Land use under climate change – co-learning with Latin America by combining natural and social science perspectives across spatio-temporal scales

1 Land use under climate change – co-learning with Latin America by combining natural and social science perspectives across spatiotemporal scales Report on interdisciplinary research symposium held at Historische Sternwarte, 18-24 August 2025, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany Published at Zenodo: 10.5281/zenodo.17727822 Marcela Ibanez¹, Nell Dana Richter², Zahra Dehghan Ashkezari³, Rene Heim⁴, María Fernanda Martínez Gálvez⁵, Ernesto Reiter⁵, Simone Pfeiffer⁶, Dolors Armenteras Pascual⁷, Hermann Behling⁸, Christian Bunn9, Lisa Feist⁴, Ricardo Göhler⁴, Axel Gualdoni Becerra¹0, Nathaly Guerrero6, 10, Claudia Heindorf11, Stefan Hohnwald4, Jonas Kley12, Carlos Larrea13, Laura Müller14,15, Carolina Ocampo-Ariza16, Jose M. Ortega Balladares17, Yilly Pacheco18, Birgitta Putzenlechner19, Patrick Roberts20, Dominik Seidel21, Samuel Siewers22, Meike Wollni11, Elisabeth Dietze⁴,* 1. Department of Economics, University of Göttingen, Germany 2. Economics and Agricultural Sciences, University of Göttingen, Germany 3. Building and Architectural Engineering, Polytechnic University of Milan; now at University of Göttingen, Germany 4. Institute of Geography, University of Göttingen, Germany 5. Plant Ecology and Ecosystem Research, University of Göttingen, Germany 6. Campus Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, Germany 7. Instituto de Ciencias Forestales (ICIFOR-INIA), Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain 8. Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, University of Göttingen, Germany 9. International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Palmira, Colombia 10. Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography, University of Göttingen, Germany 11. Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems, University of Göttingen and University of Kassel, Germany 12. Geoscience Center, University of Göttingen, Germany 13. Social and Environmental Research Unit, Simon Bolivar Andean University, Quito, Ecuador 14. Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany 15. Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, Germany 16. Ecological Networks, TU Darmstadt, Germany 17. Department of Ecosystem Modelling, University of Göttingen, Germany 18. Department of International Economic and Environmental Law, University of Göttingen, Germany 19. Competence Center Landscape Resilience, University of Göttingen, Germany 20. Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany 21. Department of Spatial Structures and Digitization of Forest, University of Göttingen, Germany 22. German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg, Germany 23. Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Göttingen, Germany * Corresponding author: Elisabeth Dietze, [email protected], Marcela Ibanez, marcela[email protected]-goettingen.de 2 “Problems can never be solved with the same mindset that created them” (A. Einstein) 1. Introduction Anthropogenic climate change affects the entire planet, causing locally variable rates of warming and an overall increase in extreme weather events (IPCC, 2019). This poses a severe challenge to how we use our land to sustain our livelihoods when temperatures, water availability, and seasonality are changing. Land use and climate change are closely associated, both on a local scale where a change from forest to agricultural land influences microclimate and water cycling, and on the global scale where land cover interacts with climate via the Earth‘s energy balance, water, and biogeochemical cycles (Lawrence et al., 2022). Latin America, despite its small share of the Earth's surface (16%), is highly sensitive to climate change (Reyes et al., 2017), because it hosts 40% of the world's biodiversity and 23% of global forests (BMZ, 2023), including an important "tipping element" of the Earth system (Rockström et al., 2024): the Amazon Basin that contains more than half of the world’s remaining tropical rainforests (NOAA, 2021). Other important forest ecosystems in the region include the Atlantic Forest, the Valdivian temperate forest, and the Dry Chaco Forest (WWF, 2023). Latin American forest systems are vital for biodiversity, carbon storage, and climate regulation (FAO, 2020). However, deforestation, forest degradation, and fragmentation due to other types of land use remain pressing challenges. Between 1990 and 2020, the region’s total forest area decreased by about 12% (≈138 million ha, ECLAC, 2022). Brazil alone lost approximately 92 million ha, accounting for roughly two-thirds of total regional forest loss. Hence, understanding how to prevent further forest loss, restore degraded forests, and promote sustainable land-use patterns is a crucial policy objective (Sanz, et al., 2017; Lapola et al., 2023). The implementation of a sound forest and land-use policy is particularly relevant in the light of climate change. On the one hand, preventing forest loss and restoring forests can help mitigate climate change by providing carbon storage and sustaining climate regulation (Ontl, 2020). On the other hand, climate change might pose a threat to forest conservation. For instance, climate change might trigger biome change and the expansion of the agricultural frontier, a primary cause of deforestation (Lee et al., 2020). Extreme heat, drought, and forest degradation could create more flammable environments, increasing the risk of severe forest fires (Jones et al., 2022; Armenteras et al., 2021; Sayedi et al., 2024). In an interconnected world, where both natural and social factors influence local land use, it is essential to combine interand transdisciplinary perspectives to achieve sustainable land use in the face of these climate changes (Deutsch et al., 2025). From a Latin American perspective, the colonization of the Americas by European imperial powers represented a major threshold in land use in the region, which had ramifications for global social inequalities and subsequent sustainability challenges (Roberts et al., 2023). This process not only caused a loss of indigenous lives, as a result of the introduction of diseases, murder, and forced relocation (e.g., Koch et al., 2019), increased resource extraction, and impacted cultural identities, but also transformed landuse patterns at local and global scales (Kaltmeier et al., 2024). Global economic dynamics contributed to modifying diverse South American forests to pine and Eucalyptus plantations, making landscapes more flammable under climate change (Armenteras & de la Barrera, 2023), as shown also for other areas such as Central Europe (e.g., Dietze et al., 2019). Interdisciplinary research that combines natural and social sciences across spatial and temporal scales can inform 3 land-use policy by generating data and analyses that support sustainable land use, forest management, and climate change adaptation and mitigation (Gomes et al., 2020). Recent efforts to integrate local, especially indigenous, knowledge systems with scientific evidence highlight that co-design and co-creation of knowledge with, and guided by, local expertise is essential in order to shift mindsets on knowledge generation (Gordon et al., 2023) that can inform sustainable land uses. The University of Göttingen is particularly well-equipped to contribute to the generation of scientific knowledge on sustainable land use under climate change in the Americas, thanks to its strong research groups working in the region across the natural and social sciences. The university has well-established groups working on forestry, biodiversity, ecological systems, geography, agricultural sciences, and economic, juristic and social sciences. It also combines efforts across faculties in Campus Centers such as the Campus Center of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use (CBL). This expertise is particularly relevant as the university is an internationally recognized hub for research on (subtropical and tropical) land use and sustainable development with a large community of early and mid-career researchers from the region, established connections and expertise in the Global South (Gérard, et al., 2017, Husmann, 2022) and already contributing to empower the Global South (Ocampo-Ariza et al., 2023). To generate a discussion on how scientists at Göttingen University can contribute to generating relevant research-based knowledge on Land use under climate change in Latin America, we held a symposium from 18 to 24 August 2025 in Göttingen. The workshop enabled us to build a new network that integrates Göttingen-based Latin American experts and local knowledge holders, including indigenous leaders, to learn from and with Latin America. This report presents and evaluates the workshop's principal findings and achievements. After this introduction, the report presents the objectives of the symposium. Section three introduces the working group and presents the main topics and research methods. An overview of the discussions on challenges and opportunities for collaboratively promoting sustainable land use and climate change adaptation in Latin America is presented in sections four and five. We conclude the report with a discussion on the future directions of work. 2. Objectives The primary objective of the workshop was to identify opportunities for conducting collaborative research on Land Use under Climate Change in Latin America. To achieve this, the workshop aimed at: • Introducing the research groups working or interested in working on Latin America. • Collecting the perspectives on the relevance of the topic from the viewpoint of local experts working in the region. • Identifying topics of common interest and evaluating the gaps in scientific knowledge. • Identifying opportunities for interdisciplinary work and planning strategies to overcome challenges. • Presenting opportunities for funding for researchers at different stages of their careers. • Generating a conversation with the general public on the relevance of the topic and policy options. 4 • Generating an active network of researchers to increase the visibility of the topic, generate a platform to disseminate work, and open a space for interdisciplinary work. To achieve this, we invited University of Göttingen members broadly via the University Newsletter and invited Dolors Armenteras Pascual (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, now: at ICIFOR-INIA, CSCI, Spain), Carmen Candelo Reina (WWF Colombia), Carlos Larrea Maldonaldo (Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar, Ecuador) and Patrick Roberts (MPI of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany) to contribute their expertise and advise throughout the Symposium. Please find the full program appended below (Appendix A). 3. Working group The workshop connected an interand transdisciplinary community of students, scientists, and engaged experts dedicated to understanding the complex dynamics of land use in Latin America in times of climate change. Based primarily in Göttingen, Germany, symposium participants brought diverse perspectives from the natural, social sciences and the humanities, bridging ecological, social, political, and economic dimensions. We recognized that land-use change is both, a biophysical process strongly related to climate change, and also deeply embedded in societal structures, power relations, and cultural contexts. This complexity demands a truly interand transdisciplinary approach, one that not only bridges academic disciplines but also fosters dialogue between scientific research and societal actors, with a particular focus on the societal context, knowledge, perspectives, and demands of local communities. Accordingly, we refer to “interdisciplinary”, when integrating approaches from the social and natural sciences, and to “transdisciplinary”, when including non-academic stakeholders in the research process. The group of 40 symposium participants ranged from students and early-career researchers to established professionals across multiple fields and disciplines. Figure 1 presents the distribution of expertise and research fields of the group members. While students and early career researchers have a predominant focus on natural sciences, established researchers are equally distributed in social, natural and interdisciplinary research. This structure creates a good base for collaborative research that combines multiple areas of expertise. The group integrates a diverse set of methods and approaches, based mostly on fieldwork, laboratory analysis, surveys, interviews, and data analysis, as well as remote sensing, modeling, and programming. These approaches are applied across a broad range of more focused research, including palaeo-environmental reconstruction, sedimentological and ecological analysis, biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring, socio-economic experiments, and policy analysis. As presented in Figure 2, the research of the network spans a wide spatial distribution in Latin American countries, targeting local to regional and continental scales. Agroecosystems and rainforests are the biomes that receive the greatest attention, followed by temperate/highelevation and tropical forests and drylands (Fig. 2 left). Participants are currently connected to 50 partner institutions across Latin America, spanning more than 10 ecosystem provinces (Fig. 2 right). These institutions include universities, NGOs, government institutes, and international organizations, offering broad opportunities to future interand transdisciplinary collaboration. 5 Figure 1: Visual representation of the career stage, discipline and field of expertise of the symposium participants, now LALUC members (as of August 2025). Discipline categories in green based on German Research Foundation (DFG); Field categories in blue based on the UNESCO ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education & Nomenclature) hierarchical systems. Figure 2: Left: Visual representation of expertise from symposium members that are now part of the LALUC network. Shown are percentages of the total recorded biomes from a survey of expertise among the symposium participants (n = 33). Right: Map of Latin America indicating existing cooperation network between symposium members and Latin American institutions. Different colours indicate the different neotropic provinces (Morrone et al., 2022). Numbers indicate clusters of network partner institutions. 6 4. Topics for collaborative work During the workshop in a “World Cafe”-type of methodology, we discussed three main questions: 1. Which are relevant topics related to Land Use under Climate Change in Latin America on which we could work collaboratively? 2. Which are the research gaps we could fill in those areas? 3. Which interdisciplinary alliances could enrich the research on this topic? The exercise allowed us to prioritize four research topics, i.e., 1. ecosystem degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss; 2. fire drivers and impacts; 3. the perception and legitimacy of knowledge among different social actors and 4. climate change mitigation, adaptation, and land management. This section presents a summary of the discussion on each of the topics highlighting the identified gaps in the literature and the group’s potential to work collaboratively. 4.1. Ecosystem degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss This topic is targeted towards understanding deforestation and land degradation across ecosystems and climate regimes, emphasizing adaptation to climate change. It addresses key gaps in: • understanding deforestation and habitat/land degradation with a cross-sectional perspective (biodiversity changes across topoclimates); • studying the impact of deforestation and the implementation of practices for local adaptation (considering cascading effects); • exploring possible solutions (prevention, restoration of non-forested areas, and how modeling can support the integration of ecological factors with society needs); • strengthening outreach (research focused on people’s needs, building long-term trust, promoting equity, and synchronization among rural communities, government, and the private sector). With an interdisciplinary background we can work towards filling these gaps, combining methods to explore ecosystem degradation and restoration with a focus on non-forested areas, palaeoecological and sedimentary records to establish baselines, and socio-ecological modeling to assess cascading effects and measures to prevent deforestation and ecosystem degradation. 4.2. Fire drivers and impacts This research theme focuses on understanding changes in fire frequency and intensity under climate change and their impacts on land use, particularly in relation to increasing drought conditions. It addresses key knowledge gaps, including: • ecosystem and society adaptation to new post-fire states; • the influence of invasive species and non-native plantations on fire regimes and recovery dynamics; • impacts on water cycling (alterations in hydrological balance and water availability) and soils (nutrient depletion and pollution); • health impacts (especially for local and Indigenous communities); 7 • risks associated with land use practices at the household level; • the development of effective policies to address these challenges (institutional implementation and governance capacity). Furthermore, we emphasized the integration of traditional knowledge (local fire management practices and cultural perspectives) as a fundamental component for enhancing resilience and the relevance of policy frameworks. This topic is supported by an interdisciplinary framework that addresses the cascading effects of deforestation, fragmentation, and ecosystem degradation. It also recognizes the limited understanding of biome-specific natural fire regimes and ecological state transitions (e.g., forest–grassland shifts), as well as the scarce modeling expertise on fire dynamics in the region. In addition, it highlights the importance of long-term investments, institutional stability, and the collaboration between scientific, governmental, and media sectors to strengthen the science–policy interface and to promote sustainable fire management strategies. 4.3. The perception and legitimacy of knowledge among different social actors This research topic focuses on the perception and legitimacy of knowledge among different social actors. It addresses key knowledge gaps, including: • understanding different worldviews (integration of ancestral knowledge related to livelihoods and land use); • the need for knowledge integration (development of coherent methods, approaches, and consistent terminology); • the lack of inclusion of local communities and institutions; • recognition of knowledge loss and pressures on local knowledge systems; • the need of empowerment of local knowledge holders; • incorporating gender-related perspectives; • enriching data and its interpretation through narratives (linking qualitative and quantitative perspectives); • assessing the severity and impacts of environmental hazards (understanding their social and ecological implications). This topic can be supported by an interand transdisciplinary framework that explores how different disciplines and knowledge systems can effectively work together (integration of natural and social sciences), and how to determine the most relevant types of knowledge for specific contexts. It also considers local adaptation strategies and their temporal scales (learning from past experiences), economic dimensions related to climate change (implications for livelihoods and resilience), and the development of inclusive and collaborative teams (fostering equity, mutual learning, and mindset transformation as a model for global sustainability). 4.4. Climate change mitigation, adaptation, and land management This research theme focuses on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable land management. It addresses key gaps such as: • converging and conflicting preferences of the dimensions of mitigation, adaptation and land use among heterogenous societies and international relations; 8 • participatory social-ecological approaches to climate impact and adaptation research; • the communication of scientific results with stakeholders (ensuring clarity, accessibility, and mutual learning); • the lack of incentives at the university level to value outreach/knowledge exchange and transfer activities (recognizing and institutionalizing science communication efforts); • the need to define appropriate levels of detail for different audiences (tailoring communication strategies to context and stakeholder expertise). This theme is grounded in an interdisciplinary framework that bridges technical, ecological, and policy-related knowledge (integration across disciplines and sectors). It highlights the importance of connecting technical expertise (applied methods and technologies), ecological knowledge for adaptation (understanding ecosystem responses and resilience mechanisms), and knowledge at the policy–science interface (translation of research into decision-making). As these domains are often disconnected, this theme seeks to foster collaboration, promote integrated approaches to land management, and strengthen adaptive capacities to address the challenges posed by climate change. Further, to include science communication, we organized an open discussion round during the Symposium discussion about “Land Use under Climate Change – Learning from Other Worldviews” at the Forum Wissen university museum, during August 20 from 6 to 7 p.m. Moderated by Elisabeth Dietze (Geography, University of Göttingen), the invited panellists Patrick Roberts (Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena), Carmen Candelo Reina (WWF Colombia), and Kilian Bizer (Economics, University of Göttingen) engaged with around fifty participants of various ages and backgrounds, creating a lively and engaging atmosphere. Designed to complement the scientific exchange with a public dialogue, the event invited participants to think about land use in a broader sense — not only in Latin America, but also here in Germany, in Lower Saxony, in Göttingen, right on our doorstep. It encouraged reflection on how our land uses are interconnected, how they shape one another, and what we can learn across contexts and continents. The conversation focused on how land-use systems — including agriculture, forestry, urban development, and resource extraction — can be designed to be socially just, ecologically sustainable, and resilient to climate change. Central themes included the growing disconnection between humans and the environment driven by globalisation, urbanisation, and industrial agriculture, as well as the alternative perspectives on land, ownership, and human–nature relations offered by Indigenous worldviews, that include, for example, concepts about the Earth system such as Pachamama. The discussion further addressed the opacity of global supply chains that often obscure the origins of natural resources and common products, and how education, research, and policymaking could help rebuild awareness of global ecological interdependencies. The evening concluded with inspiring reflections on new models of coexistence and economic practice that foster resilience, solidarity, and a more balanced relationship between people and the planet. 9 Group photo, historical observatory, UGOE Aug 18th 2025 World café on ecosystem degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss, Aug 19th 2025 World café wrap up of discussion, Aug 19th 2025 Evaluating funding options, Aug 20th 2025 5. Challenges and Opportunities to work collaboratively Recognizing the diversity of disciplinary backgrounds, we also discussed „Concepts and Methods in Interdisciplinary Research” during the Symposium. The objective of the activity was to exchange experiences on interand transdisciplinary work and to discuss pathways towards implementing joint research opportunities. During the discussion, it was highlighted that there is great potential for interdisciplinary work on the topic. Most participants had prior experience in collaborative networks in Latin America, either as part of interdisciplinary projects or through their most recent fieldwork in the region. The invited speakers reported about their experiences, challenges and solutions from their perspectives. The greatest challenge for strengthening cooperation lies in the difficulty of interand transdisciplinary research collaboration. Already interdisciplinary work across sciences requires considerable effort. It demands genuine interest and significant time investment from all participants to engage with one another as equal research partners despite differing methodological traditions. Symposium discussions emphasized that research questions should first be defined thematically, with methodological choices considered in a second step. Such an approach makes it possible to examine the same problem from multiple perspectives, with each discipline contributing its own instruments and tools. This enables a more holistic research process in which both human and environmental dimensions are addressed, and where methods such as remote sensing, GIS, ecological fieldwork, experiments, modeling, scenario analysis, household surveys, and participatory approaches all have their place.