researcher Links grant (ID 2017-RLWK9-358985276) under the Newton Fund. The grant was funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and delivered by the British Council. Daniela Manuschevich was also supported by CONICYT FONDECYT grant 11150281. Dario Moreira-Arce was also supported by CONICYT FONDECYT grants 3160056 and 11181180. David Prieto-Torres extends his gratitude to the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (DGAPA-UNAM) for the Postdoctoral scholarship that allowed to contribute in this work. We thank Chris Langridge, Susana Fallas, Fabiola de la Cruz, and Humberto Gallegos for their help in the organisation of the workshop, and the Centro del Cambio Global y la Sustentabilidad, AC for the logistic support.

Categories

Subject: Research Article