We are pleased to welcome the following members who joined our working group this quarter:

Andres Guhl, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Radost Stanimirova, Boston University, United States
Luigi Piemontese, Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University, Sweden
Sacha Siani, Indiana University, United States
Pablo Gonzalez-Moctezuma, University of British Columbia, Canada
Molly Polk, University of Texas at Austin, United States
Graziano Ceddia, CDE, University of Bern, Switzerland
Rayna Benzeev, University of Colorado Boulder, United States
Claudia Parra Paitan, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
Leonardo Vargas, Instituto Humboldt, Colombia
Melanie Kolb, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
Andrea Pacheco, iDiv, Germany

Visit the Working Group’s homepage to learn more about all of the group’s members.

Our kickstart webinar was held in December 2020 with participants from at least 16 different countries. We heard about the concept of Socio-Ecological Land Systems (SELS) and a novel spatial characterization of SELS for South America, also discussed expectations for the Working Group and upcoming agenda. Thank you very much to those who attended. It was very fulfilling to see you all with such a vibrant energy, and we anticipate great things will emerge from our interactions. Did you miss it? No worries, you can still watch the recording! And don’t forget to check out the interactive board with participants’ interventions.

As a WG we would like to promote within our community a collaborative attitude towards research data. This may include the exchange of information about relevant datasets (availability, similar alternatives, experiences using them, etc.), making their own data usable for further studies (whenever appealing), or even organizing joint efforts to bridge key data gaps in a data repository.

We already analyzed alternative options and generated a first sketch for such a collaborative action, but we want to make the most out of it and have you help us! This project is in the draft stage and would very much benefit from fresh and diversified opinions. We are recruiting people eager to make this happen to constitute the DATA REPOSITORY TASK FORCE. If you are one of those please let us know. Also don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any insights on the topic with no further commitment. Take a look at the sketch version of the Collaborative data catalogue LASELS WG and get inspired!

March 23, 2021
15:00-16:00 Central European Time

We would like to invite you to our second WG webinar on March 23rd from 3 to 4 pm CET. Join us for an exciting discussion on the relationship between international trade and land use change. First Eugenio Arima will present his research on “EU-Mercosur trade agreement: are models wrong in predicting low deforestation in Brazil?”, followed by Laura Kehoe and Tiago Reis presenting their work on “Stickiness and impacts of trade between the EU and Mercosur Bloc”.

May 5, 2021
15:00-17:00 Central European Time

In this event we would like to interact and find common topics of interest that could start some collaborations within this Working Group. The structure of this event would be a mixture of plenary sessions and breakout rooms. We will precede the event by a questionnaire to learn which are your interests and in which potential groups you would fit. 

May 27, 2021
15:00-17:00 Central European Time

For our third Webinar in May 2021, two speakers will be presenting their work and some novel ideas on the topic:  “Capitalism and trade in the development of South America”. Ignacio Gasparri will talk about “Trade, development and poverty in South America”, followed by Graziano Ceddia’s presentation on “The ecology of capitalism: learning from Gran Chaco”.