Abstract
Important environmental changes that have become increasingly pronounced in the last two centuries and that are seriously affecting human health require the development of integrated and participatory scientific approaches that can result in proposals for institutional and public policy changes. The purpose of this article is to offer some elements that can contribute to a line of reflection based on studies with ecosystem approaches in the Latin America context. The authors begin with a brief description of current scientific literature in public health that links ecosystems and human health in Latin America; next, they describe and compare the two prevailing trends that form the basis for the theoretical and methodological debates on ecosystem approaches; they also review the empirical research in Latin America or concerning Latin American countries in which an ecosystem approach has been adopted. The results point to limited scientific output on the interface between ecosystems and human health; aspects involving public participation and implementation of institutional changes and public policies are still in a rather incipient stage.
Highlights
Important environmental changes that have become increasingly pronounced in the last two centuries and that are seriously affecting human health require the development of integrated and participatory scientific approaches that can result in proposals for institutional and public policy changes
The authors begin with a brief description of current scientific literature in public health that links ecosystems and human health in Latin America; they describe and compare the two prevailing trends that form the basis for the theoretical and methodological debates on ecosystem approaches; they review the empirical research in Latin America or concerning Latin American countries in which an ecosystem approach has been adopted
The report of the World Resources Institute (WRI) 1 for 2000-2001 illustrates this process, pointing to the need to adopt an ecosystem approach premised on the capacity to contribute to: (1) the combination of diverse types of information that allows a careful weighing of the trade offs among various ecosystem goods and services and among environmental, political, social, and economic goals; (2) developing wiser policies and more effective institutions to improve ecosystem management; and (3) public participation in ecosystem management
Summary
Important environmental changes that have become increasingly pronounced in the last two centuries and that are seriously affecting human health require the development of integrated and participatory scientific approaches that can result in proposals for institutional and public policy changes. The report of the World Resources Institute (WRI) 1 for 2000-2001 illustrates this process, pointing to the need to adopt an ecosystem approach premised on the capacity to contribute to: (1) the combination of diverse types of information that allows a careful weighing of the trade offs among various ecosystem goods and services and among environmental, political, social, and economic goals; (2) developing wiser policies and more effective institutions to improve ecosystem management; and (3) public participation ( that of local communities) in ecosystem management Another major initiative is the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment program 2, conducted by the United Nations, launched in 2001 and with results published in 2005. A survey of Latin American public health journals available on SciELO (http://wwww.scielosp.org) up to 2004, using “ecossistema” and
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