Workshops > Courses of action, bioculturality and life webs: analysis of socio-environmental processes in wetlands for the design of environmental public policies

 COURSES OF ACTION, BIOCULTURALITY AND LIFE WEBS :

ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES IN WETLANDS FOR THE DESIGN OF ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLIC POLICIES

 Thursday, October 2nd from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Centre des Colloques, room 3.03

Organization : Lidia Ivonne Blasquez-Martinez (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Unidad Lerma) and Alexandra Angéliaume-Descamps (Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès).

Speakers: Alvaro Martín Gutiérrez-Malaxechebarría (Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia), Agathe Alexandre (CREDA, Sorbonne Nouvelle), Víctor Manuel Reyes Gomez (El Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL)), Luis Carlos Bravo Peña (Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, México), Emilia Lara Walle (Université Toulouse II Jean Jaurès), Jerson-Leonardo González-Umaña (Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas), Perline Lafoux-Daude (Observatorio Participativo Socioecológico (OPSE Cuauhtémoc))

Abstract :

Historically, environmental public policies have been shaped on the basis of an economic and anthropocentric paradigm, which sees ecosystems as storehouses of resources whose valorisation requires their extraction, transformation and marketing, implying that their deterioration can only be mitigated (Gudynas, 2004). Nowadays, this paradigm is being questioned by the worsening environmental crises and the complexity of the challenges we face as a society.

At the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2021, the emphasis on the triple global crisis, including climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, highlights the risk of irreversible change in our relationship with the natural world (UNEA, 2022). Wetlands are of vital importance to the balance of the planet's functional cycles. They absorb carbon, help mitigate climate change and stabilize coastal lines, thus preventing natural disasters such as flooding and the impact of hurricanes. They represent an emblematic example of the complexity of governance of the commons, as they are places of incessant flows of water, energy and life, and therefore impossible to enclose (Ostrom, 2000). Throughout human history, wetlands have been essential to the prosperity of societies because of their abundance of food, water, materials and means of transport. According to the United Nations, wetlands cover only 6% of the earth's surface (UN, 2022). Despite their crucial role in human and non-human survival, wetlands are under serious threat, as they are often perceived by public administrations as "empty" spaces suitable for urbanization.

Through an understanding of the socio-environmental processes specific to wetlands and from interdisciplinary theoretical-methodological perspectives, this panel aims at exploring the key elements for building new environmental policies instruments that recover not only acamedic knowledge, but also the diversity of biocultural practices and knowledge that have accompanied and shaped both wetlands and societies.