Abstract

GUTIERREZ CEDILLO, Jesús Gastón; AGUILERA GOMEZ, Luis Isaac  and  GONZALEZ ESQUIVEL, Carlos Ernesto. Agroecología y sustentabilidad. Convergencia [online]. 2008, vol.15, n.46, pp.51-87. ISSN 2448-5799.

The paper emphasizes the importance of agro-ecology in the search for sustainability of natural resources management in rural areas. It starts discussing the relevance of reaching balance between the natural and social systems. A holistic interpretation of natural and human systems through the concept of coevolution is proposed, as well as the incorporation of sociocultural and economic elements in the analysis of ecosystems, emphasizing the challenge of transition from the market value towards the ecological value and human wellbeing. In the second part of the study, a multidisciplinary approach for the management of agro-ecological systems is presented as a fundamental requirement for sustainability, stressing the importance of agro-ecology in the efforts for achieving development, productivity and social profit in the long term. The paper closes by discussing the challenge of agricultural research towards the study of complex interactions and transdisciplinariness; emphasizing the importance of institutions on researching and promoting the agro-ecological practice; and it concludes analyzing applications, limitations, potentials and perspectives of agro-ecology as an emergent discipline.

Keywords : Agro-ecology; coevolution; complex systems; sustainability.