Interview with Prof. Dr. Walter Alberto Pengue—Session Chair at the 1st International Online Conference on Environments 2026
Name: Prof. Dr. Walter Alberto Pengue
Affiliations: 1 Department of Ecological Economics and Agroecology, National University of General Sarmiento, Los Polvorines, Argentina;
2 Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism of Buenos Aires University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
I am an agricultural engineer, with a specialization in plant genetic improvement (plant breeding) from the University of Buenos Aires, with a master’s degree in environmental and territorial policies, and doctorate in agroecology, sociology and sustainable rural development. I have carried out postdoctoral stays at the Universities of Tromso (Norway) and at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand). Full Professor of Ecological Economics and Agroecology at the National University General Sarmiento (UNGS) and Director of the Landscape and Environmental Ecology Group (GEPAMA) at the University of Buenos Aires (FADU UBA), Argentina.
During the last three decades, I founded the Argentine and Uruguayan Society for Ecological Economics (ASAUEE) and was a member of the world board of the ISEE (International Society for Ecological Economics). I was one of the founders of SOCLA, the Latin American Scientific Society for Agroecology, for which currently chairs the Ethics Committee. More than 30 years of experience in researching the environmental and socio-economic impacts of industrial agriculture, transgenic agriculture and the food system at national, regional and global levels and their relationship with the use of natural resources (soil, water, genetic resources). International expert, reviewer, lead author and coordinator of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services IPBES (since 2019) and the United Nations Environmental Resource Panel (2007 to 2015). I was lead author of IPCC Round 6 (2019/2022) and currently Coordinating Leading author in the IPBES NEXUS project (2021 to 2025), which conducts thematic analyses of the interrelationship between food systems, biodiversity, health, water and climate change. I am a member of the CLACSO network for agroecology in the Andes and political agroecology and member of the Argentine Academy of Environmental Sciences and of several scientific advisory committees on sustainable development, environment, agriculture and food in Argentina. I am a visiting professor at universities in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, and a member of the group of Fundamental Environmental thinkers of ECLAC, United Nations.
All my documents, papers, research papers and conferences you can download directly and free from my ResearchGate page. Practically all the papers are related to my main issues of research working: ecological economics, food systems, ecoagrifood systems, agroecology, political ecology and natural resources.
2. What do you think of the development status and trends of open access publishing?The issue of open access to scientific publications is essential. It contributes directly to a true democracy of scientific knowledge. It is a powerful pillar in the genuine pursuit of the common good in human society. However, I find that—due to its publication costs—it remains an obstacle to achieving an adequate balance of participation for researchers in the Global South. I understand that there is already an effort underway to find support or grants for these researchers. However, these should be increased to facilitate access for a greater number of researchers from the Global South. Furthermore, the process should be streamlined from the outset, clearly indicating this possibility for these researchers. And these initiatives should be promoted among scientific societies in the Global South, with an additional effort to disseminate this information to them.
3. What is your impression of the Environments journal?The journal is an open-access publication that addresses relevant topics related to the environment, ecology, environmental science and technology, and offers compelling interdisciplinary approaches to these subjects. Its open and global perspective provides a platform for researchers from both the developed and developing worlds to explore topics of interest, without bias or prejudice toward research areas focused on the developed world. This opens up exciting new avenues for scientists to look beyond their own knowledge and regional boundaries.
The strong support of the editorial team, the extensive reviewer base, and the constant monitoring and support of the journal ensure the smooth operation of the publication, guaranteeing remarkably efficient review, editing, and publication times. Furthermore, when compared to other publications, MDPI's Environments presents a very promising path to gaining new publication opportunities.
4. What do you think will be the research hotspots in the field of environmental systems in the next few years, and can you describe them to us?The environmental issue of the future is environmental and social complexity. It is no longer possible to address the very serious environmental and climate problems in isolation. This requires a comprehensive approach. Added to this is the intense tension surrounding how humanity uses its natural resources—both renewable and non-renewable—as well as how it utilizes the ecosystem services that nature provides.
It is essential to analyze these processes in relation to human demands, pressures, and needs, where it is relevant to incorporate, in every sense, the role that economics and sociology play and have in dialogue with ecology and all the other life sciences. Humanity is pushing against planetary boundaries and how to utilize them. Added to this are other complexities such as the role of climate change and global environmental change on civilizational development. Also, the role that new environmental technologies and AI may have in achieving, or not achieving, greater planetary stability. For this reason, ongoing dialogue with other actors—outside the academic system—is crucial. This is true even for researchers working in laboratories or with basic science, since their results can impact the community in various ways. Dialogue with members of local communities and indigenous peoples also helps to understand contexts and processes that have been built up over centuries. And it can potentially improve not only our science and technology, but also the wisdom to better understand how to use them in different contexts, regions, countries, and social structures.
Environmental issues involve analyzing the connections inherent in complexity. Some new approaches, for example, for food systems, which is my area of focus, involve analyzing not only interactions one at a time, but the multiple connections between water, land, genetic resources, environmental health, other species, and people. And all of this within a new global context such as climate change. What some have termed the Nexus Approach.
5. Can you give any advice on academic research for young scholars in related fields?It's simple. In all cases involving environmental issues, it's equally, if not more, relevant to understand the context alongside the key aspects of the environmental issue at hand, which will almost certainly be related to a specific resource and its interactions. Added to this is a new dynamic to explore: the issue of pollution, and again, not only its impacts but also the underlying causes that have led us to this particular problem. Regarding environmental impacts, it's crucial to promote studies that analyze trends, as well as possible alternative scenarios for achieving ecosystemic sustainability rather than purely economic or financial sustainability. Again, the Nexus perspective can be very helpful in this regard.
6. Could you kindly share with us your thoughts and outlook on this E-conference?The conference is positive in many ways. First, there's the issue of travel, accommodation, and associated costs, and consequently, the reduction in resource consumption. Furthermore, technology becomes a tremendous facilitator of interaction among researchers from different parts of the world, all connected through the Environments platform. On another note, the efficient system for organizing, managing, and reviewing submitted abstracts provides authors, reviewers, and editors with a highly efficient and useful workflow. And clearly, given the mechanics and implementation of the E-conference, I believe it can serve as an interesting example and model for other similar events to follow in building collective learning, which greatly benefits the academic community.
In these times, different approaches and perspectives are emerging regarding the economy, production, and their relationship with natural resources and society. This has led to diverse approaches to the intersection of economics, society, and nature.
Various disciplines, related in some ways, have grown in recent decades to analyze these issues, each with its own approach. Thus, emerged in the 1980s and 1990s the approaches of ecological economics—for me, the most complete and comprehensive in addressing environmental and social complexity—and environmental economics—more focused on pricing both exchanges and impacts, incorporating only those externalities that can be economically valued. More recently, bioeconomy has emerged, focusing on the issues of interest in the discussions between biotechnology and production, as well as the utilization of emerging biodiversity, as is the case in megadiverse countries like Brazil, Ecuador, the Congo, and several others. The perspective of the Circular Economy has also arrived, contributing to the analysis of cycles—for example, life cycles, LCAs—to understand what we call material metabolism, that is, how materials, products, and waste enter and leave a system.
In this section of the Conference, we have received and reviewed papers that fall within one or more of the subdisciplines we are addressing, covering topics such as the roles of biodiversity and production, materials recycling, appropriate new technologies, and the role of innovative methodologies in integrating analyses. This makes it attractive both for training and for the exchange of new ideas and concepts. We will also be joined by world-renowned experts in ecological economics, environmental economics, and bioeconomy, who will undoubtedly enrich the discussion and help foster new debates and interactions among researchers. The opportunity to participate in an E-conference of this caliber, free of charge for participants, is an added value that we must emphasize.