We Are Stronger Together: Building Community to Face Barriers for Latin American and Underrepresented Ecologists

Abstract

Diverse groups can provide creative solutions to research problems, as people from different backgrounds and points of view offer valuable input that would otherwise be lost in homogenous groups (Hong and Page 2004, Phillips et al. 2014, Gardiner 2020). Yet, Latin American and other diverse and underrepresented ecologists must deal with challenges that others do not (Nuñez et al. 2021, Arenas-Castro et al. 2024). Some of these challenges include, but are not limited to, language barriers (e.g., Ramírez-Castañeda 2020, Amano et al. 2023, Cao et al. 2024), barriers for female-identifying ecologists (see also Martínez-Blancas et al. 2022), fear of safety and accessibility in the field and the outdoors (see also Ramírez-Castañeda et al. 2022), and access to coding and other computational and institutional resources. Motivated to discuss these issues and propose practical solutions, we organized a symposium for the Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting in 2023 titled “We are stronger together: Building community to face barriers for Latin American and underrepresented ecologists.” We broadly asked the panelists to discuss and reflect on the following: How can we support ecologists outside of North America to showcase their research, network, collaborate, and tackle the issues and inequalities they face?

The talks presented novel results or shared experiences from different organizations already engaged in building communities of diverse ecologists and underrepresented communities through tackling language barriers, women-related issues, culturally relevant teaching, outdoor activities, and citizen science in Latin America and the Caribbean. The talks contributed to the annual meeting's motto of “Ecology for all” by adding a new perspective to the discussion surrounding barriers faced by ecologists outside North America and proposing solutions derived from the experiences of our speakers and the groups they represent, as well as others emerging from discussion during the symposium.

Three of the symposium participants agreed to share their perspectives and findings following the symposium: E. D'Bastiani (Mulheres na Ecologia), S. Moreno (Latino Outdoors), and L. Santiago-Rosario (Club Eco-Evo Latinoamérica).

The symposium organized by the ESA Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Chapter of ESA aimed to highlight diverse efforts to address challenges faced by ecologists from Latin America and additional underrepresented backgrounds. However, we have only begun to scratch the surface regarding the many efforts by folks in the ecology community to build community and bridge the gaps and barriers faced by ecologists beyond the dominant groups in North America.

The LAC chapter is continuing to build upon this effort in various ways by continuing to work in partnership with diverse groups and was involved with several activities during the 2024 ESA Annual Meeting in Long Beach. For example, the LAC chapter organized two sessions, one of which is a direct follow-up of the 2023 symposium described here, inviting organizations across Latin America who are creating networks and communities for ecologists titled “The Role of Latin American Networks in Supporting Ecologists Throughout Their Careers.” Furthermore, the LAC chapter organized a session focused on the language and accessibility barriers regarding publishing in ecological journals titled “Publishing our ecology across languages and borders.” Lastly, the LAC chapter worked together with other ESA chapters to organize a symposium on how sections/chapters are creating inclusive spaces for early career scientists and how that has led to better recruitment, retention, and success in ecology. We plan to thoroughly describe the outcomes of all these events soon in a Bulletin piece.

While we recognize that these efforts in isolation will not provide all the solutions needed to reduce the barriers and gaps faced by ecologists in Latin America and broadly ecologists from marginalized backgrounds, we aim to continue with the mission of bringing together and highlighting a diversity of efforts across ecological communities and moving forward stronger together.