The objective of this literature review is to understand the complexity of the environmental issue in a context of civilizational crisis generated by the scientific paradigm and the prevailing forms of knowledge. From this research, the objective is to evaluate the pedagogical exercise and the role of the environmental education in the supreme task of forming a cognitive, ethical, political, and historical subject capable of taking the new planetary challenges on. The structural order of this essay focuses on a critical reflection on the environmental crisis; it also questions the restrictions of the environmental education, and, from the complexity, the reasons for trying to incorporate new fields of study with a transdisciplinary approach. This paper analyzes the structural causes of the discourse of development as factors that generate the social, political and environmental conflict in Colombia. These causes are reflected in an institutional crisis, absence of the State, and, therefore, in governability; for which education makes possible a pedagogical exercise in a critical formation that leads to a configuration of democracy and public management. The exercise of power, the decision-making and the role of human subjects must be accomplished in a conscious and ethical way (integrative values). In order to achieve this, an ethics of development is essential to understand and assume responsibility for environmental issues. It is understood, then, that the development supports an ethical dimension promoting sustainable interactions between the society and the nature.

Stakeholders and their dynamics are often neglected in innovation system literature. The importance of the bioeconomy is growing due to its implications for addressing environmental challenges, shaping economic decisions, markets, and sustainable development. This paper analyses stakeholders’ dynamics for knowledge creation and innovation to transit from unsustainable practices to the sustainable use of biological resources—the bioeconomy. The originality of this paper is the creation of an analytical framework to characterise the interactions of stakeholders and how these interactions reshape innovation systems to create a new narrative and knowledge-base platform for innovation. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected through surveys between 2022 and 2024. We explored the dynamics of 29 stakeholders involved and collaborating in R&D activities from the biotechnology sector in Caldas, Colombia. Our findings show that dynamics towards the bioeconomy are occurring only at the discursive level. Stakeholders carry out research activities to generate income rather than for innovative purposes, overlooking informal interactions that create novel ideas that could translate into solutions, services, and products. We conclude that the bioeconomy transition needs a systemic disequilibrium with a new institutional infrastructure that enables stakeholders, including civil society, to create a structural change for embracing innovation dynamics.

Colombia condenses a paradox common across Latin America’s extractive economies: one of the region’s cleanest electricity matrices—close to 60% of installed capacity is hydropower—coexists with large-scale coal and oil exports, while renewable potential concentrates in ethnic and peasant territories that remain energy-poor. Although the country has enacted an ambitious just-transition framework, conflicts persist. This study asks which epistemological and ontological factors constrain or enable that transition. Using an interpretive-critical qualitative design, it triangulates four evidentiary pillars: critical discourse analysis of policy instruments, a structured critical review of the academic and policy literature, six megaproject case studies, and ten participatory workshops with 259 territorial actors across nine departments. Six recurrent, cross-case findings emerge: epistemological asymmetry, ontological irreducibility of territory, participation reduced to procedure, fragmented governance, the Caribbean territorial paradox (La Guajira combines the country’s highest renewable potential with its lowest electricity coverage), and unresolved fiscal dependence on hydrocarbons. The study’s novelty is Territorial Energy Sustainability (SET), a six-condition framework that articulates sustainability-transitions theory with Latin American critical thought and operationalizes it into five levels of policy intervention, offering a transferable framework for energy-exporting countries of the Global South pursuing transitions that transform rather than reproduce inequality.

Stakeholders and their dynamics are often neglected in innovation systems literature. The importance of bioeconomy is growing for its implications on addressing environmental challenges, shaping economic decisions, markets and sustainable development. This paper analyses stakeholders’ dynamics for knowledge creation and innovation to transit from unsustainable practices to the sustainable use of biological resources - bioeconomy. The originality of this paper is the creation of an analytical framework to characterise the interactions of stakeholders and how these interactions reshape the innovation systems to create a new narrative and a new knowledge base platform for innovation. Using a qualitative approach, data was collected through surveys between 2022 and 2024. We explored the dynamics of 29 stakeholders involved and collaborating in R&D activities from the biotechnology sector in Caldas, Colombia. Our findings show that dynamics towards bioeconomy are only at the discursive level. Stakeholders carry out research activities as a means to generate income rather than for innovative purposes, overlooking informal interactions which generate novel ideas that could translate into solutions, services, and products. We conclude that bioeconomy transition needs a systemic disequilibrium by a new institutional infrastructure that enables stakeholders, including civil society, to create a structural change for embracing innovation dynamics.

A nivel global el análisis desde varias perspectivas ha señalado que las deficiencias en los procesos de planificación de la utilización del espacio urbano y rural, ha generado desarrollos espaciales desiguales con sus consecuentes problemas sociales y económicos (Bi et al., 2022 Bi, G., Yang, Q., & Yan, Y. (2022). Rural settlement reconstruction integrating land suitability and individual difference factors: a case study of Pingba Village, China. Land, 11, 1724. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ land11101724 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ land11101724... ). La susceptibilidad a las presiones medioambientales, especialmente bajo las condiciones de cambio climático plantean un reto especial en la planificación en zonas urbanas como rurales. Ante este panorama se vienen planteando propuestas como las soluciones basadas en la naturaleza -NBS- que ante la necesidad de resiliencia a través de la adaptación, consideran diferentes interacciones entre las actividades humanas y el medio natural, tomando en consideración espacios como las cuencas hidrográficas y los ecosistemas (Banzhaf et al., 2022 Banzhaf, E., Anderson, S., Grandin, G., Hardiman, R., Jensen, A., Jones, L., Knopp, J., Levin, G., Russel, D., Wu, W., Yang, J., & Zandersen, M. (2022). Urban-rural dependencies and opportunities to design nature-based solutions for resilience in Europe and China. Land, 11(4), 480. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land11040480 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land11040480... ), o la estrategia de evaluación de espacios de producción, de vida y servicios ecológicos (PLE) como mecanismo base para la planificación y la superación de conflictos de uso del suelo en zonas rurales (Zhao et al., 2022 Zhao, T., Cheng, Y., Fan, Y., & Fan, X. (2022). Functional tradeoffs and feature recognition of rural production-living-ecological spaces. Land, 11, 1103. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land1107110 https://doi.org/10.3390/land1107110... ).

En este trabajo se analizan las bases de la gestión ambiental frente al cambio climático en los 12 municipios del departamento de Quindío, Colombia. Se efectúo una revisión documental y análisis de datos y observaciones obtenidos sobre la gestión ambiental en el marco de cambio y análisis climático en la planificación territorial y planes de desarrollo sobre dos vigencias administrativas (2012–2015 y 2016-2019). Se encontró que las directrices para el progreso no han sido implementadas efectivamente en algunas administraciones o es incompleta la inclusión del tema ambiental y climático, en el ordenamiento territorial de las respectivas administraciones municipales, en el sentido de establecer medidas de protección y prevención ambiental efectivas. Lo anterior se debe al modelo económico imperante y/o en casos, por ejemplo, a los conflictos de interés de las personas que realizan y proyectan las herramientas en el contexto de la planificación y desarrollo sustentable. Por tanto, enfrentar desafíos de gestión ambiental a la luz de los requisitos del cambio climático a nivel de los gobiernos locales requiere una comprensión de las complejas dimensiones del territorio y la coordinación con la identidad del mismo, más allá de un modelo desarrollo impuesto.