The South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS) is an interdisciplinary research institute aimed at contributing substantially to the production of knowledge and capacity building in processes and mechanisms that determine the sustainability of ecosystem services, key to determining human well-being.

SARAS was designed to generate critical insights allowing South America to build sustainable futures. It seeks integration across a broad range of innovative approaches, combining disciplinary domains (social, natural and exact sciences), different sources of knowledge, and art-science interactions.

Webinar of Basin Committees in South America and Europe captivates a wide audience From the GovernAgua [...]

Second virtual event: “Food, society, and nature: synergies” Overview Food, more than any other aspect of [...]

Our reflections on the International Day for Biological Diversity 2021 On May 22, a new International Day [...]

SARAS organizes a series of annual symposia with prominent scientists, artists and scholars on resilience and sustainability issues, including natural science, social science and humanities.The symposia include discussion workshops and a series of public lectures. The symposia also aim at creating networks that will endure over time. Until 2016, the symposia were:

Ecosystem services: knowledge development and decision-making December 5th, 2018 - 1:30 to 8 pm - 8th SARAS Public Conference SODRE's National Auditorium - Hugo Balzo Room, Montevideo - Uruguay Overview This Conference is a collaborative effort of the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS), University of the Republic, Stockholm University, Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), and the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS), hosted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre's [...]

Environmental Humanities for the 21st Century VII Public Conference SARAS2 - December 11th 2017, Theater of "Casa de la Cultura" (Municipal Cultural Centre) Maldonado, Uruguay Foundation The role that beliefs, values, culture, and the arts play, or may play in fostering change in the interaction between humans and nature is a topic back at the center of attention among the many forms of environmentalism. There is an increasing consensus that scientific and economic arguments are [...]

Seeking sustainable pathways for land use in Latin America 2016 Natural resources and ecosystems are under increasing pressure as human demands for food, water, fiber, and energy expand in an accelerating pace. In response, the allocation of resource and in particular land has been shifting along with agricultural systems of production. These changes have the potential to lead to profound changes on the functioning of ecosystems, as well as the services they can provide. [...]

Imagining resilience: Art-science collaboration for sustainability 2014 This year's workshop and Conference are organized by Steve Carpenter (USA), Laurie Beth Clark (USA), and Pablo Marquet (Chile). The workshop will be attended by about 30 people and will focus on the opportunities and challenges emerging from the encounter between disciplines that have been historically separate. The public conference will endeavour to integrate these perspectives with other regional and national stakeholders. Workshop and Public Conferences SARAS 2014, December [...]

Education for uncertainty 2013 Why science is perceived as different from art or humanities? And if it is different, what is the nature of this difference and where this divide comes from? Unravelling the fundamental aspects of reality and understand the reality of our abstractions are part of the daily work of art and science. In its deepest sense, it involves the process of integrating the inventions, innovations, tools and creative methods we use to understand the world [...]

Critical transitions 2012 The purpose of this meeting was to facilitate the creation of cooperation networks related to forests and grasslands in Latin America and the rest of the world. The meeting discussed some critical aspects that determine the dynamics between both ecosystems and the implications for sustainable management, including the evaluation of the social and institutional barriers that hinder that path. It was organized by SARAS Institute, the Interdisciplinary Space, the Eastern Region University Centre and the [...]

Coastal fisheries 2011 The purpose of this meeting was to facilitate the formation of cooperation networks related to artisanal fisheries in Latin America. The meeting discussed critical aspects of this sectors dynamics and the factors that condition the sustainability and resilience capacity. Within the theoretical framework of the SES measures and mechanisms were identified to overcome social and institutional barriers that conspire against the sustainability and proper management of small-scale fisheries in the long run. It was organized [...]

Freshwater futures 2010 The purpose of this meeting was to produce a first map of emerging issues regarding water in the region, and facilitate the formation of cooperation networks related to freshwater management in South America. The meeting discussed critical aspects that determine the current status of this resource in several countries in the region, and the social and institutional barriers that hinder sustainable management and conflict resolution at different scales. Moreover, the members of SARAS [...]

Adaptive cycles and Panarchy The origin of the adaptive cycles’ model derives from the comparative [...]

Resilience The resilience of a system refers to its tendency to return to a particular [...]

Alternative regimes Systems can change their properties depending on external or internal controls, in linear or [...]

Rigidity or poverty traps Poverty and rigidity traps are systemic conformations that control the dynamics of [...]

http://www.resalliance.org/

http://www.wageningenur.nl

http://www.beijer.kva.se

http://www.stockholmresilience.org

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SARAS Institute is a joint initiative of Wageningen University (Netherlands), University of the Republic UdelaR (Uruguay), Resilience Alliance, Ministry of Education and Culture (Uruguay) and Municipality of Maldonado (Uruguay).

SARAS maintains permanent links with:

SARAS counts on the institutional and financial support of the Uruguayan State.It is a regional centre and draws on a strong cooperation with the scientific community of Argentina, Brazil and Chile, among others. It has also established close links with cooperation and funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Ibero-American Programme for Science, Technology and Development (CYTED), the Pew Research Center, and the Interdisciplinary Space (UdelaR).