ENGOV · Environmental Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean:Developing Frameworks for Sustainable and Equitable Natural Resource Use

The central objective of this project is to understand how environmental governance is shaped in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and to develop a new analytical framework for environmental governance in the region. The project will focus on both formal and informal practices of management around renewable and non-renewable natural resources, how they are perceived, contested and reshaped in the context of rapid and complex social, political, economic and environmental changes at local, national, and global levels. In order to do so, the concept of environmental governance provides a comprehensive approach linking theory and practice.Latin American and Caribbean countries have come to occupy a key position in the global debate on environmental governance, and the climate crisis has further stressed the international importance of the region. This project will focus on the obstacles and possibilities for sustainable production systems that can generate both economic development and a more equitable distribution of benefits in order to decrease poverty, exclusion, and environmental degradation in LAC. It will depart from the region’s experience with environmental governance, analyse recent initiatives, and explore options for institutional innovation and inclusive approaches towards natural resource use and management. The project will build on available ‘knowledges’ and generate new information which will be widely disseminated among all relevant user groups (social movements, academics, state institutions and private sector) to support them in developing future strategies and activities. The project will use multi-disciplinary and multi-scalar methods, including stakeholders in all the project phases to discuss and compare contexts and outcomes in different LAC regions, and to develop innovative tools for learning processes and communicating its results.