Approach

The environment remains central to the livelihood of humanity, especially during important global population changes. Under the influence of state development programs, the average life expectancy on the planet has almost doubled since the 1950s, whereas per capita wealth (measured in terms of GDP) has increased fivefold. Nature continues to provide essential resources for life and economic activities such as food, health care, raw materials, water, oxygen, climate regulation and a range of ecosystem services to all these populations, but recent studies and environmental monitoring reports indicate that the planetary limits are being exceeded. Even with the global initiatives aimed at detaching the economy from resource extraction and material economies, human activity persists to be the cause of the planetary crisis and its intertwined climate disasters.

Such human consequences toward the environment suggest the Holocene has now evolved into the Anthropocene. This current geological period is characterized by human activities that impact the biosphere and planetary ecosystems which generate transformations in our socio-ecological systems, ultimately contributing to territorial and landscape reconfigurations at all scales. Simply put, the Anthropocene suggests the advent of distinctive relationships between human societies with their territorie(s) and landscape(s).