Gabriel Eduardo Schütz

Ecosystem approaches and health in Latin America

Important environmental changes that have become increasingly pronounced in the last two centuries and that are seriously affecting human health require the development of integrated and participatory scientific approaches that can result in proposals for institutional and public policy changes. The purpose of this article is to offer some elements that can contribute to a line of reflection based on studies with ecosystem approaches in the Latin America context. The authors begin with a brief description of current scientific literature in public health that links ecosystems and human health in Latin America; next, they describe and compare the two prevailing trends that form the basis for the theoretical and methodological debates on ecosystem approaches; they also review the empirical research in Latin America or concerning Latin American countries in which an ecosystem approach has been adopted. The results point to limited scientific output on the interface between ecosystems and human health; aspects involving public participation and implementation of institutional changes and public policies are still in a rather incipient stage.

Principales marcos conceptuales aplicados para la evaluación de la salud ambiental mediante indicadores en América Latina y el Caribe

The establishment of environmental health indicators for assessing the adverse effects of environmental changes on the populations health and quality of life is, as yet, a goal that has not been fully reached in Latin America and the Caribbean. As such, the United Nations Environment Program and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have convened Regions institutions and experts to develop a comprehensive method for assessing environmental health. This paper evaluates several methodologies, comprehensive or otherwise, for assessing health and the environment, and describes the frameworks that have historically undergirded the key methods that have either structured or generated the environmental health indicators being used in Latin America and the Caribbean. The recurring, methodological limitations were identified: (a) relying heavily on secondary data, which points out the need for technological infrastructure that is rarely available in Latin America and the Caribbean today; and (b) a lack of clear criteria for developing inclusive tools that would facilitate the discussion of environmental health issues at the grass-roots level. Despite the progress made by the field of environmental health with regard to understanding its interdisciplinary complexities, intersectoral operations must be improved to favor open communication and implementation of integrated policies on environmental and health.

Environmental sustainability and human well-being indicators from the ecosystem perspective in the Middle Paraíba Region, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil

Population urbanization is a global trend, and socioeconomic activities in urban areas cause changes that affect the environment and human well-being beyond the specific territories, thus connecting urban to non-urban areas and creating city-regions. This articles objective, from an ecosystem perspective, is to gather a set of information on municipalities (counties) belonging to the Middle Paraíba River Valley Region in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in order to identify conditions and trends in environmental sustainability and well-being. The conceptual framework adopted here was that of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, identifying direct and indirect driving forces that affect human well-being, with health as a component of the latter. We used a set of available public-domain data and information sources on the municipalities, grouped by socioeconomic and environmental conditions and the soundness of institutional structural well-being for sustainability. The indicators used here point to a process of degradation in the ecosystem services that has still not been prevented by the prevailing institutional structure, thus increasing constraints on well-being and the spread of socio-environmental impacts in the middle and long terms.A urbanizacao da populacao e uma tendencia mundial e as atividades socio-economicas nestas areas resultam em alteracoes que afetam o meio ambiente e o bem-estar humano para alem de seus territorios, conectando areas urbanas com nao-urbanas, constituindo cidades-regioes. O objetivo deste artigo e, em perspectiva ecossistemica, reunir um conjunto de informacoes sobre municipios integrantes da Regiao do Medio Paraiba, Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, de modo a indicar condicoes e tendencias da sustentabilidade ambiental e do bem-estar. A estrutura conceitual adotada teve como referencia a adotada no Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, identificando forcas motrizes diretas e indiretas que afetam o bem-estar humano, sendo a saude um componente do mesmo. Utilizou-se um conjunto de fontes de dados e informacoes sobre os municipios disponiveis e de acesso publico agrupadas em condicoes socio-economicas, ambientais e de bem-estar estrutural institucional para a sustentabilidade. Os indicadores utilizados apontam para um processo de degradacao dos servicos dos ecossistemas que ainda nao encontram barreiras suficientes na estrutura institucional vigente, potencializando restricoes ao bem-estar e ampliacao dos impactos socio-ambientais no medio e longo prazos.

Perspectivas da participação do público através de ONGs para a gestão ambiental na América Latina

This article analyzes some perspectives and limitations of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as formal mechanism for citizen’s participation in local and regional environment management in Latin America. First, the ethical basis of the independent voluntary work in underdevelope d countries democracies are analyzed in relation with the policy-maker decision process in the framework of economical globalization, mainly in public health and environment policies. Secondly, it is displayed a qualitative analysis of demographic, social, economical and environmental data that correlate the spatial references of the NGOs with the paradoxical social reality in Latin American. This paper tries to show that some governmental and corporate sectors stimulates the substitution of solidarity for philanthropic in the social politics and also this trend is coherent with the global reorganization of the capitalism. Qualitative analysis shows that mostly of the NGOs do not appear and prosper in poverty areas, but in the rich areas with high political and economical power concentration and correlate to Human Development Index. In this context, it is necessary to make a conceptual differentiation between civil society and the third sector, usually wrongly identified as synonymous. Finally, conclusions seek to lead on a policy-makers moral reflection about a political model that encourages no-political voluntary work instead of State responsibility in social areas, especially in public health and environmental management.