SUSTAINABLE PATHWAYS
FOR NATURAL RESOURCE INDUSTRIES
Funders
Partners
Events & Publications
4S and ESOCITE Joint Meeting 2014
Participation at the Meeting "Ciencia en Contexto(s): Sur(es) y Norte(s), 20-23 August 2014, in Buenos Aires.
Press Release
Article on costs and benefits of agricultural biotechnology R&D policy, published at the Argentinean newspaper Página 12 on 26 May 2014.
Seminar at Globelics
Participation at the seminar "From resource based to knowledge based economic development", 26-27 March 2014, in Copenhagen.
Workshop with small producers in Argentina
Workshop to support technological linkages with small producers in Argentina, 26-27 November 2013, in Buenos Aires
Documentary
Promotional events of the project's video-documentary "Sustainable Development"
STEPS Summer School
Participation in STEPS Centre Summer School, 13-24 May 2013, in IDS.
FETECSO 2012
Presentation of the project by Anabel Marin at Feria de Tecnologías Sostenibles (FETECSO) 2012 on 1 October 2012, in Buenos Aires.
Press Release
Article on Argentina's new agreement with Monsanto published at the Argentinean newspaper Página 12 on 3 September 2012.
Project: "Opening Up Natural Resource-Based Industries for Innovation: Exploring New Pathways for Development in Latin America"
Duration: 24 months (2010-2012)
Description: Natural Resource industries, such as agriculture and mining, are generally considered to make little contribution to development objectives due in part to the diffusion within these industries of practices and technologies that generate economic, social and environmental problems (e.g. commodity dependency, social inequality, environmental degradation) and are unsustainable in the long-term. This research project studies the emergence of projects (referred to as transformative alternatives or niches), which have the potential of changing problematic practices. It tries to identify and explore different transformative alternatives according to three types of transformative pathways (path-repairing, path-breaking, and path-creating), within selected industries in the region: the agricultural sector in Argentina, the exploitation of the Amazonian biodiversity in Brazil, and copper mining in Chile. The main interest is to understand how developed different types of alternatives are, the barriers to their expansion, scaling up and replication, and their potential in transforming the dominant pathways of exploitation so that NR industries can best serve economic (resilience), social (justice) and environmental (sustainability) priorities in LAC.
A project funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in partnership with Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación (Cenit), Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos (CGEE), and Centro Intelis de análisis de la Innovación y Emprendimiento from Universidad de Chile.
A major environmental challenge in the Amazon [Photo by Mark Moffett]
Towards a more sustainable agriculture [Photo from National Geographic]
Natural Resources in Latin America
Agriculture
The expansion of industrial agriculture and soybean monoculture in Argentina pose a significant challenge for the long-term sustain-ability of natural resources. The research in this area focuses on alternative production systems with a view to support a transition towards more inclusive and sustainable practices. Among the more promising systems are different kind of co-operatives of producers that incorporate objectives to improve and diversify their production in the medium and long-term.
The Amazon
Brazil's rapid economic growth is coming at the cost of the rich ecosystems and biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest. This project explores alternatives to road-logging-livestock-crops activities in this region, such as sustainanable forest management and the development of the cosmetics industry based on Amazonian natural resources.
Copper Mining
About one quarter of the world's known cooper resources are in South America. This resource accounted for more than half of Chilean total exports in 2010, illustrating the importance of this industry as an major economic engine in Chile. This research looks at how technology and innovation play an essential role in transforming this sector and addressing a broad range of mining-related sustainability issues.