EVENT RECAP: Land systems’ insights from the pandemic and lock down

To get to know each other and expand their networks, the GLP Socio-Ecological Land Systems of Latin America Working Group held a special virtual meeting in June 2021. The idea was to promote interactions among members and exchange thoughts beyond our everyday research, through a mix of break-out rooms and plenary sessions. In this opportunity the topic was land systems' insights from the pandemic and lock down and was moderated by Dr. Esteban Jobbagy.

• Presentation slides from Esteban Jobbagy (PDF, 2.2 MB)
• Jamboards:
  • Jamboard: The pandemic has been a unique global perturbation. How can we use it as an “experimental” opportunity to learn more about how Land Systems work?
  • Jamboard:  How has the COVID crisis changed the way in which we work as a scientist? Are there any lessons gained? Are gender, region, age gaps narrowing or growing?
  • Jamboard: Competition for space and how land use is linked to the spread of COVID-19

The organziers and several participants put together a blog post summarizing the discussions held during the event. Although it will take time to make sense of the myriad changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought and continues to bring into their lives as scientists, and into the socio-ecological land systems that they study, they identified several likely patterns of long-term change including:

• Reduced mobility of migrant workers and, as a result, a decrease in remittances
• A rise in smallholder and subsistence agriculture
• A rise in land use and trade in illicit commodities
• Relatively unaffected large scale mechanized agriculture supply chains

Although it is too early to say if these changes are here to stay or are temporary pandemic phenomena, they have created a unique opportunity to study the resilience of socio-ecological land systems to large scale disturbances. Read the blog post to learn more about the observations and insights shared during the event.