Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the most urbanized and biologically diverse regions in the world but is often characterized by weak environmental governance and socioeconomic inequalities. Given large expanses of intact biomes, a long history of pre-Colombian civilizations, and recent urbanization trends, the urban ecosystem services (UES) concept has the potential to address issues of well-being for its citizens. We review relevant regional and global literature and use expert-based knowledge to identify the state of the art of the UES concept as applicable to green spaces in LAC and elucidate three overarching guidelines for management and future research needs: 1. LAC cities can be socio-ecologically unique; 2. Drivers of UES in LAC can be different than in other regions; and 3. Context and demand need to be accounted for when valuing UES. Overall, we show that research on UES is mostly from the global north and rarely accounts for the diverse and complex socio-political and ecological drivers of LAC's urbanization processes. We find that, as in other regions, the biophysical context and land use policies play a major role on UES provision. However, socioeconomic inequalities and weak governance are key drivers in UES supply and demand in LAC. Context-specific information on how to promote, educate, and apply UES is particularly important, not only in LAC, but in other regions where inequities, rapid urbanization, and climate change effects are stressing socio-political and ecological systems and their adaptive capacities. Standardized approaches from developed countries should be used to complement -not substitute -LAC context specific approaches for studying and applying UES. We suggest that improved research funding and local governance can also provide critical strategies, information and the means for more effective management, planning, and equitable provision of UES.

Infraestructura verde, servicios ecosistémicos y sus aportes para enfrentar el cambio climático en ciudades: el caso del corredor ribereño del río Mapocho en Santiago de Chile 1 Alexis E. Vásquez 2 RESUMENEl trabajo discute los argumentos a favor de la infraestructura verde urbana y la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos como componentes claves de sistemas urbano-ecológicos resilientes ante al cambio climático. En segundo lugar, se aplica el marco analítico desarrollado al caso del corredor ribereño del río Mapocho en Santiago, discutiendo su aporte actual y potencial para enfrentar el cambio climá-tico a través de la evaluación de tres servicios ecosistémicos claves (1) efecto enfriador, (2) rutas para transporte no motorizado, y (3) mitigación de inundaciones. La integración de los conceptos de infraestructura verde, servicios ecosistémicos y adaptación/mitigación al cambio climático, brinda un marco apropiado para esclarecer cómo los espacios verdes urbanos pueden aportar a enfrentar el calentamiento global y los efectos negativos derivados del cambio climático. En Santiago, el principal aporte del corredor ribereño del río Mapocho es la mitigación de emisiones de gases invernadero al servir como una importante ruta para el desplazamiento no motorizado, especialmente en bicicleta. Su aporte a la disminución de las temperaturas atmosféricas y a la mitigación de inundaciones es mucho más limitado. El desarrollo de un corredor verde ribereño en el río Mapocho puede contribuir a mejorar la provisión de los tres servicios ecosistémicos evaluados y de esta forma constituir importante eslabón en un sistema de infraestructura verde en Santiago para mitigar y adaptarse al cambio climático.Palabras clave: Infraestructura verde, servicios ecosistémicos, mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático. ABSTRACTThe paper discusses the arguments in favor of urban green infrastructure and the provision of ecosystem services as key components of urban-ecological systems resilient to climate change. The analytical framework developed here is then applied to the riparian corridor of the Mapocho River in Santiago, in order to discuss its current and potential contributions to tackling climate change. The discussion is based on the evaluation of three key ecosystem services: (1) cooling effects, (2) routes for non-motorized transport, and (3) fl ood mitigation.

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Watersheds are complex environmental systems, where geomorphologic, hydrologic, climatic and ecological processes take place, and which are severely impacted by urbanisation. In this paper, six Santiago Andean piedmont watersheds have been researched, according with the degree of urbanisation that they reach, which varies between Macul-San Ramón, where about 40% of their land covers has been already urbanised, until Pirque, where agricultural and rural features are still dominants. Using geographical information systems, the impact of urbanization on several ecological indicators, such as vegetative productivity, biomass, soil moisture and surface temperature are analysed. Total Imperviousness Areas, Runoff Coefficients and Environmentally Sensitive Areas allow the estimation of the state of the watersheds ant their contribution to the environmental health of Santiago city.

Threats to ecosystems are closely linked to human development, whereas lack, insufficiency, and inefficiency of public policies are important drivers of environmental decline. Previous studies have discussed the contribution of IUCN's Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) in conservation issues; however, its applications in different policy fields and instruments for achieving biodiversity conservation have not been explored in detail. Here, we introduce a framework to operationalize the RLE in public policy, facilitating work of governments, practitioners, and decision makers. Our analysis identified 20 policy instruments that could reduce risks to ecosystems highlighted by different Red List criteria. We discuss how RLE could inform the policy process by analyzing different instruments that could be designed, implemented, and modified to achieve risk reduction. We also present practical examples from around the world showing how ecosystem conservation could be improved by operationalizing the RLE in policy instruments. The RLE criteria can inform the policy process by helping to shape objectives and identifying policy instruments that directly address the causes and severity of risks illuminated in Red List assessments. We conclude that RLE could be expanded into a broader holistic spectrum of policy instruments, which could be a key to achieving the ecosystem conservation.

The development of Latin American cities has been characterized by an inadequate process of nature appropriation, that could be observed in the urban space fragmentation and in the disproportionate distribution of environmental threaten and amenities among different socioeconomic groups of inhabitants. To analyze and assess spatial relationship between environmental risks and socioeconomic groups, two urban communes, Peñalolen and San Pedro de la Paz, were chosen. Further, the distribution of such threats and their relations with mechanisms that are acting over the physical vulnerability of socioeconomic groups were taken into consideration. In the case of San Pedro de la Paz, it is possible to observe a large exposition of the poorest people to environmental threats. In the case of Peñalolen, income level differences are acting as a determinant factor in the capacity to reduce physical vulnerability.

During the last decades, the province of Chacabuco, in the north of Santiago, has been profoundly territorially transformed due to the installation of urban mega-projects for well-off social segments in contexts that until then were eminently rural. From the perspective of suburban political ecology, we analyze the different economic, political and metabolic strategies with view to the water and land resources through which large economic-financial groups, supported by the state, have produced an unequal landscape of archipelagos. The methods used in this work include press review, semi-structured with private, public, and community actors, and an analysis of water rights records in the office of Real Estate Curator in the province of Chacabuco. In empirical and conceptual terms, we demonstrate that the production of the new urban periphery and its patterns of socioterritorial and environmental fragmentation are not the result of abstract forces of globalization, but of deliberate actions of commodification, concentration (of property rights) and financialization of natural resources like land and water.

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