Socioecological transformations, climate change and territorial resilience in Latin America

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence on social-ecological transformations, climate governance, adaptive capacity and territorial resilience in Latin America has expanded during the last years, but differences in design, scale, indicators and territorial context still complicate direct comparison. A traceable synthesis is therefore needed to distinguish robust patterns from claims that depend on local implementation conditions. Objective: To critically examine the evidence on social-ecological transformations, climate governance, adaptive capacity and territorial resilience in Latin America, identifying recurrent mechanisms, context-dependent effects and gaps that matter for policy and territorial management. Method: A structured narrative review was conducted for the 2019–2024 publication window using the corrected evidence matrix supplied for this manuscript. The final corpus comprised 20 peer-reviewed journal studies, each with a real and traceable DOI. Searches and verification considered Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, SciELO, Redalyc, Google Scholar and journal platforms. Eligibility required thematic relevance, explicit methods, recoverable results and bibliographic traceability. Study context, design, analytical dimensions, principal findings and limitations were extracted and synthesized comparatively. Results: The corpus shows that resilience improves when climate knowledge is translated into locally feasible strategies, institutional coordination is sustained and adaptive options account for unequal territorial capacities. Studies also identify tensions between urgency, long-term transformation and distributive justice. Across the corpus, stronger inferences came from studies that linked measurable outcomes with implementation processes and clearly described territorial conditions. Conclusions: The synthesis supports context-sensitive.