The Laboratory for the Analysis of Social-Ecological Systems in a Globalised world (LASEG) is a research group at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). We aim to better understand how local and indigenous knowledge can contribute to environmental sustainability, and how to better reconcile biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services with human wellbeing.
We conduct our research in a large range of societies (i.e., indigenous peoples, urban and rural communities) and we pay attention to temporal scales (i.e. contemporary and archival work). We employ a variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques from the social and natural sciences, and the combination of different types of data and disciplinary backgrounds enriches our work and makes it potentially more relevant to multiple disciplinary audiences.
Researching on how Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ knowledge is affected by environmental change and how such knowledge can contribute to understand environmental change impacts.
Researching environmental governance processes in the areas of climate change and the conservation of biodiversity, from international to national and local levels.
Investigating transformative pathways toward sustainability founded upon the concept of ecosystem services and nature-based solutions.
NICHES will demonstrate the capacity of nature-based solutions to mitigate stormwater runoff, flooding and sewer overflow events and highlight transformation pathways to deliver this potential. The project will simultaneously enhance social-ecological qualities and ecosystem services at source and in receiving water bodies.
This project aims to enrich ethnobiology’s field-based ethos with a global analytical focus, connecting on-the-ground realities with the higher spheres of international decision-making.
How do payments for ecosystem services affect conservation motivations and land-use behaviour? How do local institutions, including land tenure and collective action, moderate the effect of payments on motivations and forest cover?