Economy and Nature: Perspectives from South America

This chapter seeks to understand the complex relationships between Nature and economy in recent decades, in the global context of environmental change. Within this framework, the objectives of this study are threefold. First, we analyse how orthodox and heterodox economic theories depict the tension between the exploitation over natural resources and their environmental impact. Second, we examine theories that consider the importance of the environmental factor in their world views, such as the bioeconomics and the ecological economics. Third, we will introduce Latin American Perspectives, considering the cases of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. This chapter presents the results of a qualitative research and provides an updated vision of the relationships between Nature and economy, paying special attention to the recent historical process of South American countries.