Naturaleza y Sociedad. Desafíos Medioambientales
Naturaleza y Sociedad. Desafíos Medioambientales is a quarterly open access diamond journal. It aims to examine environmental issues and challenges facing planet Earth from a multi and interdisciplinary perspective. Leia-nós em português! • Site available in English! • ¡Léanos en español!
Climate change, human rights, and the Escazú Agreement: An analysis of access to information in the management of climate change in Colombia
The purpose of this article is to support the implementation of the legal standards of the Escazú Agreement in Colombia. Given the importance of climate change management and its link to human rights, the analysis focuses on access to information as a basic pillar of environmental democracy. To this end, we conducted a descriptive, analytical, and propositional dogmatic research, in which we privilege the documentary analysis of three instruments: Decree 298 of 2016, the National Policy on Climate Change of 2016, and Law 1931 of 2018. With this, we expect to typify the access to information in the management of climate change in Colombia in regard to the Escazú Agreement.
Copyright (c) 2021 Mauricio Madrigal Pérez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Rituals in Daily Life and Care of Nature by the Wixárika Ethnic Group of Mexico
In this article, we analyze the worldview of the Wixárika people in terms of their care of nature, or “Mother Earth”. We do so by accompanying them in their sacred spaces and daily life in order to identify their beliefs, rituals, and their relationship with caring for nature, so as to elaborate an intercultural proposal to mitigate climate change. A qualitative ethnographic methodological design is applied, and cases of patriarchal Wixárika families are selected as key informants, with whom we conducted dialogue workshops, in-depth interviews, and ethnographic observation of rituals in sacred places. The results show that the Wixárika ethnic group bases its worldview on rituals that visit the five important cardinal points of their culture located in the east, west, north, south, and center of the western region of Mexico. These, in turn, are home to elements of their worldview such as the sun (Tayau Tau), the sea (Haramara), corn (Icu), peyote (Hicuri), deer (Maxa), and fire (Tatewari). From their perspective, the planet and life arise through the relationship between the sea and the sun, which gave birth to snakes that evolved into rivers, animals, and human beings that passed through sacred places. We conclude on the importance of recovering the worldview expressed in the rituals of this tribe in order to build an intercultural proposal on the preservation of the biodiversity of nature, or “Mother Earth”, and to limit climate change from a deep ecology perspective.
Copyright (c) 2021 René Cristóbal Crocker Sagastume https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Rural growth strategies. The case of Duncan Lewis and Édouard François in Jupilles
Incorporating living natures as building materials by themselves has helped Duncan Lewis and Édouard François build a universe of material experimentation beyond the limits of architecture, influencing landscape issues that contribute to revealing new paths regarding the relationship between architecture, nature, and society. Attending to the existing realities of a place serves as a starting point for them to extract the components that will later build their project. This dynamic is present in most of their works; however, I take this opportunity to highlight one of the projects where inhabiting nature and creating new links with the place are the core of the project: rural lodgings in the small town of Jupilles, France. The power of the Bercé forest on the north of the project site helps Duncan Lewis and Édouard François recognize that the rural growth of the town, which they were commissioned to design in 1996, must be an extension of the existing landscape; a project that becomes inhabited nature. This article aims to demonstrate the possibility of proposing urban growth schemes in rural areas that respect the landscape they are inserted in without renouncing necessary progress. Duncan Lewis and Édouard François’s project responds perfectly to this need by proposing sustainable growth strategies where nature receives the prominence it deserves.
Copyright (c) 2022 Luis Miguel Cortés Sánchez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Escazú Agreement, Environmental Democracy, and the Greening of Human Rights
The Escazú Agreement on Environmental Democracy arises in a context of intensifying extractivism and democratic deficit in the Latin American and Caribbean region. It urges signatory states to implement the rights of access (information, participation, and justice in environmental matters) and to protect the lives of environmental defenders. The purpose of this article is to contrast the origin, form, and content of the agreement with the evolution of the legal body of environmental human rights in the world and with the struggles of environmental justice movements in the region. The above, with a view to concluding that it is a regressive instrument that creates a false idea of guaranteeing environmental human rights, and that it reflects an instrumental use of the notions of law and democracy. Participant observation of the negotiation of the text was used in combination with critical analysis of the discourse of the agreement, and of developments in international human rights law. The article offers a critical perspective of the Escazú Agreement from the claims of socio-environmental struggles intended to broaden the interpretation of environmental democracy.
Copyright (c) 2021 María Cecilia Roa-García, Diana Milena Murcia-Riaño https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Modeling the correlation between potato disease spread and climate variables to guide fungicide applications in Cundinamarca, Colombia
Potato production relies on frequent fungicide spraying, damaging the environment, increasing production costs, and eventually leading to crop abandonment. To better guide fungicide spraying in the field, the influence of weather on pathogen characteristics should be understood. To achieve this, we sampled a potato pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, in twelve commercial potato fields in the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia. Disease samples were collected to estimate the number of sporangia. Fields were planted with different potato cultivars of varying disease resistance/susceptibility, and chemical management was performed according to standard agricultural practices. The relationship between climate conditions and sporangia production not only depended on climate conditions on the day of collection, but also on weather variables one or two days prior. Based on climate data, we also evaluated the potential non-linear effects of climate variables and used this analysis to perform a forecast simulation. We used the GeoSimCast model to estimate the number of fungicide applications required to control late blight in this region. The number of applications suggested by the model run for 60% relative humidity was very different from the observed number of applications. The model results for 90% relative humidity estimated a number closer to the observed value, suggesting that potato growers always assume optimal conditions for disease development and spray fungicides accordingly. Our results indicate that this model has the potential to guide seeding plans and the chemical management of late blight and other plant diseases in Colombia.
Copyright (c) 2021 Estefanía Luengas, Andrés Guhl, Juan Camilo Castro, Laura Natalia González García, Silvia Restrepo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Socio-environmental conflicts in children’s literature. Solutions within the reach of children
This work has arisen within the framework of our teaching practice in a curricular space of professors of literature at the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Argentina. The problems we addressed in the seminar “Study of the Latin American and Argentine Reality” included socio-environmental conflicts, which are the ones that concern access and control of natural assets and territory. Given that recent literature for children has become another scenario to represent socio-environmental problems, we have been interested in investigating what socio-environmental conflicts are addressed in the children’s literature available to the public in our city (San Luis, Argentina) to examine, subsequently, how they are treated by different authors, how the tension is represented, what problems are associated, etc. Although our sample is still small (59 short stories), we established some categories and arrived at some conclusions that may be significant for future work. We built eleven categories of conflicts related to the following issues: the extractive mining model; gold mining and alternative energies; the model of hydrocarbon production by hydraulic fracturing; over deforestation; the model of agriculture and food production; the large-scale fishing model; endangered animals; climate change: melting poles, droughts, and water emergency; environmental pollution; consumption; and environmental and ecological awareness. We have identified some relevant aspects regarding this particular view of the world, which becomes a situation to go through. It involves the reader’s desire in an activity that is not contemplative —that is, it does not inform, instruct, or illustrate it— but polemic, controversial, uncomfortable, worrying, and that, without fail, leads to imagining solutions, often contrary to the established or naturalized ones.
Copyright (c) 2022 María Celeste Romá, Bernardo Figueroa Garro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
First issue editorial: Naturaleza y Sociedad. Desafíos Medioambientales
Copyright (c) 2021 Raquel Bernal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Air quality and its relationship with respiratory diseases in the city of Manizales
Air quality is a crucial factor in the environmental effects and repercussions on population health in cities. This research correlated the levels of particulate matter (PM10) in the air and the frequency of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, bronchitis, rhinitis, and airway infections in the city of Manizales, Colombia. The study found a direct relationship between some respiratory diseases and vulnerable sectors in this city.
Copyright (c) 2022 Irene Saffon, Yasel J. Costa, Jhon F. Betancur https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
An ethic of co-inhabitation for the biocultural conservation of rivers
During the 20th century, numerous rivers were pumped, channeled, stratified, dammed, and diverted. Diverse water courses and bodies (rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands, estuaries, and aquifers) were transformed for agricultural irrigation and energy purposes, supplying urban areas or simply favoring economic interests. These transformations were driven by a mentality inherited from modernity that has led to understanding and exploiting rivers as mere water channels or fuel for hydroelectric power plants. This one-dimensional mentality continues to promote the conversion of rivers into paved channels and/or their clogging by constructing large hydroelectric dams worldwide. In this article, I use the conceptual framework of the “3Hs” (Habits, Habitats, co-in-Habitants) of my biocultural ethics to criticize the problematic modern habit of indiscriminately channeling water courses, which leads to the proliferation of homogeneous habitats (crossed by captive water courses) that entail the suffering or elimination of myriads of co-inhabitants. These co-inhabitants include both the exuberant biological diversity that inhabits rivers (freshwater fish, insects, plants, algae, and bacteria) and the rich cultural diversity of human communities that co-inhabit watersheds. In addition, the “3Hs” model of my biocultural ethics can guide us to protect and/or regenerate connections between human societies and rivers, transforming not only biophysical habitats but also our symbolic and material culture. I explore how the perspective of my biocultural ethics supports and is supported by: (i) the philosophical revaluation of the concept of meander developed by environmental thinker Irene Klaver; (ii) innovative scientific methodologies to study river biota proposed by freshwater ecologist Tamara Contador; (iii) the recent legal attribution of biocultural rights to rivers in Colombia, New Zealand, and India; and (iv) expressions of indigenous poets and other artists that communicate deep river-human interconnections. On the one hand, adopting my proposed biocultural ethics requires us to abandon a one-dimensional mentality to embrace ancient and new forms of systemic, contextual, complex, and dynamic thinking to understand and value rivers. On the other, we must cultivate habits of care for riparian habitats where we co-inhabit with various co-inhabitants (humans and other-than-humans), seeking their well-being. Thus, an ethic of co-inhabitation emerges that guides us to value and defend the biocultural conservation of rivers.
Copyright (c) 2022 Ricardo Rozzi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Biodiversity and agricultural and livestock farming in Colombia: A proposal to advance toward a transformation from the perspective of sustainable development
This article seeks to propose how the agricultural development policies can avoid stimulate actions that could lead to the loss of biodiversity in Colombia and, instead, contribute to the transition towards a sustainable and resilient agriculture in the face of global environmental changes. For this purpose, the agricultural systems and territorial occupation dynamics that could have a greater relationship with the degradation of natural ecosystems were defined through the analysis of land cover with geospatial information. For the occupation phenomena, it was taken land information from the department of Caquetá as a study case. This information was contrasted with an evaluation of the agricultural and land policy instruments that, from their design, operation, or governance arrangements, could be encouraging biodiversity loss, either by omitting sustainability criteria, promoting practices that affect ecological services supply, and/or that are linked to the production systems related to the agricultural frontier expansion. Although it is not possible to describe a direct causality, it was to identify a logic of land use change that goes from short-cycle crops to livestock pastures and ends in secondary vegetation (stubble). Also, a positive relationship between financial policy instruments, the predominant agricultural systems and the degradation of water resources, and land growth in high biodiversity areas in Caquetá. Based on these findings, the article seeks to generate information supported by a critical analysis to provide criteria for implementing agricultural development policy reforms from a sustainable development perspective.
Copyright (c) 2022 Ángela María Penagos, María Angélica Parra, Santiago Granados https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Zero hunger and biodiversity conservation. Challenges for the conservation of top predators and sustainable livestock production in Latin America
Biodiversity conservation and livestock development have not gone hand in hand in Latin America. On the one side, a priority of livestock production is to provide protein of animal origin to local communities; and, on the other, the increasing shift of land use from jungles and forests to grazing lands results, in many cases, in increasing conflicts between livestock producers and large carnivores. Historically, no studies have addressed both priorities together. The principal mission of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to integrate, coordinate, and propose options that allow a better quality of life and sustainable development. Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 15 of the 2030 Agenda make zero hunger and biodiversity conservation explicit as part of the strategy. This paper analyzes the conflict between livestock activity and big felines—top predators—such as the puma (Puma concolor) and the jaguar (Panthera onca) in Latin America. Neither the jaguar nor the puma has the habit of attacking domestic species; nevertheless, if these felines lack natural prey and share areas with livestock, they will hunt domestic animals, which leads to a conflict between conservation and food production. This article examines and proposes a strategy to comply with SDG 2 (zero hunger) and SDG 15 (biodiversity conservation) for the specific case of top predators and their conflict with livestock production in Latin America.
Copyright (c) 2022 Cristian Bonacic, Skarleth Chinchilla, Constanza Arévalo, Heliot Zarza, Jesús Pacheco, Gerardo Ceballos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Biocultural Rights: A Philosophical Perspective
Biocultural rights have served as a theoretical basis for the declaration of the Whanganui (in New Zealand) and Atrato (in Colombia) Rivers as subjects of law. The theoretical figure of biocultural rights has been widely analyzed from the law. However, there are also philosophical aspects relevant to study, such as the ontological, epistemological, and ethical transformations that are possible to glimpse thanks to the incorporation of the worldviews of local communities (indigenous and ethnic). Thus, this article seeks to examine the ontological, epistemological, and ethical aspects present in biocultural rights and their theoretical precedents. The methodology employed is a hermeneutic analysis of foundational texts on the subject. In addition, the paper will also exemplify some aspects by using the Colombian Constitutional Court’s Sentence T-622/16, which declares the Atrato River as a subject of rights.
Copyright (c) 2023 Valentina González-Morales https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Rights of Nature in the Norwegian Legal Culture: To Be or Not to Be?
In contrast to the growing worldwide trend of recognizing rights of nature (RoN), it has no place within Norwegian legal frameworks to date. In this article, we explore the lack of recognition of standalone RoN in Norway from a legal-cultural perspective, offer some possible explanations for the reluctant approach of Norwegian lawmakers, and discuss the potential consequences of their future recognition. As RoN have a strong connection to Indigenous environmental governance around the world, we examine some aspects of the Indigenous rights of the Sámi people and discuss to what extent these might serve as a foundation for RoN in Norway. We argue that due to its legal culture, Norway could more easily implement legal duties toward nature —as opposed to RoN— as an alternative, and possibly a predecessor of fully-fledged rights. Finally, we propose some avenues for how to plant the seeds of legal duties toward nature in existing legal frameworks without causing a radical rupture with the institutional and intellectual structures of the Norwegian legal culture.
Copyright (c) 2022 Sören Koch, Esmeralda Colombo, Catalina Vallejo Piedrahíta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Teachers and their geographical surroundings in Colombia in the mid-nineteenth century
Copyright (c) 2022 Rafael E. Acevedo P. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Twelve Years of Solitude for the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia
In 2010, Bolivia granted collective rights to nature as Mother Earth, including the right to the preservation of its integrity and its restoration. In doing so, it was at the forefront of a growing global movement to transform legal systems following a new ecocentric vision. However, these innovations had a bumpy and conflicting trajectory. In a dispute over the meaning and scope of these new rights, the government of Evo Morales, during his first term (2006-2009), imposed a limited and instrumental interpretation of this new ideology. The two laws passed, Law 71 of 2010 and Law 300 of 2012, fell short of the original proposal of an alliance of indigenous actors and had limited impact in the face of a series of legislative packages promoting natural resource extraction and megaprojects. Once again, claims based on legal approaches have left very limited practical results for indigenous peoples. Lacking effective legal instruments to protect their territories, many social and indigenous organizations increasingly resort to protest and resistance actions based on ecocentric approaches. The struggles for the enforcement of the rights of Mother Earth refer to unresolved tensions in the construction of intercultural models of development and provide valuable reflections on the potential of this new institution to rethink the relationship between State, society, and nature.
Copyright (c) 2022 Cletus Gregor Barié https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The historical roots of our ecologic crisis
From the original in English White, L. (1967). “The historical roots of our ecologic crisis”. Science, 155(3767), 1203-1207. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.155.3767.1203. Translated into Spanish and published in Naturaleza y Sociedad. Desafíos Medioambientales with authorization from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). For personal and non-commercial use only. Any other reproduction, distribution, transmission, exhibition, publication, or dissemination of this article requires prior written authorization from AAAS. This translation is not an official translation made by the AAAS team, and AAAS has not reviewed its accuracy. For crucial matters, please refer to the official English version originally published by AAAS.
Copyright (c) 2022 Lynn White https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Brief History of National Parks in Colombia, 1948-2003
This article presents a history of Colombian national parks from their inception in 1948 to the beginning of this century. By untangling the past of conservation, it examines how the park system was formed and demonstrates that the current emphasis on biodiversity conservation is relatively recent. In the beginning, the creation of protected areas was erratic and driven by varied reasons that included scientific research, the preservation of imposing landscapes, and water conservation. This trend ended after growing international concern for the environment led to the creation of environmental institutions that served, from the 1970s, as a platform for the planned expansion of a system of national parks based mainly on ecological criteria. The institution responsible for the administration of national parks has suffered a chronic shortage of funds and personnel; in part, it has faced this situation by creating these parks, which at least confer legal protection on areas whose natural attributes are considered valuable. This strategy has provoked clashes with the populations living in these areas, who have seen their rights to use these resources affected. The institutional inability to enforce standards and, to a lesser extent, its attempts to work specifically with indigenous people have limited these tensions. Although national parks have not reached their ideal, they have fostered the idea that the nation has a natural heritage and significantly contributed to its conservation.
Copyright (c) 2022 Claudia Leal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Nature and society: a western culture dichotomy
The distinction between a purely social dimension and a natural one may seem problematic today and, for many, unsustainable and inconvenient. However, the notions of both society and nature and the distinction of a human dimension in opposition to a natural one are an essential part of Western culture. Declaring them outdated or ignoring them is not so simple. Firstly, it is a conception closely related to a religious tradition, typical of monotheistic traditions such as Christianity, which suppose a man created in the image and likeness of the creator and, therefore, clearly distinct from other creatures of the natural world. No less important, these dichotomies between the human and the natural, between the subject and the object of knowledge, constitute the fundamental pillars on which the very idea of modern science has been consolidated. Our revered modern culture and the fields of knowledge that today operate with the legitimacy of traditional scientific knowledge maintain and, we could say, need to maintain this duality. Portugués
Copyright (c) 2022 Mauricio Nieto Olarte https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Payments for environmental services (PES) for sustainable development in the major basin of the Coello river, Colombia
This article aims to present the case of payments for environmental services (PES) implemented with twenty-three families in the upper basin of the Coello river in the Anaime-Chilí Regional Natural Park in Colombia. This PES scheme is unique in the country—which makes it a national benchmark—as it is the first verifiable, incremental, and permanent voluntary PSA financed with public resources for water management in a context of watersheds highly deteriorated by anthropic and natural factors and with a high demand for environmental services. The success of this PES case is principally based on participation as a cross-cutting strategy from diagnosis to implementation. Likewise, the process is marked by the evolution of Colombian regulations, the institutional will of Cortolima, designation of permanent resources, and articulation with SDGs.
payments for environmental services (PES)
Copyright (c) 2022 Fredy Antonio Rincón Villanueva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Theoretical Sources and Foundations of the Rights of Nature
This article surveys some of the most important conceptual elements of the rights of nature and some key historical moments in their development. It roots the conceptual discussion in several cases examined more closely, including the Ecuadorian Constitution and the Te Urewera Act of Aotearoa New Zealand. Through this analysis, the article offers new clues towards a classification of different kinds of rights of nature, as well as an analysis of the importance of the level of the law (municipal, regional, national, etc.). It further discusses the issue of legal pluralism and the inherently political structure of the rights of nature. Taken together, these contributions provide an overview of the current state of rights of nature studies to date and important directions for future research.
Copyright (c) 2022 Mihnea Tănăsescu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Perspective on Forest Fires in the Querétaro-Hidalgo Semidesert, Mexico
A thematic review was performed on the role of fire in plant communities in Mexican arid zones, with an emphasis on the so-called Querétaro-Hidalgo semidesert. This region is a habitat of vast biological wealth—appreciable in its diversity of plant communities and endemism—and is considered within the Sacred Triangle UNESCO Global Geopark project in central Mexico. The resources used were meteorological databases, figures about forest fires in the country and the state of Querétaro, and bibliographic information. Fire does not fulfill a necessary or beneficial function for plant communities of arid and semiarid biomes whose own environment and structure do not facilitate their propagation. Nevertheless, occasional fires might severely damage plants, even though some of their adaptations protect against elevated temperatures. In Mexico, xerophilous scrubs are not part of the environments with a higher presence of hot spots, although they suffer losses by fire practically every year. Data from recent years show that forest fires in the municipalities that are part of the Querétaro-Hidalgo semidesert occur occasionally and do not affect large areas. Fire is naturally related to drought, but in the region studied, meteorological records are insufficient to determine a gradual reduction in the annual volume of precipitation. These circumstances require a strategy of knowledge, prevention, and management of the effects of fire in the Querétaro-Hidalgo semidesert, which can translate into better tools and decisions for its planning and management.
Copyright (c) 2023 Yazmin Hailen Ugalde de la Cruz, Beatriz Maruri Aguilar, María Magdalena Hernández Martínez, Gerardo de Jesús Aguirre Díaz, Emiliano Sánchez Martínez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Rights of Nature: their Conceptual Architecture
This article examines the conceptual architecture that gives shape to the rights of nature. To meet this objective, I divide the article into three parts. In the first part, I analyze the conceptual structures that shape three paradigmatic perspectives on the rights of nature: the Ecuadorian, the Bolivian and the New Zealander. In particular, I explore the following categories that constitute the backbone of the rights of nature: (i) juridified autonomous subject; (ii) cultural hybrid; (iii) sacred and eternal; and (iv) space inhabited (and constituted) by a set of interdependent organic and inorganic entities. In the second part of the article, and as a way to understand more clearly and precisely the idea of nature-subject, I analyze the idea of nature-object that emerges paradigmatically with the Bible, especially with the book of Genesis. The creation of the world by the Judeo-Christian divinity, as well as the expulsion of humans from the Garden of Eden, are central elements in the narrative that articulates the idea of nature-object in Western culture. The differences between the concepts of the Judeo-Christian nature-object and the culturally hybrid nature-subject will allow me to characterize and understand in a sharper way the constitutive dimensions of the notion of nature-subject that appears in late modernity. In the third part, I study the concept of nature subject and object as it appears in the poetry of Walt Whitman. Whitman’s work prototypically articulates one of the possible middle ground that exists between nature-object and nature-subject. His poetry offers a concept of nature that is both sacred person and human instrument. Nature in Whitman is anthropomorphized and spiritualized: it is mother and cosmic creative force. However, Whitman also interprets nature as a means to achieve a particular political project: the construction of a modern democracy in the New World.
Copyright (c) 2022 Daniel Bonilla Maldonado https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Anthropocene, food production, and new Anthropocene subjectivities in Latin America
Within the framework of what is referred to as the “Anthropocene” and its associated deep problems, the search for experiences and knowledges about ways of inhabiting and relating to the natural environment—alternatives to the hegemonic forms of capitalism that are more predatory to the environment—has acquired significant interest and importance. The question of food production is central in this field as it faces diverse issues, such as the expansion of agribusiness, extractivism, depletion of resources, displacement of populations, and food sovereignty, topics that turn particularly sensitive in Latin America. In this analytical framework, the present article proposes, from an anthropological perspective, the importance of reflecting on and studying in Latin America the experiences referred to here as new Anthropocene subjectivities as responses to pass through this new era.
Copyright (c) 2022 Luciano Martín Mantiñán https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Development of environmental identity based on the design of experiences in nature
The concern for collective cultural consciousness in times of environmental crisis calls us to reflect and work from different educational approaches in which theory and practice come into play to discover a horizon of meaning that contributes to meaningful and integrative learnings. Based on an experiential environmental conception, this research aimed to identify, through analyzing student representations, evidence of the development of their environmental identity. This process involved a focus group of adolescents who participated in educational processes in nature during 2018 and 2019 in the context of the CAS (Creativity, Activity, and Service) program at the Victoria School in Bogotá, Colombia. These representations constituted the analytical code that became the object of research. The research had a qualitative approach with a descriptive-analytical scope. The design was mainly phenomenological-hermeneutic. For information collection during the fieldwork, ethnographic techniques were used, such as direct observation, semi-structured interviews, participant observation (field log), surveys, reflections, and student drawings. This article presents relevant findings that clarify the importance of experiential education as a tool to design experiences in nature and their impact on developing the environmental identity of adolescents as an essential part of the educational curriculum.
Copyright (c) 2022 Andrea Flórez Varón, Felipe Cárdenas-Támara https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reforming agriculture and livestock policy instruments harmful to biodiversity in Colombia: A strategic objective
The growth of agriculture and its potentially detrimental impact on biodiversity depend, to a great extent, on policy instruments that stimulate increased production and improved well-being of the population in the countryside. Deforestation is one of the most generally recognized drivers of biodiversity loss. There is evidence that deforestation in Colombia is largely caused by the expansion of agriculture and livestock systems to new areas. However, during the formulation and implementation process of agriculture and livestock policy instruments, there is not enough understanding of the damage they can cause to biodiversity. The assessment of the potential benefits sought by these instruments generally does not consider the private and social costs resulting from the loss or deterioration of biodiversity. Thus, the obtention of benefits might sometimes irreparably damage biodiversity and society as a negative externality. Preventing this negative impact requires state intervention strategies that, beyond perceived private costs, allow an adequate recognition of the value of biodiversity for society and a coherent alignment of policies and policy instruments aimed at production, productivity, and income growth, with the objectives of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, within an approach of productive and regenerative agriculture. To this end, countries have committed to the Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and especially to Aichi Target 3, which seeks to phase out or reform incentives, including subsidies, harmful to biodiversity. Colombia has made some progress in this direction. Nevertheless, it still lacks a comprehensive action plan that analyzes the negative impact of agriculture and livestock policy instruments by using an appropriate methodology that allows adopting measures or regulations to prevent, correct, or eliminate possible damage to biodiversity. This article seeks to contribute to the discussion of a conceptual or analytical framework that allows an understanding of how agriculture relates to biodiversity and how policy instruments promoting agriculture can harm biodiversity; similarly, to identify the fundamental elements of an appropriate methodology or roadmap to incorporate the possible private or social costs that may be caused by a particular incentive to agriculture, as well as measures to prevent or eliminate these harms.
Copyright (c) 2022 Ricardo Torres C. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Measuring Gross Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Forest Fires in the Abrace o Pantanal Project Area
This study aims to evaluate the impact of the Abrace o Pantanal (Embrace the Pantanal) project on reducing carbon dioxide emissions caused by forest fires in the Pantanal biome in Brazil. The project consists of early detection and monitoring of wildfires using high-resolution cameras and satellite data, aided by the Pantera platform, which facilitates communication and the mobilization of firefighting brigades. The project covers 2.5 million hectares of the Pantanal biome, with five cameras installed in the Serra do Amolar region, an area severely affected by wildfires in 2020. To measure the project’s impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, we used the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines to calculate gross emissions from forest fires. We also analyzed burned area per year and land cover in the project area from 2016 to 2020 using MapBiomas Fire Collection 1 and Land Use and Land Cover Maps (Collection 6) from Mapbiomas. Our results show that the project reduced burned areas and emissions from fires, with highly discrepant results in 2020 due to catastrophic fires. To verify the concrete impacts of the project, we propose measuring the number of fire outbreaks detected, conducting interviews with firefighters, and comparing the results from 2021 to 2025 with the previous period. The average burned area and carbon dioxide emissions from 2016 to 2020 will be a reference value. Nevertheless, other factors may also affect the frequency and intensity of forest fires, such as climate change, demographic changes, and regulatory and political pressure. Therefore, it is impossible to establish a strict causal relationship between the project and the reduction of burned areas and emissions. In conclusion, the Abrace o Pantanal project has shown promising results in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires in the Pantanal biome. Continued monitoring and evaluation of the project’s impact is crucial to understanding the effectiveness of early detection and firefighting measures in preserving the Pantanal’s biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Community empowerment (through the appropriation of the technology) has played a major role in the development of the project and its overall impact.
Copyright (c) 2023 Miguel Zobaran Figueiredo, Osmar Rossetto Bambini Filho https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Rights of Nature and the Rights to Nature: Emerging Trends in International Law
Since the 2000s, there has been a growing recognition of the rights of nature at the domestic level. While the national examples on the rights of nature are increasing in number, the legal developments at the international level are few and far between. Domestic laws and jurisdictions are pushing to transform nature from an ‘object’ of regulation to an actor in itself endowed with legal personality. This increasing practice has influenced the emergence of a new approach in international law which considers that nature should be protected in its own right. Taking a comparative law approach, the paper examines the main features and limits of the recognition of the rights of nature in some domestic jurisdictions focusing on three key features, namely the legal personality of nature, the appointment of guardians and the legal standing before national courts. The second part focuses on the international dimension of the rights of nature analysing the synergies and possible tensions between the rights of nature and the right to nature, namely the human right to a healthy environment, taking into account some international instruments and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Copyright (c) 2022 Mara Tignino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Graffiti on the Colombian Legal Architecture. The emergence of Non-Human Subjects and the Rights of Nature.
The revolution of the rights of nature has presented itself as unstoppable and redefining the legal-political frameworks for understanding the relationship between human beings and nature in Latin America, and Colombia is no exception. This article, from the study of the Colombian case, reconstructs and analyzes the challenging moment that its legal system is going through and defends as a central idea that, far from exemplifying a scenario of radical transformation through law for the recognition of non-human subjects coming from nature, some fleeting emancipations have made their way through judicial decisions in our context, graffitiing the most classic structures of the legal architecture in a permanent struggle against stabilizing reactions.
Copyright (c) 2022 Tania Luna Blanco, David de la Torre Vargas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Inhabiting human-non-human worlds in the Santería-Ifá religious complex: Environmental relations and Colombia-Cuba-Mexico diasporic flows
Human-nature connections are a fundamental axis of praxis within Afro-inspired religions. In Afrodiasporic religious systems, such as the Santería-Ifá, Palo Monte, Vodou, Candomblé, Espiritismo Cruzao, among others, the natural world is inhabited and governed by divinized entities, be they called orichas, mpungos, loas, orixás, or other spiritual beings. Thus, being a person is understood in the framework of relations with the social, natural, and transcendent worlds. The balance of the phenomenal world we inhabit, and its maintenance, loss, or restoration, depends on how the links between worlds unfold and are faced. Therefore, this article aims to understand the way in which practitioners of Afro-Cuban religions in the diaspora—mainly Santería-Ifá—relate to the environment as a sacred area of daily life. To this end, the article uses an ethnographic and narrative approach; the information presented originates from fieldwork carried out between 2012 and 2022, especially in Havana (Cuba), Bogotá, and Cali (Colombia). The text contributes to understanding Afro-inspired religions in their second diasporas, to the analysis of the tensions produced in their insertion and rearrangement in new places of reception, and to the comprehension of these spiritualities based on discussions about the environment, which have not been sufficiently treated by the social and human sciences.
Copyright (c) 2022 Luis Carlos Castro Ramírez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
We are pleased to announce the publication of the third issue of Naturaleza y Sociedad. Desafíos Medioambientales. On this occasion, we offer a selection of six articles on various topics and academic dissemination content, with which we inaugurate the Dialogues section of the journal, whose purpose is to foster discussion around nature, the environment, and society among a broader audience. After reviewing the performance of the journal during what is now almost its first year of existence, we can optimistically tell you that, although its initial stage has required constant and strategic effort to ensure its permanence and begin to consolidate its path to positioning, we are doing well according to the objectives we set when it was founded.
Copyright (c) 2022 Martha Lux, Daniela Morales Becerra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0