People and Nature Lab Seminar
The People and Nature Lab invites you to a joint seminar with talks from Prof Patricia Balvanera Levy and Prof Miguel Martinez Ramos,
Researchers from the Institute for Research on Ecosystems and Sustainability at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
People and Nature Lab Seminar
10 Mar 2025, 14:00 – 15:00
Prof Patricia Balvanera Levy
Talk Title: “Key tools for social-ecological transformations towards sustainability: insights from global and place-based initiatives”
ABSTRACT: Transformative changes, system wide reorganization of the structure and dynamics of social-ecological systems are urgently needed to address the current environmental and societal crisis. In this talk I will reflect on two transformative social-ecological research initiatives: the global assessment of the diverse values of nature by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and the transdisciplinary project Cocina Colaboratorio, that gathers diverse inhabitants of three territories, designers, artists, communicators, and academics around the table to co-design more just and sustainable local food systems. I will highlight key tools that I have found especially useful for those two endeavors: caring for the team of collaborators, conceptual frameworks, context tailored methods, audience specific impacts, and deconstruction of coloniality and power relations. I will discuss their relevance for linking place-based social ecological research to global sustainability.
Prof Miguel Martinez-Ramos
Talk Title: Socio-Ecological Drivers of Forest Succession in Human-Modified Tropical Landscapes”
ABSTRACT: Although secondary forest succession is often described as a predictable, directional process of vegetation change following disturbance, long-term studies reveal significant variability in successional trajectories, even within the same locality under similar climate and soil conditions. This presentation will present a conceptual framework that examines the proximate and underlying biophysical and societal drivers influencing the variability of secondary tropical forest trajectories in abandoned agricultural fields. The framework is assessed through studies conducted by the international network 2ndFor and a long-term research program in southeastern Mexico.
For any queries, to get the Teams link, and if you want to meet the speaker, please contact r.raupp@ucl.ac.uk
Professor at the Institute for Ecosystems and Sustainability Research
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
Patricia Balvanera is a professor at the Institute for Ecosystems and Sustainability Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She was trained in biology, ethnobotany and ecology and has led several inter- and trans-disciplinary initiatives at global to local scale. She has been member of the scientific committee of the Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society of Future Earth since its creation. She was the co-chair of the Assessment on the Diverse Values of Nature for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. She is co-editor in chief of the journal Ecology and Society.
Senior Researcher at the Institute for Ecosystems and Sustainability Research
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
Prof Martinez-Ramos holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and is a senior researcher at its Institute for Research on Ecosystems and Sustainability at UNAM. He has served as President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, the Botanical Society of Mexico, and the Mexican Scientific Society of Ecology. Awarded the 2024 UNAM National University Prize in Natural Sciences, he is also an Honorary Fellow of ATBC. His research spans population and community ecology, forest management, and forest succession and restoration. He has published over 220 scientific papers, supervised 80 students, and mentored 11 postdoctoral researchers.