Dr Séverine Deneulin and Professor Diego Sánchez-Ancochea
With other contributors joining online from Latin America

Can policies achieve both greater social equity and better environmental care, or do they often pursue one at the detriment of the other? Could the pursuit of greater environmental protection be achieved without undermining the livelihoods and wellbeing of some people? Under what conditions can these two objectives be found in a ‘win–win’ situation?

Based on research recently published in a special issue of Oxford Development Studies, this seminar explores the conditions under which concerns for social equity and care for the earth can be addressed jointly at a micro-territorial level, drawing on case studies from Latin America. Its main findings are that the objectives of social equity and care for the earth are in synergy when they are mobilized jointly by citizens, and when concern for outcomes and inclusive processes go hand-in-hand.

Case studies include environmental risk exposure in the Riachuelo River Basin in Buenos Aires, environmental governance over the Rio Lempa watershed at the Salvadoran-Honduran-Guatemalan border, water use in Central and Patagonian Chile with regard to agriculture and dam, conservation of the Amazon forest at the triple border between Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, and forest and biodiversity conservation in Southern Mexico.

This will be followed by a wider discussion on the relationships between inequality reduction and environmental protection.