Ecosystem services as an inclusive social metaphor for the analysis and management of environmental conflicts in Colombia

Abstract Few studies have analyzed the relationships between the ecosystems services(ES) approach and the analysis of environmental conflicts (EC) in Latin American contexts. This article demonstrates the importance of incorporating some aspects of the recent developments in the ecosystem servicesframework in order to improve the analysis and management of environmental conflicts. We created a general analytical framework with which to identify the links between these two approaches. We also proposed using two key elements in the ES framework in order to strengthen the analysis of EC: a) new perspectives on ES valuation and b) an ES trade-off analysis. We presented our results on two scales: 1) at the national level, we described the general links between ecosystem servicesand environmental conflicts, and 2) at the local level, we developed a more detailed analysis of these elements based on a case study in Cajamarca, Tolima. We believe that both frameworks can strengthen each other in complex and conflicting contexts such as those in Colombia and in Latin America in general.