In Latin America countries, competition for access to natural resources among different groups has been a major reason for the outburst of violence over the last decades. One of the main aims of the political ecology concerns the understanding of the environmental conditions that can underlies…

A ‘pink tide’ swept over Latin America following Hugo Chávez's 1998 election to the presidency in Venezuela, bringing to power multiple left or center-left governments. What possibilities for and obstacles to social change were presented by their having attained power through the ballot box…

Trade liberalization has greatly accelerated the volume of traded agricultural products in past decades. As land resources become more limited in some countries, international trade plays an important role in compensating for land scarcity in these countries. This paper aims to measure and…

Habitat models constitute useful instruments for understanding species-habitat interactions and can constitute helpful conservation tools. The Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest (UPAF) of South America still holds the world’s southernmost jaguar (Panthera onca) population. Our aims were: (i) to test…

In the Andean region of South America, understanding communities’ water perceptions is particularly important for water management as many rural communities must decide by themselves if and how they will protect their micro-watersheds and distribute their water. In this study we examine how…

The food security crisis, international "land grabs,? and new markets for environmental services have drawn renewed attention to the role of natural resource competition in the livelihoods of the rural poor. While significant empirical research has focused on diagnosing the links between…