El Índice Integral de Salud de Ecosistemas (IISE): un indicador multicriterio de sustentabilidad netamente latinoamericano

Sustainability is a complex problem, beyond solutions that are strictly environmental or technological. In this reality, axiologically diverse problems (environment, economy, society) are faced as well as practical multidisciplinary problems and actions in socio-ecological systems that are hard to define as discrete units. To propose sustainability indicators implies an effort extending from ethical, organizational and educational matters to strictly technical ones. Also, a trend of collaborative models taking charge of sustainability processes is common today. It is a parallel process of academic and civil society development toward ecological democracy. In this line of thinking, this research reflects on the experience of the Holistic Ecosystem Health Indicator (HEHI). It was originally designed in Costa Rica to evaluate the sustainability of managed protected areas and has also been applied in Puerto Rico and the United States. This experience has generated information on the needs of valuation systems. It has been implemented in collaborative models of conservation. There it has supported iterative monitoring. Reflecting on this experience seeks to help understand the implications of its potential use as a multicriteria tool in support of ecological economic decision making within a political ecology framework.