From Argentina to Panama, Communities and Universities Join Forces to Rethink Urban Climate Adaptation
In a Mapuche neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, artisans are trading traditional adobe bricks for experimental eco-friendly alternatives. In a canyon that straddles the U.S.–Mexico border, families are planting vegetation to stem polluted runoff. And in Panama’s Parita Bay, grassroots leaders are defending wetlands that shelter thousands of migratory shorebirds.
These are just three of five community-driven projects launched this week across Latin America under a new initiative to accelerate ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) in cities. The program, led by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) Transdisciplinary Academy and the EPIC Network, seeks to show how unusual partnerships between universities and communities can drive climate resilience in the Global South.
Funded through the Global EbA Fund —financed by International Climate Initiative (IKI) of theGerman Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) and co-managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and partners— the projects aim to support innovative approaches to EbA to create enabling environments for its mainstreaming and scaling up.
“Urban communities in Latin America are often on the frontline of climate risks, but rarely in the driver’s seat of adaptation,” said Kim Portmess, STeP Program Lead at the IAI. “This initiative flips that dynamic by giving communities the tools, knowledge, and partnerships to shape their own futures.”
Balancing Tradition and Innovation in Argentina
In Campo La Cruz, a Mapuche community in Junín, adobe brickmaking has been central to both livelihoods and cultural identity. But the practice contributes to deforestation and land degradation. Through the project CheCiencia, community members are working with researchers from the National University of the Northwest of the Province of Buenos Aires to co-design solutions: ecological bricks made from recycled plastics, remediation of degraded areas, and assessments of urban climate risks.
“We want to keep our traditions alive, but also protect the land that sustains us,” said a community leader.
Food Security and Education in Colombia
In the hills outside Medellín, the SERES Project is transforming schools into climate hubs. Children tend urban gardens while families restore nearby forests, learning about rainwater harvesting, composting, and water conservation. The goal is not just environmental recovery but building resilience into everyday life.
Cross-Border Challenges in Mexico
In Tijuana’s Los Laureles Canyon, where untreated wastewater and garbage wash into Mexico’s protected estuaries, residents are confronting both local and binational crises. A new initiative led by Universidad Iberoamericana Tijuana and Costa Salvaje A.C. combines phytoremediation, clean-ups, and environmental and public health education with legal advocacy for the constitutional right to a healthy environment.
Meanwhile, further inland, a second Mexican project is targeting one of the world’s dirtiest industries: construction. By recycling demolition waste and scrap glass, researchers and builders in Baja California are testing greener materials to reduce emissions, protect aquifers, and restore damaged ecosystems.
Wetlands Under Pressure in Panama
Panama’s Parita Bay is one of the country’s most important sites for migratory birds, yet it faces intense pressure from Chitré’s rapid urban growth. Here, communities are documenting traditional fishing and tourism practices while demanding a voice in land-use planning. The coalition hopes to safeguard mangroves and salt marshes that provide food, flood protection, and “blue carbon” storage.
A Model for the Global South
Taken together, the five projects represent a shift in how climate adaptation is being approached in Latin America: not as imported solutions, but as collaborative experiments that weave together academic teaching with local knowledge.
Climate experts say this approach is gaining urgency as cities in the Global South grow faster than anywhere else. The Global EbA Fund noted that, if these unconventional collaborations succeed, they could serve as a template for other urban areas facing the twin pressures of climate change and inequality.