The First Congress of the Latin American Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (LAERE) was held at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, from March 19 to 21, 2025. The Congress gathered professionals researching Latin America on several topics, such as the social-ecological impacts of resource extraction (e.g. in the global energy transition); the potential of economic incentives, social tipping interventions and protected areas, amongst other types of interventions. The intention was to motivate biodiversity conservation and climate action; and the use of economic experiments to study collective action and promising interventions to foster it. The Congress’ keynote presentations can be accessed at this link.

In this setting, Juan Felipe Ortiz-Riomalo, Stefanie Engel and Ann-Kathrin Koessler presented their research on participatory vision-building for collective action. The Congress presented an excellent opportunity to learn about ongoing and planned research in the region and to meet other potential researchers to partner on shared projects, such as participatory approaches for environmental research and action.