The Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment provides an in-depth and accessible analysis and theorization of environmental issues in the region. It will help readers make connections between Latin American and other regions’ perspectives, experiences, and environmental concerns. Latin America has seen an acceleration of environmental degradation due to the expansion of resource extraction and urban areas. This Handbook addresses Latin America not only as an object of study, but also as a region with a long and profound history of critical thinking on these themes. Furthermore, the Handbook departs from most treatments on the topic by studying the environment as a social issue inextricably linked to politics, economy, and culture. The Handbook will be an invaluable resource for those wanting not only to understand the issues, but also to engage with ideas about environmental politics and social-ecological transformation. The Handbook covers a broad range of topics organized according to three areas: physical geography, ecology, and crucial environmental problems of the region. These are key theoretical and methodological issues used to understand Latin America’s ecosocial contexts, and institutional and grassroots practices related to more just and ecologically sustainable worlds. The Handbook will set a research agenda for the near future and provide comprehensive research on most subregions relative to environmental transformations, challenges, struggles and political processes. It stands as a fresh and much needed state of the art introduction for researchers, scholars, post-graduates and academic audiences on Latin American contributions to theorization, empirical research and environmental practices.

Drawing a transdisciplinary perspective, this book investigates the ways in which gender intersect with rebuilding and post-disaster recovery process. It shows how climate-induced disasters as well as the recent COVID-19 pandemic have impacted human lives and livelihoods across various global socioeconomic conditions, sociopolitical conditions, and the gendered relationships from the Global South perspective. From the real experiences of the people vulnerable to disasters, this book identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the post-disaster management in different contexts. The varied roles and responsibilities of men and women in different countries are also examined. It is often hard to understand how local and global politics are involved in humanitarian aid. This book also shows how lower-income and under-privileged communities are deprived of their right to access relief and rehabilitation due to political involvement. This text also highlights effective methods of policy implementation for achieving sustainable recovery from these humanitarian crises. It will assist strategy planners and policymakers to focus on gender-based barriers and political hindrances as well as geological and socioeconomic factors in planning inclusive post-disaster activities. The book will be of interest to researchers, postgraduate students and scholars in the fields of Sociology, Social Anthropology, Development Studies, Gender and Cultural Studies, Area Studies, Human Geography, Disaster Management, Forestry and Environmental Science.

Trabajo final de Tesis de Doctorado de Daniel Enrique Sardo. Universidad de Ferrara, Departamento de Economía, Desarrollo Urbano y del Territorio. Cursado entre el 2009 y febrero del 2012. Ferrara. Italia.

This book explores the interactions of local inhabitants and environmental systems in the Protected Natural Areas of Mexico. Its goal is to help understand how social groups contextualize ecological knowledge, how human activities contribute to modifying the environmental matrix, how cultural and economic aspects influence the use, management and conservation of their ecological environment, and how social phenomena are to be viewed against the backdrop of ecological knowledge. The book reviews the epistemological and historical bases of the socio-ecological relationship, and addresses the evolution of human-natural systems. From a methodological standpoint, it assesses the tools required for the integration of “human” and “natural” dimensions in the management of the environmental matrix. Further, in the case studies section, it reviews valuable recent experiences concerning the retro-interactions of local inhabitants with their environmental matrix. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for researchers and professionals all over the world, especially those working in Latin American countries.

La sostenibilidad, cualidad de lo sostenible, hace referencia a un proceso que puede alargarse en el tiempo. Cuando este proceso lo referimos a cuestiones socio-ecológicas, comprobamos cómo, desde hace ya largo tiempo, no son pocas las voces acreditadas que han puesto sobre aviso del progresivo deterioro ecológico y sus consecuencias perjudiciales para la vida humana. Nuestra obra parte de estas negatividades para repensar la idea de sostenibilidad en sus justos términos, y así dar cabida a una variedad de aportaciones que ayuden a restituimos dentro de los límites ecosistémicos.