This article describes and analyzes the state of research in environmental education in Latin America based on the review of articles published in journals of education indexed in SciELO and Redalyc from 2000 to 2013. A database was constructed considering the year in which the article was published, the name of the journal, the abstract, the country and the methodology used in the study. The results evidence that despite the boom of programs and experiences in environmental education in the region, there are few articles that explore systematically their effectiveness in educating people. We discuss the methodological strategies that researchers use to assess the impact of environmental education programs in Latin America and the importance of researching the evidence that can be obtained on their effectiveness.