The economics of the wellbeing economy: Understanding heterodox economics for health-in-all-policies and co-benefits.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: The "wellbeing economy" represents a significant departure from the orthodox, neoclassical economic model of rational, utility-maximising individuals embedded in a growth economy. Emerging approaches to the wellbeing economy draw heavily upon insights from a range of heterodox schools of economic thought; these schools differ in many respects, but all share the central common insight that the economy is best conceived as a social provisioning system for humanity's needs. METHODS: This narrative review introduces and summarises key dimensions of a number of these heterodox economic approaches, all of which have had or are likely to have significant implications for wellbeing economics. Their relationship with wellbeing and their resulting approaches to public policy and the Health-in-All Policies (HiAP) approach is described and explored. RESULTS: The schools of heterodox economic thought which have had the most impact on the development of approaches to the "wellbeing economy" include ecological economics (including both post-growth and degrowth economics), feminist economics, and modern monetary theory. Recent developments in the economics of inequality and institutional economics have also been of significance. Yet HiAP approaches represent an attempt to incorporate consideration of health consequences within public policy processes inside the neoclassical economics paradigm, reflecting the reality that social and economic forces are typically the most important determinants of health. WHO's new Health For All approach draws much more directly on the heterodox economics that underpins wellbeing economy thinking. CONCLUSIONS: Wellbeing economics offers many attractive features for HiAP-but may not achieve its full potential within conventional economic policy paradigms. Calls to replace cost-benefit analysis with "co-benefit" analysis are attractive, but face strong practical obstacles. Meanwhile, strong countervailing forces and interests might still thwart achieving the broader goals of wellbeing economics. SO WHAT?: Operationalising "wellbeing economy" thinking requires a clear understanding of heterodox economics, and how they can be incorporated into more formal economic analysis. It remains to be seen if HiAP is the right tool by which to implement the new Health For All approach.

Economic valuation of wildlife conservation.

This paper reviews concepts and methods for the economic valuation of nature in the context of wildlife conservation and questions them in light of alternative approaches based on deliberation. Economic valuations have been used to set priorities, consider opportunity costs, assess co-benefits of conservation, support the case for conservation in public awareness and advocacy, and drive novel schemes to change incentives. We discuss the foundational principles of mainstream economic valuation in terms of its assumptions about values, markets, and human behaviour; propose a list of valuation studies in relation to wildlife protection; and explain the methods used. We then review critiques of these approaches focusing on the narrow way in which economics conceives of values, and institutional, power, and equity concerns. Finally, we complement conventional approaches commonly used for wildlife valuation with two forms of deliberative valuation: deliberated preferences and deliberative democratic monetary valuation. These are discussed in terms of their potential to address the drawbacks of mainstream economics and to realise the potential of valuation in bridging conservation of nature for its own sake and its important contributions to human well-being. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10344-023-01658-2.

The next step for China's national park management: Integrating ecosystem services into space boundary delimitation.

The contradiction between ecological conservation and economic development posed significant challenges to the management of National Parks. From the perspective of Ecological Economics, the cause of the contradiction is the difficulty of creating monetary profits from biodiversity conservation, which is the primary target of National Parks. Integrating Ecosystem Services (ESs) into space boundary delimitation is the next step in National Park management since ESs are closely related to human well-being and can provide monetary benefits. Extending the boundary of the National Park to high-ES areas and promoting ES trading can help generate funds for ecological restoration. Using the Sanjiangyuan National Park (SNP) as an example, this study proposed integrating ESs into National Park delimitation for sustainable National Park management. It was found that the current SNP boundary provides insufficient coverage of high-ES areas, while most of the multiple ES supply areas were dispersed to SNP's southeast edge. The Core conservation area showed the most prominent contradiction between ecological conservation and economic development, resulting in many low-level ES sites in the Traditional use area failing to be included in the Restoration area for protection. Future approaches would be well-advised to re-adjust SNP boundary by expanding the ES hotspot areas on the southeastern edge of SNP, as well as expanding funding sources via ecological product trade and other tools to supplement the input for ecological restoration. Overall, this study can act as a reference for optimizing National Parks within and beyond China, and promote the understanding of the Ecological Economy and sustainable development.

[Ecological economics foundation research on ecological values, ecological asset management, and value realization: Scientific concepts, basic theories, and realization paths]. / è‡ªç„¶ç”Ÿæ€ä»·å€¼ã€ç”Ÿæ€èµ„äº§ç®¡ç†åŠä»·å€¼å®žçŽ°çš„ç”Ÿæ€ç»æµŽå­¦åŸºç¡€ç ”ç©¶­­ç§‘学概念、基础理论及实现途径.

Ecosystems provide various environmental conditions and natural resources for life, production, and human livelihoods. Ecosystem management based on natural laws is the basic way for human society to recognize the value of nature and ecosystems, protect and utilize the natural environment and resources, create and accumulate ecological assets, and sustainably develop. Taking that as one of the core concepts, regional ecological economics or economic ecology is becoming a frontier in scientific research to evaluate the Anthropocene earth system and sustainable development. From the perspective of macro-ecosystem science, based on the multi-functionality and multi-values of ecosystems, this study expounded the concepts of natural ecological value, ecological assets, ecological products, and some related phrases, analyzed the processes and principles of formation and change of ecological assets, production and consumption of ecological products, ecological investment, and profit and loss of ecological assets based on integrated ecology, sociology, and economics, proposed paths of regional ecological asset management and ecological value realization. It would provide theoretical and methodological references for the evaluation of regional ecosystem value and ecological assets, and the development of ecological industries and ecological value realization systems.

Ecological Civilization and High-Quality Development: Do Tourism Industry and Technological Progress Affect Ecological Economy Development?

The tourism industry is considered a smokeless industry or green economy. Under the circumstances of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, it is essential and urgent to explore whether the tourism industry and technological progress can promote ecological economy development. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in mainland China from 2007-2019, this paper, for the first time, incorporates the tourism industry, technological progress, and ecological economy development into the analytical framework by constructing a PVAR model. In addition, this paper calculates the indicator weights of each variable using the entropy weighting method. This paper utilizes GMM tests, impulse response analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, and variance decomposition to empirically investigate the dynamic impact mechanism of variables interacting with each other. The conclusions are as follows. First, the tourism industry always contributes positively to ecological economy development, while technological progress can facilitate ecological economy development in the long run rather than in the short term. Second, the tourism industry also positively contributes to technological progress. Third, ecological economy development has a "crowding out effect" on the tourism industry. Fourth, the tourism industry in developed eastern regions has a more powerful impact on ecological economy development than in underdeveloped middle and western regions. Based on the empirical results, we provide practical implications: first, the assessment system of the regional economy should include ecological development indicators; second, the tourism industry should accelerate the use of clean energy and the transformation of green technological innovation.

Econophysics and the Entropic Foundations of Economics.

This paper examines relations between econophysics and the law of entropy as foundations of economic phenomena. Ontological entropy, where actual thermodynamic processes are involved in the flow of energy from the Sun through the biosphere and economy, is distinguished from metaphorical entropy, where similar mathematics used for modeling entropy is employed to model economic phenomena. Areas considered include general equilibrium theory, growth theory, business cycles, ecological economics, urban-regional economics, income and wealth distribution, and financial market dynamics. The power-law distributions studied by econophysicists can reflect anti-entropic forces is emphasized to show how entropic and anti-entropic forces can interact to drive economic dynamics, such as in the interaction between business cycles, financial markets, and income distributions.

Some historiographical tools for the study of intellectual legacies.

Intellectual legacies are part of historians' concerns, when they study the evolution of ideas. There are, however, no guidelines to help characterize the reception of intellectual legacies. This article provides preliminary tools to fill this gap, with a typology (faithful, formal, substantial legacies), and with two criteria to assess the conformity between the heir's and her inspirer's proposals. The objective is not to judge the legitimacy of this or that reception, but to facilitate its characterization, for a better understanding of the transmission of ideas. One case study from the history of economic thought, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's bioeconomics and its legacies, is provided to illustrate the operability of the toolbox.

Stimulating post-COVID-19 green recovery by investing in ecological restoration.

In the face of the global COVID-19 recession, countries are looking at stimulus packages to kick-start their stalled economies. The recovery from the COVID-19 crisis also coincides with a critical opportunity to fight against ecosystem degradation and climate change. In this opinion article, I put in perspective that by investing in ecological restoration, governments do not have to choose between economic priorities and environmental concerns. First, I describe the restoration economy and give real-world examples of how investing in restoration activities can simultaneously ease pressure on the environment and create immediate jobs and revenues. Then I suggest that to obtain political attraction, a successful restoration strategy will require a triple-bottom-line approach to ensure that in addition to environmental objectives, stakeholders integrate socioeconomic outcomes in decision-making. Finally, I conclude that a new economic approach that prioritizes investment in our ecological capital will necessitate transdisciplinary policies to build bridges across the different silos of the economy and the environment.

The biggest bang for the buck: cost-effective vegetation treatment outcomes across drylands of the western United States.

Restoration and rehabilitation are globally implemented to improve ecosystem condition but often without tracking treatment expenditures relative to ecological outcomes. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of widely conducted woody plant and herbaceous invasive plant removals and seeding treatments in drylands of the western United States from 2004 to 2018 to determine how land managers can optimize efforts. Woody plant cover decreased at a similar rate per dollar spent regardless of vegetation removal type, and the dominant invasive species was reduced by herbicide application. Relatively inexpensive herbicide application also had a large positive effect on seeded perennial grass cover that was enhanced by additional cost; while expensive woody mastication treatments had little effect regardless of additional cost. High seed cost was driven by including a large proportion of native species in seed mixes, and combined with high seeding cost, promoted a short-term (2-3 yr) gain in perennial forb cover and species richness. In contrast, seeding and seed mix cost had no bearing on seeded perennial grass cover, in part, because relatively cheap nonnative seeded species rapidly increased in cover. Our results suggest the differential benefits of commonly implemented treatments aimed at reducing wildfire risk, improving wildlife habitat and forage, and reducing erosion. Given the growing need and cost of restoration and rehabilitation, we raise the importance of specifying treatment budgets and objectives, coupled with effectiveness monitoring, to improve future outcomes.

Field sizes and the future of farmland biodiversity in European landscapes.

Lower diversity of plant and animal farmland species are usually reported where cropland has been aggregated into larger fields, which raises prospects of curbing declines in European farmland biodiversity and associated ecosystem services by halting trends to field size increases associated to agricultural intensification, without having to set aside arable land for conservation. Here, we consider the factors underlying trade-offs between farmer income and biodiversity as mediated by field size at local and landscape scales, and how these trade-offs may be overcome. Field sizes are still increasing, facilitated by increasing farm sizes and land consolidation. Decreases in working time and fuel expenses when fields are larger, uptake of larger machinery and subsidies favoring larger farms provide incentives to manage land in larger units, putting farmland biodiversity further at risk. Yet, field size-mediated ecological-economic trade-offs are largely ignored in policy and research. We recommend internalizing the ecological effects of changes in landscape-scale field size into land consolidation scheme design, ensuring that EU Common Agricultural Policy post-2020 rewards farmers that maintain and recreate fine-grained landscapes where these are essential for farmland biodiversity targets, and reducing economic-ecological trade-offs by stimulating agricultural research and innovation for economically efficient yet biodiversity-friendly farming in fine-grained landscapes.

Waste management and competitiveness of firms in Europe: A stochastic frontier approach.

The present paper aims to investigate the relationship between achieved recycling rates and the competitiveness of firms working in circular economy sectors. The econometric analysis is based on the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (a parametric model) and is carried out in reference to seventeen European countries over the years 2010-2016. It reveals intriguing results about the positive effect that achieved recycling rates of packaging, electronic and bio-waste can exert on the competitiveness of firms, although differences emerge across the countries considered. Furthermore, through the inefficiency function, a positive effect of R&D spending on competitiveness of European firms is disclosed.

Factors Forming the Consumers' Willingness to Pay a Price Premium for Ecological Goods in Ukraine.

This study discusses the identification of factors affecting consumers' willingness to pay a price premium for ecological goods. The study was carried out in selected regions of Ukraine, in the cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv. The study applied various research methods, in particular public opinion analysis based on conducted surveys and the statistical inference method. The conducted research may constitute the scientific basis for the assessment of this market segment development. The comparison of consumer attitudes, presented by the residents of major Ukrainian cities regarding environmental goods, revealed their willingness to pay a price premium depending primarily on the purchasing power of the population, but also on gender, age, and social status. The analysis of differences in the cross-tabulation of quality characteristics was performed using Pearson's chi-square test, which showed that, for example, men were more willing than women to choose environmental products due to their environmental safety and their selection was more often than in case of women based on environmental goods' price. The collected research results can be used to assess the development prospects of environmental goods' market, to construct the set of measures increasing the willingness level of domestic consumers to pay a price premium for ecological products, and to take up decisions about the production of ecological goods.

Estimates of shifts in ecosystem service values due to changes in key factors in the Manas River basin, northwest China.

The ecosystem service value (ESV) can be quantitatively assessed based on changes in ecosystem services. However, few studies have considered two scientific problems: (1) how to quantify the contributions of factors that drive ecosystem services, and (2) how to improve the spatial variability of ESV distributions. In this study, a geographic information system was used to investigate spatial and temporal changes in three factors, i.e., vegetation cover (VC), human disturbance index (HDI), and temperature vegetation drought index (TVDI), and their effects on the ESV in the Manas River basin. We found that high VC areas were expanding and the HDI was significantly enhanced. The contributions of VC, HDI, and TVDI to the total ESV were 38.0%, 31.6%, and 30.4%, respectively, and the total ESV increased by 3.7%. The cold spots were mainly distributed in the desert area, mountains, and the southern parts of the oasis area, whereas the hot spots occurred mainly to the north of the oasis area and southwest of the desert. VC, HDI, and TVDI reflected the spatial and temporal differences in the ESV determined in this river basin ecosystem. Furtherly, it may be possible to formulate appropriate ecological compensations by analyzing the changes in ESV cold/hot spots. The results of this study provide a scientific basis to facilitate the selection of the key factors that drive changes in the ESV in arid land areas, as well as for achieving a sustainable basin management in similar regions around the world.

Teorías económico-ambientales y su vínculo con la dimensión social de la sustentabilidad en Áreas Naturales Protegidas / Economic-environmental theories and their link with the social dimension of sustainability in Protected Natural Areas

RESUMEN Las Áreas Naturales Protegidas (ANP), son consideradas instrumentos para conservar la biodiversidad y alcanzar el desarrollo sustentable. No obstante, su establecimiento genera inconvenientes por la exclusión de los intereses y necesidades de las poblaciones (dimensión social), lo que impide lograr dicho desarrollo. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar cuál de las principales teorías económico-ambientales aborda la dimensión social del desarrollo sustentable, y por ende, problemáticas en ANP, que involucren a sus habitantes. Para ello, se realizó una revisión del estado del arte de las teorías: economía ambiental, economía de los recursos naturales, economía verde y economía ecológica, identificando los caracteres de cada una, su relación con la sustentabilidad y con las políticas que promueven, lo cual permitió advertir que, la economía ecológica es adecuada para abordar la inclusión del factor humano en las ANP, ya que contempla las perspectivas de las comunidades y escucha sus intereses y necesidades, respecto al aprovechamiento de recursos naturales.

ABSTRACT Protected Natural Areas (PNA) are considered instruments to conserve biodiversity and achieve sustainable development. However, its establishment generates inconveniences due to the exclusion of the interests and needs of the populations (social dimension), which hinders such development. The objective of this work was to determine which of the main economic-environmental theories addresses the social dimension of sustainable development and the refore, problems in PNA, which involve its inhabitants. For this, a review of the state of the art of the theories was carried out: environmental economics, natural resources economics, green economy and ecological economics, identifying the characters of each one, its relationship with sustainability and with the policies promoted by each of them. Our review indicates that the ecological economy theory is adequate to address the inclusion of the human factor in the PNA, since it considers the perspectives of the communities and listens to their interests and needs, regarding the use of natural resources.

Effects of scarcity, aesthetics and ecology on wildlife auction prices of large African mammals.

For successful integration of biological conservation into economic markets, economic processes need to capture ecological values. South African wildlife ranching is a tourist-based activity that generates unique information on the economic value of wildlife species. We used public data from South African wildlife auctions to evaluate if annual prices 1991-2012 related to species characteristics associated with scarcity, aesthetics and ecology of South African carnivores and ungulates. While none of the species characteristics influenced carnivore prices, ungulate prices were related to characteristics associated with novelty and aesthetics, which relative importance had increased over time. We raise both ecological and economic concerns for this apparent focus. Our results also suggest a potential importance of non-species-related factors, such as market and buyer characteristics. We encourage further evaluation of the relative influences of species characteristics versus factors that are intrinsically linked to economic processes on price variations in South African wildlife.

Economic valuation of the ecosystem services provided by a protected area in the Brazilian Cerrado: application of the contingent valuation method / Valoração econômica de serviços ecossistêmicos fornecidos por uma área protegida no Cerrado brasileiro: aplicação do método de valoração contingente

Abstract Considering that the economic valuation of ecosystem services is a useful approach to support the conservation of natural areas, we aimed to estimate the monetary value of the benefits provided by a protected area in southeast Brazil, the Serra do Cipó National Park. We calculated the visitor's willingness to pay to conserve the ecosystems of the protected area using the contingent valuation method. Located in a region under intense anthropogenic pressure, the Serra do Cipó National Park is mostly composed of rupestrian grassland ecosystems, in addition to other Cerrado physiognomies. We conducted a survey consisting of 514 interviews with visitors of the region and found that the mean willingness to pay was R$ 7.16 year-1, which corresponds to a total of approximately R$ 716,000.00 year-1. We detected that per capita income, the household size, the level of interest in environmental issues and the place of origin influenced the likelihood that individuals are willing to contribute to the conservation of the park, as well as the value of the stated willingness to pay. This study conveys the importance of conserving rupestrian grassland and other Cerrado physiognomies to decision makers and society.

Resumo Dado que a valoração econômica de serviços ecossistêmicos é uma abordagem útil para incentivar a conservação de áreas naturais, tivemos como objetivo estimar o valor monetário dos benefícios fornecidos por uma área protegida no sudeste do Brasil, o Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó. Calculamos a disposição a pagar dos visitantes pela conservação dos ecossistemas abrangidos pela área protegida, usando o método da valoração contingente. Localizado em uma região que sofre intensa pressão antrópica, o Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó é composto majoritariamente por campos rupestres, além de outras fitofisionomias do Cerrado. Realizamos 514 entrevistas com os visitantes da região e encontramos uma disposição a pagar média de R$ 7,16 ano-1, o que corresponde ao total de aproximadamente R$ 716.000,00 ano-1. Detectamos que renda per capita, número de dependentes, nível de interesse por temas relacionados ao meio ambiente e local de origem influenciam a probabilidade de o indivíduo estar disposto a contribuir para a conservação do parque, assim como o valor da disposição a pagar declarada. Este estudo atrai atenção dos tomadores de decisão e da sociedade para a importância de se conservar os campos rupestres e outras fitofisionomias do Cerrado.

"Too much medicine": Insights and explanations from economic theory and research.

Increasing attention has been paid in recent years to the problem of "too much medicine", whereby patients receive unnecessary investigations and treatments providing them with little or no benefit, but which expose them to risks of harm. Despite this phenomenon potentially constituting an inefficient use of health care resources, it has received limited direct attention from health economists. This paper considers "too much medicine" as a form of overconsumption, drawing on research from health economics, behavioural economics and ecological economics to identify possible explanations for and drivers of overconsumption. We define overconsumption of health care as a situation in which individuals consume in a way that undermines their own well-being. Extensive health economics research since the 1960s has provided clear evidence that physicians do not act as perfect agents for patients, and there are perverse incentives for them to provide unnecessary services under various circumstances. There is strong evidence of the existence of supplier-induced demand, and of the impact of various forms of financial incentives on clinical practice. The behavioural economics evidence provides rich insights on why clinical practice may depart from an "evidence-based" approach. Moreover, behavioural findings on health professionals' strategies for dealing with uncertainty, and for avoiding potential regret, provide powerful explanations of why overuse and overtreatment may frequently appear to be the "rational" choice in clinical decision-making, even when they cause harm. The ecological economics literature suggests that status or positional competition can, via the principal-agent relationship in health care, provide a further force driving overconsumption. This novel synthesis of economic perspectives suggests important scope for interdisciplinary collaboration; signals potentially important issues for health technology assessment and health technology management policies; and suggests that cultural change might be required to achieve significant shifts in clinical behaviour.

Impacts of land-use management on ecosystem services and biodiversity: an agent-based modelling approach.

The science of ecosystem service (ES) mapping has become increasingly sophisticated over the past 20 years, and examples of successfully integrating ES into management decisions at national and sub-national scales have begun to emerge. However, increasing model sophistication and accuracy-and therefore complexity-may trade-off with ease of use and applicability to real-world decision-making contexts, so it is vital to incorporate the lessons learned from implementation efforts into new model development. Using successful implementation efforts for guidance, we developed an integrated ES modelling system to quantify several ecosystem services: forest timber production and carbon storage, water purification, pollination, and biodiversity. The system is designed to facilitate uptake of ES information into land-use decisions through three principal considerations: (1) using relatively straightforward models that can be readily deployed and interpreted without specialized expertise; (2) using an agent-based modelling framework to enable the incorporation of human decision-making directly within the model; and (3) integration among all ES models to simultaneously demonstrate the effects of a single land-use decision on multiple ES. We present an implementation of the model for a major watershed in Alberta, Canada, and highlight the system's capabilities to assess a suite of ES under future management decisions, including forestry activities under two alternative timber harvest strategies, and through a scenario modelling analysis exploring different intensities of hypothetical agricultural expansion. By using a modular approach, the modelling system can be readily expanded to evaluate additional ecosystem services or management questions of interest in order to guide land-use decisions to achieve socioeconomic and environmental objectives.

Assessment of Macro-Level Socioeconomic Factors That Impact Waterborne Diseases: The Case of Jordan.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an example of a country that suffers from high water scarcity. Additionally, due to the economic drivers in the country, such as phosphate and potash extraction and pharmaceutical production, the little fresh water that remains is generally polluted. The infrastructure, often antiquated in urban areas and non-existent in rural areas, also contributes to poor water conditions and to the spread of waterborne diseases. This paper examines the socioeconomic factors that contribute to diarrhea and hepatitis A on a macro level in Jordan and discusses the public-policies that government officials could use to abate those problems. Ordinary least squares time series models are used to understand the macro-level variables that impact the incidence of these diseases in Jordan. Public health expenditure has a significant impact on reducing their incidence. Furthermore, investment in sanitation facilities in rural regions is likely to reduce the number of cases of hepatitis A. Perhaps the most surprising outcome is that importation of goods and services likely results in a decrease in cases of hepatitis A. However, income has little impact on the incidence of diarrhea and hepatitis A.

DE LO RURAL A LO URBANO: EL CASO DE DOS PROVINCIAS DE LA REGIÓN CAPITAL COMO GEOGRAFÍA DE LA TRANSFORMACIÓN SOCIOAMBIENTAL. PERCEPCIONES DESDE LA COMUNIDAD / FROM THE RURAL TO THE URBAN: THE CASE OF TWO PROVIINCES IN THE CAPITAL REGION AS THE SOCIO ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY TRANSFORMATION. INSIGHTS FROM THE COMMUNITY

Objetivo: Presentar algunos hallazgos relacionados con el proceso de integración regional Bogotá-Cundinamarca en el periodo 2000-2010, en particular la dimensión ambiental, en las provincias de sabana occidente y sabana centro que hacen parte de esta región. Metodología: El estudio se basa en el análisis de los cambios presentados en el ambiente natural de los territorios objeto de estudio, durante el periodo de tiempo considerado (2000-2010), desde la perspectiva de los actores del mismo. En este caso, a través de ejercicios de participación en talleres realizados en los municipios objeto de estudio con dichos actores (representados en organizaciones sociales que tienen presencia allí) e incluyó recorridos en dichos territorios. Se pretende construir colectivamente información y conocimiento, planteando una línea del tiempo en la que los actores reconozcan momentos clave con referencia a dos grandes fenómenos que se presentaron: asentamientos humanos (urbanización) y entrada de empresas. Esta línea abarca la primera década del presente siglo. Resultados: La investigación intenta mostrar que dos elementos: asentamientos urbanos y entrada de empresas, son las dinámicas antrópicas que impactan los territorios, olvidando el elemento agua, como eje fundamental sobre el cual debería ordenarse el territorio. De ello se deriva que la misma comunidad reconoce que el ordenamiento del territorio nunca consultó sus intereses.

Objective: regional integration in the period 2000-2010, particularly the environmental dimension in the Western and Central Bogotá-Cundinamarca Savannah. Methodology: The study is based on the analysis of the changes shown in the natural environment of the territories under study during the period considered (2000-2010) from their actors' perception..In this case, through the participation exercises in workshops carried out in the municipalities under study with those actors (represented in social organizations present in the area), and included tours around those territories It is intended to collectively build information and knowledge presenting a timeline in which the actors recognize key moments with reference to two major events: Human Settlements (urbanization) and enterprise arrival. This line comprises the first decade of the current century. Results: The research attempts to show that two elements, urban settlements and enterprises arrival, are the anthropic dynamics that impact the territories forgetting the water element as the fundamental axis from which the territory should be planned. From this it is derived that the community recognizes that land use planning never consulted their interests.