摘要：Sustainability requires a combination of meaningful co-production of locally relevant solutions, synthesis of insights gained across regions, and increased cooperation between science,policy and practice. The Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) has beencoordinating Place-Based Social-Ecological Sustainability Research (PBSESR) across the globeand emphasizes the need for regional scientific nodes from diverse biocultural regions toinform sustainability science and action. In this paper, we assess the strengths of the PBSESRcommunities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). We provide an overview of PBSESRliterature associated with this region and highlight the achievements of two prominentregional networks: The Social-Ecological Systems and Sustainability Research Network fromMexico (SocioEcoS) and the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studiesfrom Uruguay (SARAS Institute). Finally, we identify the potential in these nodes to constitutea regional PECS node in Latin America and discuss the capacity needed to ensure suchfunction. The results of the literature review show that while still loosely interconnectedacross the region, networks play key roles in connecting otherwise cloistered teams and weillustrate how the SocioEcoS network (focusing on transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge towards sustainability) and the SARAS Institute (focusing on innovative approaches forlooking at complex social-ecological problems, rooted in slow science and arts) operate askey connectors in the region. We conclude that these organizations combined can embodya Latin American node for PECS, and would thereby not only contribute to regional but alsoglobal capacities to advance the sustainability agenda.
