Can agricultural heritage systems keep clean production in the context of modernization? A case study of Qingtian Rice-Fish Culture System of China based on carbon footprint - Wenjun Jiao; Wenchao Cui; Siyuan He (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Enabling spaces for bridging scales: scanning solutions for interdisciplinary human-environment research - Cecilie Friis; Mónica Hernández-Morcillo; Matthias Baumann; Claudia Coral; Theresa Frommen; Arash Ghoddousi; David Loibl; Philippe Rufin (Sustainability Science, 2023)
To tackle the twenty-first-century challenges for sustainability, a deeper understanding of their complexity is needed. Hence, interdisciplinary human–environment research integrating knowledge, perspectives, and solutions across scales is crucial. Yet, questions of ‘scale’ and ‘scaling’ continue to challenge human–environment research. Despite substantial scholarly attention to scales, no unified definitions and understanding exist, causing confusion among researchers. In this paper, we aim to provide clarity to the challenges and potential solutions to bridging scales in interdisciplinary human–environment research as well as identify leverage points and arenas of change that would enable it. We used a three-step methodology to (a) identify the challenges and solutions based on a survey of 82 interdisciplinary researchers, (b) prioritise the challenges and solutions based on expert elicitation, and (c) organise the solutions according to their potential for leveraging change at three system arenas: individual researchers, institutions and organisations, and the wider academic structures. The main challenges ranged from issues related to differences in research approaches, lack of resources for deeper collaborations, or conflicting perspectives on problem and scale definitions, to miscommunication. The specific solutions linked to these challenges were predominantly related to the potential of improving the research process through open communication, data sharing, or new techniques for upscaling or downscaling results. We argue that bridging scales requires open and humble conversations across disciplines on scale understandings as well as improved collaboration through data sharing, method development, result dissemination, and contribution to theory. Facilitating such collaboration requires enabling spaces of interaction across three systemic arenas: the individual researcher’s personal commitment to open communication and reflection, the research institution’s capacity to enable interdisciplinary spaces, and the wider academic system valuing and supporting interdisciplinary and cross-scale initiatives.

Joint problem framing: a transdisciplinary methodology for a sustainable future in mountain areas - Carine Pachoud; Enora Bruley; Julia Grosinger; Anne-Sophie Crépeau; Emmanuel Salim; Camille Savre; Yannick Vialette (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Energizing a transformation to a circular bioeconomy: mechanisms to spread, deepen and broaden initiatives - O. M. Schagen; T. A. P. Metze; E. M. de Olde; C. J. A. M. Termeer (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Transformative change is necessary to reach a circular bioeconomy. In this context, a variety of societal and business initiatives have emerged, which in their everyday practices aim to increase their circular impact. These emerging circular initiatives, so-called small wins, continuously spread, deepen and broaden and as such contribute to transformative change. A small win spreads by becoming larger and more numerous, deepens by becoming more radical and circular, and broadens by connecting with other themes and domains. This paper explores how mechanisms drive these processes and, more in particular, how circular initiatives stay or become more transformative while developing. By building on existing literature about mechanisms that contribute to the development of initiatives—we extend the small wins framework by focusing on the interplay between mechanisms and spreading, deepening and broadening. We applied this framework to two illustrative cases in the Netherlands: a circular laying hen farm, Kipster, and the community farming initiative, Herenboeren. We empirically explored how the interplay of mechanisms constitutes continuous transformative change. The results indicate that deepening the small win is mainly driven by learning by doing; spreading takes place through professionalization and broadening by partnering. Both case studies indicate that the energizing and logic of attraction mechanisms are key in continuous transformative change.

Arts, place, and sacrifice zones: restoration of damaged relational values in a Chilean sacrifice zone - Teresa Sanz; Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This paper aims to unpack the relational dimension of place and placemaking by analysing how creative actions underpin relational values towards socio-spatial restoration in the sacrifice zone affecting the communities of Quintero and Puchuncaví (QPSZ) in Chile. Sacrifice zones are places permanently subject to environmental damage and lack of environmental regulation. For affected populations in environmentally degraded areas, creative actions such as murals, music, and street performances have become a way to re-establish connections both among humans, and between humans and the environment. To date, little has been theorized on this connection. With this in mind, we use network analysis to analyze which and how relational values are mobilized by artistic actions, and to examine ensuing socio-spatial transformations. Drawing insights from 35 interviews with activists, artists, and residents in QPSZ, we observed relational effects of arts, especially in creation processes, and in representations of local elements and life histories. The materiality of artistic practices raised as a force of placemaking, and so did artistic spaces as promoters of networking and social cohesion, essential for socio-spatial restoration. By bringing together insights from aesthetic politics, human geography, and relational values, this paper contributes to the emerging literature on art committed to tackling socio-environmental crises, and to political–ecological theories on the transformation of degraded areas.

Disruptive seeds: a scenario approach to explore power shifts in sustainability transformations - Lucas Rutting; Joost Vervoort; Heleen Mees; Laura Pereira; Marieke Veeger; Karlijn Muiderman; Astrid Mangnus; Klara Winkler; Per Olsson; Tanja Hichert; Richard Lane; Bruno Bottega Pergher; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Over the last 2 decades, it has become increasingly evident that incremental adaptation to global environmental challenges—particularly climate change—no longer suffices. To make matters worse, systemic problems such as social inequity and unsustainable use of resources prove to be persistent. These challenges call for, such is the rationale, significant and radical systemic changes that challenge incumbent structures. Remarkably, scholarship on sustainability transformations has only engaged with the role of power dynamics and shifts in a limited fashion. This paper responds to a need for methods that support the creation of imaginative transformation pathways while attending to the roles that power shifts play in transformations. To do this, we extended the “Seeds of Good Anthropocenes” approach, incorporating questions derived from scholarship on power into the methodology. Our ‘Disruptive Seeds’ approach focuses on niche practices that actively challenge unsustainable incumbent actors and institutions. We tested this novel approach in a series of participatory pilot workshops. Generally, the approach shows great potential as it facilitates explicit discussion about the way power shifts may unfold in transformations. It is a strong example of the value of mixing disciplinary perspectives to create new forms of scenario thinking—following the call for more integrated work on anticipatory governance that combines futures thinking with social and political science research into governance and power. Specifically, the questions about power shifts in transformations used in this paper to adapt the Seeds approach can also be used to adapt other future methods that similarly lack a focus on power shifts—for instance, explorative scenarios, classic back-casting approaches, and simulation gaming.

Critical change agent characteristics and competencies for ensuring systemic climate adaptation interventions - S. Meharg (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Sustainability innovations: a proposal for an analytical framework and its empirical application in the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve - Caroline Hélène Dabard; Carsten Mann (Sustainability Science, 2023)
A bstract Sustainability innovations influence societal transformations through the development of new products, processes, organizations, behaviors or values. Although various research approaches have tackled technological innovations in the last few decades, the specificities and enabling conditions of individual sustainability innovations remain rather unknown. We therefore propose an analytical framework, built on learning from the social–ecological systems and transitions literature. The sustainability innovation framework features four dimensions: context, actors, process and outcomes, which are detailed in 31 variables. We use the sustainability innovation framework to analyze two case studies selected in the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve, Germany. The first refers to technological and organizational innovation in mobility, while the second relates to social and organizational innovation in agriculture. As a result, we highlight commonalities and differences in enabling conditions and variables between the two cases, which underpin the influence of trust, commitment, resource availability, experimenting, learning, advocating, and cooperating for innovation development. The cases further demonstrate that sustainability innovations develop as bundles of interdependent, entangled novelties, due to their disruptive character. Their specificity thereby resides in positive outcomes in terms of social–ecological integrity and equity. This study therefore contributes to transitions studies via a detailed characterization of sustainability innovations and of their outcomes, as well as through a generic synthesis of variables into an analytical framework that is applicable to a large and diverse range of individual sustainability innovations. Further empirical studies should test these findings in other contexts, to pinpoint generic innovation development patterns and to develop a typology of sustainability innovation archetypes.

Living labs in the context of the UN sustainable development goals: state of the art - Walter Leal Filho; Pinar Gokcin Ozuyar; Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis; Anabela Marisa Azul; María Garcia Alvarez; Samara da Silva Neiva; Amanda Lange Salvia; Bruno Borsari; Andreea Danila; Claudio Ruy Vasconcelos (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This paper reports on a comprehensive study, which has investigated the approaches, methods and tools being deployed in implementing living labs among higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world. Two methods were employed. First, a bibliometric analysis of the current emphasis given to living labs in a sustainable development context and in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Second, an empirical study aimed at identifying the use levels of living labs at HEIs. This was accomplished through an analysis of selected case studies that showcased successful approaches to SDGs implementation with living labs, and resulted in a framework for action. There are three main findings from these analyses. The first is that the multidisciplinary character of living labs in the context of sustainable development needs to be considered, to maximize their impacts. Second, most of the studied living labs focus on SDGs 4 and 11, which deal with providing quality education and ensuring the sustainable development of cities and communities. Third, the challenges encountered in the implementation of living labs refer to (1) the complexities in institutional administration, (2) the tensions between different groups of interest that need to be addressed by enhanced communication, and (3) the necessity to pay attention to the demand of using sustainability and innovation as a strategy in the operations of living labs. The paper draws from the experiences and lessons learned and suggests specific measures, which will improve the use of living labs as more systemic tools towards the implementation of the SDGs.

Working the boundary: science–policy interactions and uneven knowledge politics in IPBES - Viviana Wiegleb; Antje Bruns (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The rising demand for policy-relevant knowledge has supported the emergence of global boundary organizations at the science–policy interface. By synthesizing environmental knowledge for policy-makers, boundary organizations influence how we know and govern sustainability challenges. Therefore, it is essential to better understand what happens in and through these organizations. This paper examines the very practices that configure science–policy relations in global boundary organizations by studying the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Through Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Political Ecology perspectives, we disclose mechanisms of boundary work that demarcate science from non-science and, hereby, determine which expertise becomes authoritative in IPBES. Building on original empirical data, we first examine how science and policy domains were interrelated during the IPBES global assessment process (2016–2019). Second, we investigate how this boundary work shaped the production of biodiversity knowledge. Our findings indicate that integration and demarcation efforts configured science–policy relations through formalized and informal mechanisms. We argue that this boundary work continuously established science as authoritative voice for addressing biodiversity loss in IPBES. Spatial aspects of boundary work highlight power differentials between IPBES member States that manifested in uneven geographies of knowledge. Instead of concealing these inequalities through the norm of political neutrality, we need to recognize boundary organizations as political spaces in which science and policy are co-produced. By adopting a critical and reflexive co-productionist approach, it becomes possible to addresses uneven knowledge–power relations through more inclusive and transparent practices. Boundary organizations, such as IPBES, are then able to provide more diversified environmental explanations and transformative solutions.

Enabling collective agency for sustainability transformations through reframing in the Xochimilco social–ecological system - Lakshmi Charli-Joseph; Jesús Mario Siqueiros-García; Hallie Eakin; David Manuel-Navarrete; Marisa Mazari-Hiriart; Rebecca Shelton; Patricia Pérez-Belmont; Beatriz Ruizpalacios (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Flexibility for intergenerational justice in climate resilience decision-making: an application on sea-level rise in the Netherlands - Jose D. Teodoro; N. Doorn; J. Kwakkel; T. Comes (Sustainability Science, 2023)
To adapt to a changing climate, decision-makers design, evaluate, and implement measures that have an implication of justice on citizens in the present and well into the future. Decision-makers are often required to make decisions without certainty of the consequences and understanding their effects on intergenerational justice. Thus, managing the impacts of climate change requires novel decision-aiding approaches that consider climate impacts’ temporal and spatial heterogeneity and the uncertainty in climate predictions, preferences, and values. We reviewed the literature on the extent to which principles of intergenerational justice—conservation of options and resources for future generations—have been integrated to traditional approaches in climate resilience decision-making. We explore the extent to which flexibility, i.e., the conservation and expansion of options in subsequent decision periods, can contribute to upholding the principles of intergenerational justice under uncertainty. We illustrate the approach in the case of the Delta Programme in the Netherlands, a complex system designed to protect against sea-level rise (SLR). Designing adaptation strategies to SLR with flexibility as a core concept brings significant advantages in circumstances of uncertainty. The conservation of options in flexible pathways, in this case, contributes to the principles of intergenerational justice. Our civilization’s long-term sustainability and survival may depend on the extent to which individuals can see beyond their gains and toward the gains of the collective society at an intergenerational scale.

Ecological ceiling and social floor: public support for eco-social policies in Sweden - Jamil Khan; Kajsa Emilsson; Martin Fritz; Max Koch; Roger Hildingsson; Håkan Johansson (Sustainability Science, 2023)
In this article, we investigate public support for eco-social policies combining goals of social justice and ecological sustainability. Eco-social policies contribute both to providing a social floor or redistributing resources to where they are needed and to respecting an ecological ceiling by keeping human activities within ecological limits. We discuss five such policies and highlight arguments for and against defining them as eco-social policies: a maximum income, a wealth tax, a basic income, a working time reduction and a meat tax. Asking what the social and individual determinants of supporting these policies are, we use 2020 data from a representative survey in Sweden containing information about how respondents evaluate the policies. We run regression analyses to estimate the effects on these evaluations and test for socio-economic, knowledge-based and value-based factors. Results show that (1) in Sweden a working time reduction is the most supported eco-social policy; (2) political left orientation increases support for all five eco-social policies; (3) socio-economic factors have effects on wealth tax, maximum income and working time reduction; and (4) knowledge-based factors are more associated with the meat tax. Thus, socio-economic and knowledge-based models have the most significance for policies that could be understood as being either social or environmental, while value-based models have significance across potentially perceived policy divides and hence to a greater extent explain support for policies targeting an ecological ceiling and a social floor.

Crossing borders, building new ones, or shifting boundaries? Shared narratives and individual paths towards inter/transdisciplinarity in research centres for urban sustainability - Laura Soledad Norton; Giulia Sonetti; Mauro Sarrica (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Inter/transdisciplinarity (ITD) is a pillar of sustainability studies, often presented as the way to conduct research and practice especially in conflictual and politicised real-world stakeholder constellations. Several studies emphasise the need to consider the communicative processes through which it is put into practice. However, there is still a dearth of research that explores the meanings key actors associate with ITD and how they account for the material, practical and communicative facets of their everyday experience. This work seeks to collect the voice of leaders of inter/transdisciplinary research centres, identify shared repertoires used to interpret their experience in the field, and reflect on how shared narratives could inspire or impede researchers engaged in ITD. A discursive analysis was applied to 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with leaders of research centres on urban sustainability. Results identified diverse interpretative repertoires used to define ITD and to interpret the barriers that, in the eyes of these key actors, have to be crossed to become ITD researchers. These elements are combined into three main narratives used by participants to position themselves and the researchers involved in ITD. Despite being functional to self-representation, these shared narratives contribute towards depicting ITD as an individual escape, and interdisciplinary research centres as sanctuaries of a sort, thus paradoxically preserving the status quo. A third narrative advocates structural shifts and is coherent with the need for deeper changes and persistent recognition of ITD in sustainability studies.

Modeling desirable futures at local scale by combining the nature futures framework and multi-objective optimization - Chihiro Haga; Marimi Maeda; Wataru Hotta; Takanori Matsui; Masahiro Nakaoka; Junko Morimoto; Hideaki Shibata; Shizuka Hashimoto; Osamu Saito; Sana Okayasu; HyeJin Kim; Garry Peterson (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Envisioning positive scenarios that recognize the multiple values of nature is fundamental for designing transformative changes in local socio-ecological systems. This study developed a protocol with three specifications for operationalizing the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) in a landscape scenario analysis using a multi-objective optimization framework composed of: (1) exploring nature-positive futures, (2) seeking alternative pathways for targets satisfying visions of plural values, and (3) screening key direct drivers to achieve the targets. This research conducted a case study of a rural landscape in northeastern Japan. First, 110 strategies of landscape management options were simulated from 2015 to 2100 using a forest landscape model, LANDIS-II. The simulation developed a data frame of four integrated indicators of the NFF values for each year and strategy. Second, nature-positive strategies were screened using the common values. Pareto optimal strategies were then identified to obtain equally good solutions. Finally, the key response options to achieve good nature-positive futures were identified using decision tree analysis. Our protocol identified (1) multiple, but few nature-positive and Pareto optimal strategies that satisfied NFF visions, (2) nature-positive, but not Pareto optimal strategies, and (3) non-nature-positive strategies. In most Pareto optimal strategies, the maximized value perspectives changed over time. Our protocol also identified key response options to achieve three different NFF value perspectives in the case study area: (1) clear or selective cutting in forestry and (2) solar PV installation on abandoned pastureland in agriculture and energy sectors. We discussed the implication for local landscape management, localizing NFF narratives to develop future scenarios and modeling practice of NFF. The protocol does not depend on a specific model and indicator. Thus, our scalable protocol can be applied to scenarios and model practices in any region to support envisioning plausible, feasible, and positive futures, and designing future stakeholder collaboration.

The more things change, the more they stay the same: promises of bioeconomy and the economy of promises - Dennis Eversberg; Philip Koch; Rosa Lehmann; Andrea Saltelli; Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen; Zora Kovacic (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This editorial lays out the core themes of the special feature and provides an overview of the contributions. It introduces the main argument, namely that the promises of far-reaching change made by recent bioeconomy policies are in fact strategically directed at avoiding transformative change to existing societal arrangements. Bioeconomy discourse showcases technological solutions purported to solve sustainability ‘problems’ while sustaining economic growth, but avoids issues of scalability, integration or negative consequences. Thus, bioeconomy policies, and particularly the latest versions of the predominantly European ‘bio-resource’ variety that have rhetorically integrated a lot of previous sustainability-minded criticism, serve to ward off or delay challenges to an unsustainable status quo, in effect prolongating the escalatory imperatives of capitalist modernity that are at the root of current crises. The editorial’s second part highlights the contributions that the 13 featured articles, based on theoretical considerations as well as policy analyses and empirical case studies from a range of countries, make to this argument.

Threatened sustainability: extractivist tendencies in the forest-based bioeconomy in Finland - Jana R. Holz (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Bioeconomy is portrayed by the EU and several national governments as a central element contributing to sustainability strategies and a post-fossil transformation. This paper critically engages with extractivist patterns and tendencies in the forest sector as one of the main bio-based sectors. It argues that despite the official endorsement of circularity and renewability in the forest-based bioeconomy, current developments of modern bioeconomy might threaten sustainability prospects. The Finnish forest-based bioeconomy and one of its well-known showcase projects, the bioproduct mill (BPM) in the municipality of Äänekoski, serve as a case study in this paper. The forest-based bioeconomy in Finland is scrutinized as a potential continuation or consolidation of extractivist patterns, rather than an alternative to these tendencies. The lens of extractivism is applied to identify possible extractivist and unsustainable characteristics of the case study which are discussed along the following dimensions: (A) degree of export orientation and processing, (B) the scale, scope, and speed of extraction, (C) socio-economic and environmental impacts, and (D) subjective relations to nature. The extractivist lens provides analytical value to scrutinizing practices, principles, and dynamics of the contested political field and vision of bioeconomy in the Finnish forest sector. The analysis results in a discussion of latent and manifest social, political, and ecological contradictions within the forest-based bioeconomy in Finland. Based on its analytical lens and the empirical case of the BPM in Äänekoski, it can be concluded that extractivist patterns and tendencies are perpetuated within the Finnish forest-based bioeconomy.

Is the EU shirking responsibility for its deforestation footprint in tropical countries? Power, material, and epistemic inequalities in the EU’s global environmental governance - Eric Mensah Kumeh; Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This paper critically examines the European Union’s (EU) role in tropical deforestation and the bloc’s actions to mitigate it. We focus on two EU policy communications aimed at the challenge: stepping up EU action to protect and restore the world's forests and the EU updated bioeconomy strategy. In addition, we refer to the European Green Deal, which articulates the bloc’s overarching vision for sustainability and transformations. We find that by casting deforestation as a production problem and a governance challenge on the supply side, these policies deflect attention from some of the key drivers of tropical deforestation—the EU’s overconsumption of deforestation-related commodities and asymmetric market and trade power relations. The diversion allows the EU unfettered access to agro-commodities and biofuels, which are important inputs to the EU’s green transition and bio-based economy. Upholding a ‘sustainability image’ within the EU, an overly business-as-usual approach has taken precedence over transformative policies, enabling multinational corporations to run an ecocide treadmill, rapidly obliterating tropical forests. Whereas the EU's plan to nurture a bioeconomy and promote responsible agro-commodities production in the global South are relevant, the bloc is evasive in setting firm targets and policy measures to overcome the inequalities that spring from and enable its overconsumption of deforestation-related commodities. Drawing on degrowth and decolonial theories, we problematise the EU’s anti-deforestation policies and highlight alternative ideas that could lead to more just, equitable and effective measures for confronting the tropical deforestation conundrum.

Invisible (bio)economies: a framework to assess the ‘blind spots’ of dominant bioeconomy models - Lilian Pungas (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Bioeconomy as a new promissory discourse neither challenges the paradigm of economic growth, nor questions its embeddedness in capitalist (neo-)colonial patriarchal power relations. However, the calls for a ‘genuine’ socio-ecological transformation and for alternative bioeconomy visions imply exactly a destabilization of these power relations. Drawing on the Bielefeld subsistence approach and on its colonialism–capitalism–patriarchy nexus, I argue that the latest bioeconomy strategy and policy papers of both the EU and Estonia each disregard certain spheres of the bioeconomy due to the three-dimensional power relations. As a seemingly neutral political discourse, the bioeconomy is shaped by cultural assumptions and narratives that determine and perpetuate what is deemed worthy of protection and what is pushed aside as merely ‘natural’. As such, the current bioeconomy papers promote a ‘biomass-based model of capital accumulation’ that is essentially built on the prerequisite of the subordination, devaluation, appropriation and/or exploitation of (1) different geographical regions, (2) ecological foundations, and (3) prevalent bioeconomy practices. As a widespread agricultural practice in Eastern Europe, Food Self-Provisioning (FSP) serves as a good example of how predominant bioeconomy models (1) simply operate as new forms of postcolonial development discourse, instead of embracing the plurality of decolonial ‘alternatives to development’; (2) deepen the human–nature dichotomy by regarding nature as a mere resource to be extracted more efficiently instead of cultivating mutually nourishing partnership-like relation(ship)s with nature; and (3) maintain the separation between monetized and maintenance economies, rather than fostering ethics of care to overcome the structural separation between the latter.

Bioeconomy as a promise of development? The cases of Argentina and Malaysia - Janina Puder; Anne Tittor (Sustainability Science, 2023)
All bioeconomy strategies contain certain claims and promises, though these differ from one world region to another. Proceeding from an analysis of bioeconomy debates and the appropriation of the concept by key actors in Argentina and Malaysia, we argue that both countries regard the bioeconomy as a development strategy primarily geared towards the industrial upgrading of agricultural value chains. Its aim is to increase value added in the soy (Argentina) and palm oil (Malaysia) commodity chains by adding further domestic processing steps and developing new branches of industry. This is to lead to social and environmental upgrading and enable the countries to outgrow their subordinate role as biomass exporters. Referring to the world-systems approach and the global value chain literature, we argue that such upgrading strategies must be understood in the context of the hierarchical global division of labour and the position of individual countries in global markets. We show that the promises of industrial, social and environmental upgrading associated with hegemonic bioeconomy visions in Argentina and Malaysia have failed to materialise. Very few new jobs were created, while soybean and palm oil production continue to rely on environmentally harmful techniques. The socioecological long-term costs of the current production model remain unaddressed and unresolved, primarily because property relations and the underlying profit-oriented production model based on mechanisation, monocropping and a greater use of pesticides are never questioned. Should Argentina and Malaysia continue on their current paths, their chances of attaining the bioeconomy’s purported socioeconomic and environmental goals are very slim.

From hegemony-reinforcing to hegemony-transcending transformations: horizons of possibility and strategies of escape - Rachel Tome Valencia Hamilton; Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen (Sustainability Science, 2023)
In the face of ever escalating global socioecological crises, the necessity of radical systemic transformations has gained increasing political and academic traction over the last decade, among others in the context of ‘green’ and bio-based economies. We draw on the works of political philosophers Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith Butler to develop a typology of transformational dynamics. In this typology, the word transformation implies political agendas, processes and outcomes that involve the total structural reordering of a social field, which we juxtapose with ‘inclusion’, which implies cases in which pre-existing logics are further entrenched or extended. Drawing on the theoretical framework of hegemony, inclusions and transformations, we develop an analytical lens that focuses on the relations between hegemony and transformative dynamics. This analytical lens is developed and exemplified by discussing the transformative potentials of multiple socioecological and political agendas, including those associated with eco-modernism, Marxism, decoloniality, eco-feminism, degrowth and eco-anarchism. Depending on the transformative dynamics in relation to hegemony and the dominant political logics, we distinguish between hegemony-reinforcing, hegemony-replacing, and hegemony-transcending transformations. The provided lens and the typologies of transformations should be useful to those seeking to conceptualize, differentiate, analyse, and tactically strategize the realization of an array of socio-ecological agendas.

Reflections on the popularity of the circular bioeconomy concept: the ontological crisis of sustainability science - Mario Giampietro (Sustainability Science, 2023)
I argue that the popularity of the circular bioeconomy concept in policy-making is symptomatic of a profound crisis in sustainability science, which is generated by the adoption of an obsolete scientific paradigm, i.e., obsolete ontologies used to describe our interaction with the external world. The result is a systemic lack of quality control on the science–policy interface. The growing awareness of a pending collapse of our life support systems and the rapidly changing world order would require society to rediscuss its identity. However, current mechanisms of control of the quality of the scientific input used for governance do not allow us to do so. The problem is how to detect and change obsolete scientific paradigms referring to sustainability science. I conclude that a swift move to a new scientific paradigm would require a more reflexive science and a more reflexive society.

Understanding the bioeconomy through its instruments: standardizing sustainability, neoliberalizing bioeconomies? - Thomas Vogelpohl (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Sustainability standards have been one of the hopefuls for decades when it comes to ensuring the sustainability of biomass for the bioeconomy, especially in the wake of their evolvement from voluntary, non-governmental to hybrid, public–private governance instruments in recent years. In addition to doubts regarding their legitimacy and effectiveness, however, they have also been associated with a neoliberalization of nature that integrates natural resources into a free market logic. Drawing on a conceptual framework that builds on political ecology and the political sociology of policy instruments, this paper challenges this notion. To this end, it examines sustainability standards in three countries/regions particularly prominent for the bioeconomy—the EU, Brazil, and Indonesia—to illustrate how these can be differentiated in terms of their neoliberal orientation, and what can be inferred from this for the orientation and state of the respective bioeconomies. The results show that the introduction of sustainability standards is not necessarily accompanied by a neoliberalization of nature. Rather, it is shown that the standards and their specific designs—and thus also their intrinsic understanding of sustainability as integration—are primarily intended to serve the material interests of the state and the respective industrial factions, for which neoliberal configurations are sometimes seen as rather obstructive, sometimes as rather useful. The sustainability standards, and thus the bioeconomies for which they stand, therefore, rather serve as instruments to stay on the path of modernization and industrial development already taken or envisaged, or, put differently, as strategies to avoid social–ecological transformation.

The green growth narrative, bioeconomy and the foreclosure of nature - Michael Franz Schmidlehner (Sustainability Science, 2023)

The making of sustainability: ideological strategies, the materiality of nature, and biomass use in the bioeconomy - Miriam Boyer; Franziska Kusche; Sarah Hackfort; Louisa Prause; Friederike Engelbrecht-Bock (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The bioeconomy, a recent addition to the political project of ecological modernization, is largely premised on the widespread use of biomass. Biomass is presented by bioeconomy proponents as renewable and, therefore, sustainable. However, a large body of academic and non-academic literature questions this sustainability, citing the negative socio-ecological aspects of biomass use. Given this contradiction, we ask how the key institutions of the innovation system (government, science, and industry), construct and uphold the image of sustainability of biomass use in the bioeconomy. Through an analysis based on ideology critique, we look at the broad field of biomass policy in Germany, including official bioeconomy strategies and biomass potential calculations, expert portrayals of biomass use in the bioeconomy-themed Year of Science, and an iconic biomass-based commodity. We identify four central ideological strategies that uphold the image of sustainability and contribute to creating political consent for the political project of the German bioeconomy: seeking managerial solutions, relying on technological innovation, relegating solutions into the future, and obscuring the materiality of nature. We discuss how these strategies are upheld by the wider discourse and institutions of ecological modernization and argue that particular attention should be given to the biophysical materiality of living nature in this context. The materiality of nature represents both an obstacle to the ideological strategies identified, and a starting point for envisioning alternative society–nature relations.

Correction: Sustainable water tariffs and inequality in post-drought Cape Town: exploring perceptions of fairness - Johan Enqvist; Wessel van Oyen (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Correction: Integration of knowledge systems in urban farming initiatives: insight from Taipei Garden City - Leslie Mabon; Wan-Yu Shih; Sue-Ching Jou (Sustainability Science, 2023)

An urgent need for COP27: confronting converging crises - Jim Falk; Rita R. Colwell; Swadhin K. Behera; Adel S. El-Beltagy; Peter H. Gleick; Charles F. Kennel; Yuan Tseh Lee; Cherry A. Murray; Ismail Serageldin; Kazuhiko Takeuchi; Tetsuzo Yasunari; Chiho Watanabe; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The last 12 months have provided further evidence of the potential for cascading ecological and socio-political crises that were warned of 12 months ago. Then a consensus statement from the Regional Action on Climate Change Symposium warned: “the Earth’s climatic, ecological, and human systems are converging towards a crisis that threatens to engulf global civilization within the lifetimes of children now living.” Since then, the consequences of a broad set of extreme climate events (notably droughts, floods, and fires) have been compounded by interaction with impacts from multiple pandemics (including COVID-19 and cholera) and the Russia–Ukraine war. As a result, new connections are becoming visible between climate change and human health, large vulnerable populations are experiencing food crises, climate refugees are on the move, and the risks of water, food, and climate disruption have been visibly converging and compounding. Many vulnerable populations now face serious challenges to adapt. In light of these trends, this year, RACC identifies a range of measures to be taken at global and regional levels to bolster the resilience of these populations in the face of such emerging crises. In particular, at all scales, there is a need for globally available local data, reliable analytic techniques, community capacity to plan adaptation strategies, and the resources (scientific, technical, cultural, and economic) to implement them. To date, the rate of growth of the support for climate change resilience lags behind the rapid growth of cascading and converging risks. As an urgent message to COP27, it is proposed that the time is now right to devote much greater emphasis, global funding, and support to the increasing adaptation needs of vulnerable populations.

Developing positional awareness in sustainability science: four archetypes for early career scientists working in an SDG world - Jesse Schrage; Alicia D. Barraclough; Brooke Wilkerson; Jarrod Cusens; Jessica Fuller (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Although the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework to guide and inform research at the interface between science and policy, engaging in sustainability science is not a value-free process and implies making a number of choices. This is especially pertinent to early career researchers (ECRs) who are faced with the need to engage with the content and frame of the SDGs, while navigating critical engagement in knowledge production. Here, we propose a framework to help early career sustainability scholars navigate these tensions. We describe four archetypes at play in sustainability research and argue that these positions allow ECRs to reflexively navigate their roles and purposes in sustainability research.

Living with typhoons and changing weather patterns: Indigenous resilience and the adaptation pathways of smallholder farmers in Taiwan - Mucahid Mustafa Bayrak; Li-San Hung; Yi-Ya Hsu (Sustainability Science, 2023)

The impact of teenagers' emotions on their complexity thinking competence related to climate change and its consequences on their future: looking at complex interconnections and implications in climate change education - Karin Oberauer; Maximilian Schickl; Michaela Zint; Nina Liebhaber; Veronika Deisenrieder; Susanne Kubisch; Sandra Parth; Melanie Frick; Hans Stötter; Lars Keller (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This study seeks to address critical gaps in climate change education research with regard to (1) emotions triggered in teenage students learning about climate change, (2) the students’ complexity thinking competence in the context of climate change consequences, and (3) the interconnections between different types of emotions and the levels of complexity thinking competence in teenagers’ explanations of climate change. The study drew on quantitative and qualitative data from 315 (2013–2015) and 246 (2021) teenage secondary school students from a pre-/post-intervention survey from Austria’s year-long k.i.d.Z.21—Competent into the Future program, in which almost 3,500 students aged between 13 and 19 have participated up to now. Climate change triggered expected types of emotions in students. Following exploratory factor analyses, these were clustered into two groups. Multilevel modeling revealed that the k.i.d.Z.21 -modules had no influence on teenage students’ levels of complexity thinking competence in their explanations of climate change for themselves and humanity in general. The first group of emotions (i.e., angry, sad, helpless, insecure, worried and inspired to act ) was associated with higher levels of complexity thinking competence in participants’ answers to questions about climate change and, therefore, designated “stimulation”. The opposite was true for the second group (i.e., apathetic, annoyed, and hopeful ), which diminished the level of complexity thinking competence in responses and, therefore, designated “attenuation”. Future studies are encouraged to draw on the emotion measures developed for this study to replicate and advance this study’s findings. Educationists are urged to pay greater attention to emotions in climate change education.

Where limits to growth are tangible: the olive sector in Jaén and its bioeconomic future - Philip Koch (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The olive sector in Jaén in the South of Spain serves as an example of what happens when a centuries-old bio-based economy reaches its biophysical limits. The Andalusian Bioeconomy Strategy seeks to reform the sector by modernizing it, i.e. investing in technological innovation and increasing the efficiency of mechanization. This paper first considers recent data on the olive sector in Jaén before comparing its historical evolution with the demands of the 2018 Andalusian Bioeconomy Strategy. The comparison yields several results: first, the history of olive cultivation in the province is characterized by a strong peasantry that continuously grew on a large scale and consisted of thousands of small farmers; thus, it is not a typical story of land concentration and technological modernization. Second, there is potential for conflict between what the paper depicts as a historical, “old” bioeconomy and the bioeconomy envisioned by the Andalusian strategy.

The bioeconomy and its untenable growth promises: reality checks from research - Dennis Eversberg; Jana Holz; Lilian Pungas (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This paper starts out from the observation that recent official bioeconomy strategies and policy concepts are markedly more moderate in their promises of economic growth compared to the high-flying expectations of a ‘biotech revolution’ promoted around the turn of the millennium. We argue that this stepwise process of moderation is partly due to a series of ‘reality checks’ to which various strands of research on the bioeconomy have (willingly or unwillingly) subjected these promises, forcing governments to move away from visions exposed as unrealistic and to adopt more humble ones. We identify four such ‘reality checks’, originating from research on (a) bioeconomy discourses and knowledges, (b) contestation and power dynamics among actors and competing interests in bioeconomy politics and policymaking, as well as on (c) the economic and (d) biophysical dimensions of existing bio-based economies. In conclusion, we argue that bioeconomy research should adopt a broader perspective that considers transitions toward bio-based processes and resources as but one element in a comprehensive social–ecological transformation of current modes of production and living, and that understanding the dynamics of societal conflict around that transformation is crucial for assessing the social possibility of bioeconomy visions.

An extractive bioeconomy? Phosphate mining, fertilizer commodity chains, and alternative technologies - Axel Anlauf (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Various bioeconomy strategies seek to replace fossil resources with renewable agrarian resources without departing from the agro-industrial model. Paradoxically, industrial agriculture is an extractive system itself, dependent on the constant supply of mineral resources to replace the nutrients extracted from the soil. This article analyses the evolution of nutrient flows in this system from a historical-theoretical perspective and focuses specifically on the nutrient phosphorus, derived from the raw material phosphate rock. Classified as a “low-cost bulk commodity” for decades, since 2007 phosphate rock has become a strategic resource in the context of the crisis of cheap nutrient supply (2007–2013), a period of unusually high fertilizer prices. By analyzing state and private actor strategies in Germany and Brazil to adapt to this new situation, it becomes clear that the control over flows of phosphorous is increasingly contested. This article argues that bioeconomy strategies are aggravating existing conflicts over phosphate supply, as well as global inequalities, which inter alia become evident in food crises. Technological innovations, which are promoted within bioeconomy strategies, only reduce the extractive character of industrial agriculture in a limited way, while they are securing the interests of dominant actors.

Integration of knowledge systems in urban farming initiatives: insight from Taipei Garden City - Leslie Mabon; Wan-Yu Shih; Sue-Ching Jou (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Towards coherence on sustainability in education: a systematic review of Whole Institution Approaches - Jorrit Holst (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Orienting societies towards sustainability requires comprehensive learning of how to think, act and live within a safe and just space for humanity. Approaching sustainability as a core paradigm of quality education in the twenty-first century, Education for Sustainable Development necessitates an integrated view on learning. For educational organizations, Whole Institution Approaches (WIAs) to sustainability emphasize that all learning is embedded within its socio-physical contexts. Although the core objective—to “walk the talk” on sustainability—is theoretically well established, questions remain regarding its specific conceptualizations. Based on a systematic qualitative analysis of 104 international documents from scientific and grey literature, this article offers a conceptual synthesis of the core elements of WIAs to sustainability in education. Based on the literature analysis, WIAs are described as continuous and participative organizational learning processes aimed at institutional coherence on sustainability, consistently linking the formal and informal (hidden) curricula. While specific pathways are necessary for diverse organizations, the article synthesizes a joint framework. Key characteristics of WIAs are clustered within five core principles ( coherence, continuous learning, participation, responsibility, long-term commitment ), seven highly integrated areas of action ( governance, curriculum, campus, community, research, communication, capacity building ), the underlying organizational culture, and critical conditions for successful implementation. As becomes clear from the synthesis, following a WIA means to collaboratively switch the default mode of all rules-in-use to sustainability. The concept of WIAs may thus both be approached as an instrument for consistent organizational development in light of (un-)sustainability and as a keystone of integrated high-quality sustainability learning.

Disagreeing well in an unparadigmatic field: a response to Bodin (2021) - Nicolás Acosta García; Eric Boyd; Maris Boyd Gillette; Nanna Rask; Hannah Saldert; Benedict Esmond Singleton (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Sustainable water tariffs and inequality in post-drought Cape Town: exploring perceptions of fairness - Johan Enqvist; Wessel van Oyen (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Fair allocation of diminishing natural resources is increasingly central to sustainability. This includes the allocation of costs related to providing access, such as dams, pipes and pumps delivering clean water. Water tariffs are often designed to both recover these costs, meet social needs of water services to the poor, and incentivise conservation in dry times. However, strained public finances, prolonged droughts and economic inequality can undermine these goals and force prioritisations that many see as unfair. This happened in Cape Town, South Africa, during its 2015–2018 water crisis. This study investigates what residents in three different socioeconomic contexts view as fair water tariffs 1 year after the crisis. Using Q method, we describe five distinct perspectives on fairness: ‘the Insurer’, ‘the Individualist’, ’the Bureaucrat’, ‘the Humanitarian’, and ‘the Prepper’. These, we argue, can help distinguish between different ideas of what fairness implies, and what is required to promote it. We exemplify this by examining how viewpoints might have been shaped by specific communities’ experiences during and after the apartheid state’s discriminatory segregation policies. Using distributive, procedural and interactional interpretations of fairness, we discuss how the complex layers of poverty, inequality, mistrust, privilege and discrimination might produce different experiences and ideas of who should pay for and benefit from water services. Using these insights, we also reflect on the merits of tariffs that emphasise cost recovery and resource conservation over social needs, and the risks this poses for growing informal settlements in climate-stressed cities of the global South. Graphical abstract Using Q method, we identified five distinct perspectives with different views on what constitutes a fair water tariff.

An ecosystem service approach to the study of vineyard landscapes in the context of climate change: a review - Sebastian Candiago; Klara Johanna Winkler; Valentina Giombini; Carlo Giupponi; Lukas Egarter Vigl (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Vineyard landscapes significantly contribute to the economy, identity, culture, and biodiversity of many regions worldwide. Climate change, however, is increasingly threatening the resilience of vineyard landscapes and of their ecological conditions, undermining the provision of multiple ecosystem services. Previous research has often focused on climate change impacts, ecosystem conditions and ecosystem services without systematically reviewing how they have been studied in the literature on viticulture. Here, we systematically review the literature on vineyard landscapes to identify how ecosystem conditions and services have been investigated, and whether an integrative approach to investigate the effects of climate change was adopted. Our results indicate that there are still very few studies that explicitly address multiple ecosystem conditions and services together. Only 28 and 18% of the reviewed studies considered more than two ecosystem conditions or services, respectively. Moreover, while more than 97% of the relationships between ecosystem conditions and services studied were addressing provisioning and regulating services, only 3% examined cultural services. Finally, this review found that there is a lack of integrative studies that address simultaneously the relationships between ecosystem condition, ecosystem services and climate change (only 15 out of 112 studies). To overcome these gaps and to better understand the functioning of vineyard socio-ecological systems under climate change, multidisciplinary, integrative, and comprehensive approaches should be adopted by future studies. A holistic understanding of vineyard landscapes will indeed be crucial to support researchers and decision makers in developing sustainable adaptation strategies that enhance the ecological condition of vineyards and ensure the provision of multiple ecosystem services under future climate scenarios.

Recycling warning! Reconfiguring the toxic politics of a circular economy - Nils Johansson (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The ambition to retain products and materials for as long as possible in a circular economy may dilute, disperse and accumulate hazardous substances. However, in addition to exemptions for circulated products, the regulatory regime targets only a small percentage of all hazardous substances. This emerging problem is just one of many examples why the focus needs to shift from the win–win potential of a circular economy towards a reflexive consideration of tensions, trade-offs and policy conflicts between increased circulation and other topical issues, such as, in this case, reduced dispersion of hazardous substances.

Re-thinking research impact: voice, context and power at the interface of science, policy and practice - Mark S. Reed; Hannah Rudman (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The world is facing unprecedented challenges on a scale that has never been seen before, and the need for evidence-informed solutions has never been greater. As a result, academics, policy-makers, practitioners, and research funders are increasingly seeking to undertake or support research that achieves tangible impacts on policy and practice. However, the impact of research is inherently subjective, with the same outcome perceived as either beneficial or negative by different groups, or by the same group in different contexts. It is therefore important to consider factors that may increase the likelihood that outcomes from research are perceived as beneficial (or otherwise) by interested/affected groups and non-academic partners, to help researchers avoid causing potentially harmful impacts, despite their best intentions. In this overview article, we discuss three considerations for re-thinking how research can deliver such outcomes: (i) sensitivity to context, (ii) representation and legitimisation of diverse voices and (iii) the management of power dynamics. We then discuss how these can be enacted in research and engagement processes that are designed to incorporate multiple ways of viewing reality and knowledge, as researchers become increasingly aware of their positionality, privilege, assumptions and biases. By considering how research and impact generation processes are mediated by context, power and voice, it may be possible to envision just transformations of knowledge systems that foreground the knowledge and needs of diverse groups, including those who have been historically marginalised, and without systematically recognising or privileging one group over another.

Co-producing theory of change to operationalize integrated landscape approaches - James Reed; Colas Chervier; Joli Rumi Borah; Davison Gumbo; Kaala B. Moombe; Teddy M. Mbanga; Alida O’Connor; Freddie Siangulube; Malaika Yanou; Terry Sunderland (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Integrated landscape approaches that engage diverse stakeholder groups in landscape governance are increasingly promoted to address linked social–ecological challenges in tropical landscapes. Recent research suggests that a transdisciplinary approach to landscape management can help identify common research needs, enhance knowledge co-production, guide evidence-based policy development, and harmonize cross-sectorial integration. Meanwhile, guiding principles for landscape approaches suggest that identifying common concerns and negotiating a process of change are fundamental to implementation and evaluation efforts. As such, the use of decision support tools such as theory of change models that build ordered sequences of actions towards a desired, and agreed, future state are increasingly advocated. However, the application of the theory of change concept to integrated landscape approaches is limited thus far, particularly within the scientific literature. Here, we address this gap by applying the principles of landscape approaches and knowledge co-production to co-produce a theory of change to address current unsustainable landscape management and associated conflicts in the Kalomo Hills Local Forest Reserve No. P.13 (KFR13) of Zambia. The participatory process engaged a diverse range of stakeholders including village head people, local and international researchers, district councillors, and civil society representatives amongst others. Several pathways, actions, and interventions were developed around the themes of deforestation, biodiversity and wildlife conservation, socio-economic development, access rights, and law enforcement. To make the theory of change actionable, participants identified a need for enhanced cross-sector and multi-level communication, capacity development, and improved governance, while a lack of commitment towards coordinated knowledge exchange and access to information along with poor policy formulation and weak enforcement of rules were among potential impediments to action. Use of theory of change can both inform evidence-based policy design (by revealing place-based challenges and proposing solutions) and support policy mechanisms that promote integration between state and non-state actors (by clarifying actor rights, roles and responsibilities). Co-developing a theory of change for integrated landscape management is inherently context specific, but the process and outcomes of this study should hold relevance across a range of contexts faced with sustainability challenges related to reconciling both conservation and development objectives.

Global tourism, climate change and energy sustainability: assessing carbon reduction mitigating measures from the aviation industry - Walter Leal Filho; Artie W. Ng; Ayyoob Sharifi; Jitka Janová; Pınar Gökçin Özuyar; Chinmai Hemani; Graeme Heyes; Dennis Njau; Izabela Rampasso (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Spanning the boundaries between policy, politics and science to solve wicked problems: policy pilots, deliberation fora and policy labs - Ulrike Zeigermann; Stefanie Ettelt (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Current crises have highlighted the importance of integrating research, politics and practice to work on solutions for complex social problems. In recent years, policy deliberation fora, policy pilots and policy labs have increasingly been deployed to mobilise science to produce solutions, help create popular support and guide implementation of policies addressing major public policy problems. Yet, we know little about how these approaches manage to transcend the boundaries between research, politics and practice. By systematically comparing policy deliberation fora, policy pilots and policy labs, this paper explores their mechanisms of boundary spanning including relationship and trust building, knowledge translation and developing solutions. We situate our analysis in healthcare policy and climate change policy in Germany, two contrasting policy fields that share a perpetual and escalating sense of crisis. Our findings suggest that deliberation fora, policy pilots and policy labs address different dilemmas of policymaking, namely the idea dilemma, the implementation dilemma and the legitimacy dilemma. All three approaches reduce wicked problems to a manageable scale, by grounding them in local decision-making, reducing their scope or reducing the problem analytically. We argue that despite their ambition to modernise democratic practices, unless they are institutionally well embedded, their effects are likely to be small scale, local and temporary.

Activating faith: pro-environmental responses to a Christian text on sustainability - Christopher D. Ives; Clark Buys; Charles Ogunbode; Matilda Palmer; Aneira Rose; Ruth Valerio (Sustainability Science, 2023)
With growing attention on the importance of values, beliefs and worldviews in shaping environmental outcomes, there remains little research on religion and sustainability transformations. We explored the impact of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s environmentally themed Lent Book 2020 “Saying Yes to Life” on environmental values, attitudes and behaviours of lay Christians. An online survey administered before and after reading the book assessed environmental values, New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), connectedness to nature and environmental behaviours, and collected open responses to questions about participants’ perceptions. Follow-up focus groups were also held to understand experiences of cognitive and behavioural change. Analysis of paired data revealed significant increases in environmental behavioural intentions after completing the book, especially for energy use, food and recycling. Some evidence for strengthening of NEP scores and connectedness to nature was also found. Open text responses corroborated with quantitative measures of behaviour change. Additionally, the majority of participants reported some form of reinforcement, confirmation, or further development or change in their beliefs and attitudes. This included a reduction in anthropocentric beliefs and greater appreciation of and obligation towards the natural world. Focus group discussions revealed diverse participant experiences, including having pre-existing theological beliefs affirmed, responding with new practical actions, connecting with spiritual experiences, and discovering systemic origins of unsustainability. Findings suggest potential for environmental interventions within religious contexts to shape mindsets, integrate theological views with environmental concerns, activate latent beliefs, and initiate and sustain pro-environmental behaviour. More intentional engagement with religion may facilitate transformative change for sustainability internally and externally, and across individual, organisational and societal domains.

Capacity of countries to reduce biological invasions - Guillaume Latombe; Hanno Seebens; Bernd Lenzner; Franck Courchamp; Stefan Dullinger; Marina Golivets; Ingolf Kühn; Brian Leung; Núria Roura-Pascual; Emma Cebrian; Wayne Dawson; Christophe Diagne; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The extent and impacts of biological invasions on biodiversity are largely shaped by an array of socio-economic and environmental factors, which exhibit high variation among countries. Yet, a global analysis of how these factors vary across countries is currently lacking. Here, we investigate how five broad, country-specific socio-economic and environmental indices (Governance, Trade, Environmental Performance, Lifestyle and Education, Innovation) explain country-level (1) established alien species (EAS) richness of eight taxonomic groups, and (2) proactive or reactive capacity to prevent and manage biological invasions and their impacts. These indices underpin many aspects of the invasion process, including the introduction, establishment, spread and management of alien species. They are also general enough to enable a global comparison across countries, and are therefore essential for defining future scenarios for biological invasions. Models including Trade, Governance, Lifestyle and Education, or a combination of these, best explained EAS richness across taxonomic groups and national proactive or reactive capacity. Historical (1996 or averaged over 1996–2015) levels of Governance and Trade better explained both EAS richness and the capacity of countries to manage invasions than more recent (2015) levels, revealing a historical legacy with important implications for the future of biological invasions. Using Governance and Trade to define a two-dimensional socio-economic space in which the position of a country captures its capacity to address issues of biological invasions, we identified four main clusters of countries in 2015. Most countries had an increase in Trade over the past 25 years, but trajectories were more geographically heterogeneous for Governance. Declines in levels of Governance are concerning as they may be responsible for larger levels of invasions in the future. By identifying the factors influencing EAS richness and the regions most susceptible to changes in these factors, our results provide novel insights to integrate biological invasions into scenarios of biodiversity change to better inform decision-making for policy and the management of biological invasions.

The present state-of-the-art of blue carbon repository in India: a meta-analysis - Anirban Akhand; Abhra Chanda; Yusuf Jameel; Rajarshi Dasgupta (Sustainability Science, 2023)

The human–technical–environmental systems framework for sustainability analysis - Henrik Selin; Noelle E. Selin (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The field of sustainability science has grown significantly over the past two decades in terms of both conceptual development and empirical research. Systems-focused analysis is critical to building generalizable knowledge in the field, yet much relevant research does not take a systems view. Systems-oriented analytical frameworks can help researchers conceptualize and analyze sustainability-relevant systems, but existing frameworks may lack access or utility outside a particular research tradition. In this article, we outline the human–technical–environmental (HTE) framework, which provides analysts from different disciplinary backgrounds and fields of study a common way to advance systems-focused research on sustainability issues. We detail a step-by-step guide for the application of the HTE framework through a matrix-based approach for identifying system components, studying interactions among system components, and examining interventions targeting components and/or their interactions for the purpose of advancing sustainability. We demonstrate the applicability of the HTE framework and the matrix-based approach through an analysis of an empirical case of coal-fired power plants and mercury pollution, which is relevant to large-scale sustainability transitions. Based on this analysis, we identify specific insights related to the applicability of upstream and downstream leverage points, connections between energy markets and the use of pollution control technologies, and the importance of institutions fitting both biophysical dynamics and socioeconomic and political dynamics. Further application of the HTE framework and the identification of insights can help develop systems-oriented analysis, and inform societal efforts to advance sustainability, as well as contribute to the formulation of empirically grounded middle-range theories related to sustainability systems and sustainability transitions. We conclude with a discussion of areas for further development and application of the HTE framework.

Are we on the right path? Measuring progress towards environmental sustainability in European countries - Arkaitz Usubiaga-Liaño; Paul Ekins (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Biocultural conservation systems in the Mediterranean region: the role of values, rules, and knowledge - Tobias Plieninger; Yaser Abunnasr; Ugo D’Ambrosio; Tianyu Guo; Thanasis Kizos; Laura Kmoch; Emmeline Topp; Elsa Varela (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The Mediterranean Basin is a global biodiversity hotspot, but formal conservation approaches have not been wholly effective to halt species and ecosystem losses in this world region. There is wide agreement that maintaining traditional and diverse land-use systems is key to conserving biodiversity across the Mediterranean region. Biocultural approaches provide a perspective to understand and manage the interplay of nature and culture in various contexts. To develop biocultural systems as positive alternatives to unsustainable land-use systems requires an understanding of the decision-making contexts that enable such approaches. The aim of this synthesis study is therefore to compare how four biocultural conservation systems in the Mediterranean are shaped by values, rules, and knowledge. Our study is based on a synthesis of the literature published on agdal (Morocco), communal forests (Spain), sacred natural sites (Greece), and hima (Lebanon). Our synthesis shows that instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values are all fundamental components of the systems studied. Instrumental values, such as the provision of fodder or firewood, are central, and are often the result of a careful adaptation to the uncertainty inherent to Mediterranean climatic conditions. Systems like agdal and hima have originally been shaped by informal rules (often with the primary motivation to ensure equitable resource use and frequently involving taboos) and were then formalized to varying degrees. All four systems are strongly driven by local knowledge. We conclude that biocultural systems in the Mediterranean represent “people and nature” approaches that support linkages between nature and human well-being. Fostering biocultural conservation in the Mediterranean requires navigating multiple interlinkages between values, rules, and knowledge in decision-making.

Environmental, nutritional and social assessment of nuts - Stephanie Cap; Pieter Bots; Laura Scherer (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Nuts are considered an important protein source in sustainable dietary patterns but are seldom studied in detail. Here a multi-criteria decision analysis was used to rank 10 nuts and seeds against 11 environmental, nutritional, and social criteria and provide greater insight into the sustainability impacts of this food group. Weights were defined based on correlation and variance between indicator values, and values were aggregated with a partially non-compensatory method. Several sensitivity analyses tested various sources of uncertainty through the use of country-level data, the use of a fully compensatory aggregation method, and changes to criteria weights. Walnuts and sunflower seeds performed consistently well across sustainability criteria and were ranked in the top two positions in the baseline assessment and most sensitivity analyses. In contrast, cashews performed relatively poorly across most criteria, and were ranked last. Dietary shifts in favor of more sustainable nuts can improve the overall environmental, nutritional and social impacts of nut production and consumption by an average of 23%. Although increasing consumption of walnuts and sunflower seeds may lead to improved sustainability outcomes for total global nut consumption, more research is needed to deepen the understanding of the complex socio-economic factors impacting nut and seed sustainability. The social risk assessment method used in this study can also inform future social impact measurement methods for other food groups.

Envisioning just transformations in and beyond the EU bioeconomy: inspirations from decolonial environmental justice and degrowth - Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The European Union (EU) is adhering to decarbonization of its economy to tackle what is narrowly framed as ‘environmental issues’ of our socioecological and civilizational crises—including, but not limited to, climate change and biodiversity loss. A shift to bio-based economy (bioeconomy) is an important component of this effort. This paper applies theoretical ideas from decolonial environmental justice and degrowth, placed in the wider context of transformations, to analyse the EU bioeconomy policy within the global context, and to draw lessons and recommendations for just transformations in the EU bioeconomy policy. I identify five dominant logics and approaches in the EU bioeconomy that act as barriers for just transformations and propose alternative ones that can support such transformations. Barriers and alternatives include (1) framing ‘nature’ as a resource and service provider for humans, who are seen as separate from nature, and the need to abandon human–nature duality; (2) dominance of economic green growth and technoscientific policy solutions, and the need to place planetary justice at the centre of tackling socioecological crises; (3) a limited approach to justice, and the need to act upon climate and epistemic justice, including self-determination and self-governing authority; (4) the EU’s ambition for global leadership and competitiveness in global bioeconomic markets and governance, and the need to redefine global governance towards partnerships based on the principles of solidarity, mutual respect, reconciliation and redistribution of power and wealth; (5) hegemonic politico-economic structures and actor coalitions in charge of the EU bioeconomy, and the need for decentralized bottom-up leadership coalitions that promote direct democracy, local autonomy and sovereignty beyond state. I conclude with reflections on the politics of change and risks of co-optation, with a hope to inspire decolonial and just socioecological transformations in and beyond bioeconomy.

Achieving soil health in Aotearoa New Zealand through a pluralistic values-based framework: mauri ora ki te whenua, mauri ora ki te tangata - Dean C. Stronge; Robyn L. Kannemeyer; Garth R. Harmsworth; Bryan A. Stevenson (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Globally, soil policy and management have been based on a limited understanding of values and perspectives, and mainly dominated by a Western-centric soil science perspective. Further, this understanding has tended to be highly focused on instrumental values—particularly the soil’s productive potential and use. In this paper, we use the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) to analyse how Aotearoa New Zealand’s agricultural productive sectors express their relationship with soil and soil health. Our analysis highlights the multidimensional nature of soil values across society. Importantly, the results are consistent with work undertaken on Indigenous Māori perspectives of soil and soil health. Māori perspectives strongly connect soil to their people and take a holistic or well-being approach to soil. We then present a soil health and well-being framework that can incorporate a plurality of values from people of diverse backgrounds, including landowners, industry, farmers, and Indigenous peoples. We use a bi-cultural model approach—“waka taurua”—to demonstrate how the plurality of values from non-Indigenous and Indigenous groups in Aotearoa New Zealand can be used to shape process, dialogue and understanding, to develop shared goals to maintain and enhance the soil resource, and to achieve soil health and human well-being. There needs to be a shift in how soil policy and management is approached to achieve international calls to manage soils sustainably. Our approach using the NFF indicates that people assign multiple, co-existing values to soil. The resulting dialogue on values enriches our understanding of soils and soil health, and our relationships and connections with nature, improves the way we define threats and risks, and will lead to more targeted actions to achieve desired sustainable outcomes.

Organic agriculture in a low-emission world: exploring combined measures to deliver a sustainable food system in Sweden - Shyam Basnet; Amanda Wood; Elin Röös; Torbjörn Jansson; Ingo Fetzer; Line Gordon (Sustainability Science, 2023)
In the EU, including Sweden, organic farming is seen as a promising pathway for sustainable production, protecting human health and animal welfare, and conserving the environment. Despite positive developments in recent decades, expanding organic farming to the Swedish national target of 30% of farmland under organic production remains challenging. In this study, we developed two scenarios to evaluate the role of organic farming in the broader context of Swedish food systems: (i) baseline trend scenario ( Base ), and (ii) sustainable food system scenario ( Sust ). Base describes a future where organic farming is implemented alongside the current consumption, production and waste patterns, while Sust describes a future where organic farming is implemented alongside a range of sustainable food system initiatives. These scenarios are coupled with several variants of organic area: (i) current 20% organic area, (ii) the national target of 30% organic area by 2030, and (iii) 50% organic area by 2050 for Sust . We applied the ‘FABLE (Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-use and Energy) Calculator’ to assess the evolution of the Swedish food system from 2000 to 2050 and evaluate land use, emissions and self-sufficiency impacts under these scenarios. Our findings show that expanding organic farming in the Base scenarios increases the use of cropland and agricultural emissions by 2050 compared to the 2010 reference year. However, cropland use and emissions are reduced in the Sust scenario, due to dietary changes, reduction of food waste and improved agricultural productivity. This implies that there is room for organic farming and the benefits it provides, e.g. the use of fewer inputs and improved animal welfare in a sustainable food system. However, changing towards organic agriculture is only of advantage when combined with transformative strategies to promote environmental sustainability across multiple sections, such as changed consumption, better production and food waste practices.

Networks of action situations in point-source pollution: the case of winery wastewater in Aragon, Spain - Ignacio Cazcarro; Sergio Villamayor-Tomas; Maria Pilar Lobera; Joaquín Murría; María Bernechea (Sustainability Science, 2023)
In this article, we offer an analysis of point-source water pollution governance in the European agri-food sector. Specifically, we tackle the case study of the wine industry in Aragon (Spain) through the lenses of the networks of action situations approach. We unveil key strategic decisions of wine producers in relation to compliance with water discharge regulations and explore the feasibility and effectiveness of potential solutions. According to our quantitative and qualitative analyses, the problem of peak load discharges in the sector can be explained by the strategic behavior of wine producers in the context of enforcement deficits, as well as by particularities of the wine production process, and controversies around the construction and management of public treatment plants. Coordination among wine producers and public treatment plant managers to invest in in-house treatment infrastructure or to smooth discharges out so they fit the capacity of treatment plants would be a promising solution; however, economic incentives and tightened enforcement of discharge regulations would also be necessary. Graphical abstract

Networks of action situations in social–ecological systems: current approaches and potential futures - Christian Kimmich; Melf-Hinrich Ehlers; Elke Kellner; Christoph Oberlack; Andreas Thiel; Sergio Villamayor-Tomas (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Unpacking dynamics of diverse nested resource systems through a diagnostic approach - Hita Unnikrishnan; Maria Katharina Gerullis; Michael Cox; Harini Nagendra (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The social–ecological systems (SES) framework (Ostrom 2009, Science. 325(5939):419–22) typologically decomposes SES characteristics into nested, tiered constituent variables. Yet, aligning the framework’s concepts of resource system (RS) and resource unit (RU) with realities of individual case studies poses challenges if the underlying SES is not a single RS, but a mid to large-scale nested RS (NRS). Using a diagnostic approach, we describe NRSs—and the activities and networks of adjacent action situations (NAAS) containing them. An NRS includes the larger RS and multiple interlinked semi-autonomous subsidiary RSs, each of which support simultaneous, differently managed appropriation of individual RUs. We further identify NAASs operating within NRSs in two diverse empirical cases—networks of lake systems in Bengaluru, India and German wheat breeding systems—representing a lever towards understanding transformation of SESs into sustainable futures. This paper contributes towards unpacking and diagnosing complexities within mid to large-scale RSs and their governance. It provides a generalizable, rigorous approach to SES case study analyses, thereby advancing methods for synthesis in sustainability science.

Integrated modeling to achieve global goals: lessons from the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-use, and Energy (FABLE) initiative - Sarah K. Jones; Adrian Monjeau; Katya Perez-Guzman; Paula A. Harrison (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Humanity is challenged with making progress toward global biodiversity, freshwater, and climate goals, while providing food and nutritional security for everyone. Our current food and land-use systems are incompatible with this ambition making them unsustainable. Papers in this special feature introduce a participatory, integrated modeling approach applied to provide insights on how to transform food and land-use systems to sustainable trajectories in 12 countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Finland, India, Mexico, Rwanda, Sweden, the UK, and USA. Papers are based on work completed by members of the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-use, and Energy (FABLE) initiative, a network of in-country research teams engaging policymakers and other local stakeholders to co-develop future food and land-use scenarios and modeling their national and global sustainability impacts. Here, we discuss the key leverage points, methodological advances, and multi-sector engagement strategies presented and applied in this collection of work to set countries and our planet on course for achieving food security, biodiversity, freshwater, and climate targets by 2050.

The governance of forest carbon in a subnational climate mitigation system: insights from a network of action situations approach - Tatyana B. Ruseva (Sustainability Science, 2023)

From sectoral to integrative action situations: an institutional perspective on the energy transition implementation in the Netherlands - Beau Warbroek; Bunyod Holmatov; Joanne Vinke-de Kruijf; Maarten Arentsen; Moozhan Shakeri; Cheryl de Boer; Johannes Flacke; André Dorée (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The interlinked nature of today’s societal challenges asks for integrative approaches. The energy transition is an especially impactful challenge and presents a compelling opportunity to pursue integration, as it requires changes to space, landscape, infrastructure and organizations at different scales. While the added value of integrative approaches that address the energy transition alongside other societal challenges is widely acknowledged, it is not the status quo. The aim of this study is to uncover the institutional barriers to integration and suggest possibilities for redesign. The paper sheds light on a hitherto relatively understudied phase of integration, namely implementation. Two illustrative cases for energy transition integration are discussed; (i) sustainable residential heating combined with climate adaptation in the urban context, and (ii) biogas production from livestock manure for rural residential heating and nitrogen reduction in the Netherlands. Inspired by the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (IAD) and networks of action situations (NAS) concept, the study shows that in the context of energy transition integration, action situations are pillarized with incidental interactions happening between sectors and across scales. The rules that govern actor interactions stem from sectoral institutional arrangements and produce sectoral action situations. Factors that especially obstruct integration are financial streams, budgeting and designated task responsibilities of actors that favour sectoral, one-dimensional projects. Actors interact in sectoral action situations and struggle to establish links to plan for more integrative outcomes. As a way forward, the study illustrates how rules can be redesigned to create integrative action situations and what mechanisms may help to achieve this in practice.

Sustainability implications of Rwanda’s Vision 2050 long-term development strategy - Katya Perez-Guzman; Dative Imanirareba; Sarah K. Jones; Rudolf Neubauer; Fidèle Niyitanga; François Xavier Naramabuye (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Improving livelihoods in Rwanda requires overcoming food insecurity and malnutrition. Vision 2050 is Rwanda’s long-term development strategy, yet little is known about its potential trade-offs for the country’s biodiversity, forest cover, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Scenario analysis can provide insights into how to achieve such goals more sustainably. Here, we use the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Calculator, a simple integrated assessment tool, to explore potential sustainability implications by 2050 through two scenarios: (1) Current Trends and (2) Vision 2050. The Vision 2050 pathway incorporates components of the government’s long-term development strategy and associated national agricultural policy targets. It includes greater increases in crop productivity and decreases in post-harvest losses, and shifts to more sustainable diets, compared to the Current Trends pathway. Results show that the Vision 2050 pathway would, relative to Current Trends, lead to a greater decrease in agricultural land area and an increase in non-forested natural land-cover area, with consequent decreases in GHG emissions from agriculture, increases in carbon sequestration, and increases in the share of land that can support biodiversity conservation. Shifts to a healthier diet in the Vision 2050 pathway would only be compatible with national agricultural priorities if these diets favor consumption of foods that underpin sustainable livelihoods in Rwanda, such as beans, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, banana, and corn. We discuss the potential for integrated land-use planning and adoption of agroecological farming practices to help Rwanda achieve food security, livelihood, biodiversity, and climate mitigation goals in tandem.

Understanding the governance of sustainability pathways: hydraulic megaprojects, social–ecological traps, and power in networks of action situations - Pablo F. Méndez; Floriane Clement; Guillermo Palau-Salvador; Ricardo Diaz-Delgado; Sergio Villamayor-Tomas (Sustainability Science, 2023)
To enable sustainability pathways, we need to understand how social–ecological systems (SES) respond to different governance configurations, considering their historical, institutional, political, and power conditions. We advance a robust methodological approach for the integrated analysis of those conditions in SES traps. Our advancement consists of a novel combination of the networks of action situations approach with an agency-based polycentric power typology and the concept of discursive power. We test the approach by building on previous research on the Doñana estuary–delta SES (Guadalquivir estuary), which is characterized by a rigidity trap in the context of ecosystem and water governance. Specifically, we focus on a recent hydraulic megaproject involving deep dredging in the Guadalquivir estuary, finally canceled due to its broad negative socioeconomic and environmental repercussions. According to our analysis, certain governance, institutional, and informational mechanisms currently prevent further SES degradation in Doñana. However, key governance actors are caught in a lasting coordination failure prone to mutual defection strategies owing to power dynamics and discursive-institutional inertia. Although seemingly stable due to counteractive mechanisms among actors, this situation is at continuous risk of being unbalanced by powerful actors promoting large SES interventions such as deep dredging. Such interventions bear the systemic risk of strong suppression of SES functions, and a regime shift to a lock-in trap. This overall undesirable situation might be escaped through transformative policy designs that take into account meso-level mechanisms, such as discursive power and its role in non-decision-making, pragmatic inaction, and inefficient investment and infrastructure.

A multi-model approach to explore sustainable food and land use pathways for Argentina - Federico Frank; José Volante; Noelia Calamari; Pablo L. Peri; Baltazar González Chávez; Pablo García Martínez; María J. Mosciaro; Gabriel Martín; Ignacio Benito Amaro; Ignacio Pace Guerrero; Karina Casellas; Melina Zuliani; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Contributions of healthier diets and agricultural productivity toward sustainability and climate goals in the United States - Grace C. Wu; Justin S. Baker; Christopher M. Wade; Gordon C. McCord; Joseph E. Fargione; Petr Havlik (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Meeting ambitious climate targets will require deploying the full suite of mitigation options, including those that indirectly reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Healthy diets have sustainability co-benefits by directly reducing livestock emissions as well as indirectly reducing land use emissions. Increased crop productivity could indirectly avoid emissions by reducing cropland area. However, there is disagreement on the sustainability of proposed healthy U.S. diets and a lack of clarity on how long-term sustainability benefits may change in response to shifts in the livestock sector. Here, we explore the GHG emissions impacts of seven scenarios that vary U.S. crop yields and healthier diets in the U.S. and overseas. We also examine how impacts vary across assumptions of future ruminant livestock productivity and ruminant stocking density in the U.S. We employ two complementary land use models—the US FABLE Calculator, an agricultural and forestry sector accounting model with high agricultural commodity representation, and GLOBIOM, a spatially explicit partial equilibrium optimization model for global land use systems. Results suggest that healthier U.S. diets that follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans reduce agricultural and land use greenhouse gas emissions by 25–57% (approx 120–310 MtCO 2e /y) and pastureland area by 28–38%. The potential emissions and land sparing benefits of U.S. agricultural productivity growth are modest within the U.S. due to the increasing comparative advantage of U.S. crops. Our findings suggest that healthy U.S. diets can significantly contribute toward meeting U.S. long-term climate goals for the land use sectors.

Correction to: Exploring complementarity among interdependent pastoral institutions in Mongolia - Ulan Kasymov; Irene Ring; Ganzorig Gonchigsumlaa; Nandintsetseg Dejid; Lukas Drees (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Long-term pathways analysis to assess the feasibility of sustainable land-use and food systems in Mexico - Charlotte González-Abraham; Cynthia Flores-Santana; Sonia Rodríguez-Ramírez; Marcela Olguín-Álvarez; Arturo Flores-Martínez; Juan Manuel Torres Rojo; Gerardo Bocco Verdinelli; Claudia A. Fernández Calleros; Gordon C. McCord (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Mexico aims to develop highly productive and sustainable food systems that ensure national self-sufficiency. This paper employs an integrated land-use modeling tool—the FABLE Calculator—to estimate the degree of policy ambition required for the country to meet mid-century climate, conservation and production goals in the land-use sector. We generate national-level land-use pathways to mid-century in terms of agricultural production, land use change dynamics, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and availability of land supporting biodiversity under varying assumptions of national policy and productivity changes. We estimate the effects of plausible efforts to achieve sustainability in land-use and food systems to 2050 against a business-as-usual benchmark. In the sustainable pathway, assumptions on agricultural land expansion, reforestation, and protected area expansion reflect existing and aspirational Mexican government policies aiming to improve crop yields, livestock productivity with silvopastoral systems, and GHG mitigation goals. We also model diets that evolve toward Mexican dietary guidelines for a healthier consumption of fats and oils as well as a substantial increase in the intake of fruits and vegetables, pulses, nuts, and fish. Results suggest that Mexico can feasibly adopt a sustainable land-use pathway that provides adequate nutrition for the population by 2050, limit agricultural expansion, reduce GHG emissions, and expand forested lands. This type of integrated land-use modeling can help ensure policy coherence in land and food systems across national strategic plans for climate, biodiversity, and agricultural self-sufficiency, each spearheaded by different government agencies. Importantly, a sensitivity analysis highlights the transformative impact that diets have on land-use systems, and as such, dietary transformation should be considered in all climate mitigation plans.

Sustainable pathways towards climate and biodiversity goals in the UK: the importance of managing land-use synergies and trade-offs - Alison C. Smith; Paula A. Harrison; Nicholas J. Leach; H. Charles J. Godfray; Jim W. Hall; Sarah M. Jones; Sarah S. Gall; Michael Obersteiner (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Agricultural and environmental policies are being fundamentally reviewed and redesigned in the UK following its exit from the European Union. The UK government and the Devolved Administrations recognise that current land use is not sustainable and that there is now an unprecedented opportunity to define a better land strategy that responds fully to the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainable development. This paper presents evidence from three pathways (current trends, sustainable medium ambition, and sustainable high ambition) to mid-century that were co-created with UK policymakers. The pathways were applied to a national integrated food and land-use model (the FABLE calculator) to explore potential synergies and trade-offs between achieving multiple sustainability targets under limited land availability and constraints to balance food supply and demand at national and global levels. Results show that under the Current Trends pathway all unprotected open natural land would be converted to urban, agriculture and afforested land, with the consequence that from 2030 onwards tree planting targets could not be met. In contrast, the two sustainable pathways illustrate how dietary change, agricultural productivity improvements and waste reduction can free up land for nature recovery and carbon sequestration. This enables a transition to a sustainable food and land-use system that provides a net carbon sink with up to 44% of land able to support biodiversity conservation. We highlight key trade-offs and synergies, which are important to consider for designing and implementing emerging national policies. These include the strong dependence of climate, food and biodiversity targets on dietary shifts, sustainable improvements in agricultural productivity, improved land-use design for protecting and restoring nature, and rapid reductions in food loss and waste.

Development towards low carbon and sustainable agriculture in Finland is possible with moderate changes in land use and diets - Heikki Lehtonen; Janne Rämö (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Food security under climate change, several sustainability problems, and ambitious climate targets are considered challenges for agriculture and food sectors in many countries. Since agricultural production and its land use produce appr. 20% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Finland, reducing agricultural GHG emissions is important for meeting national target of climate neutrality by 2035. Healthier food diets, maintenance of biodiversity, and reduced nutrient leaching from agriculture are also required for a more sustainable food economy. This paper aims to show how agriculture in Finland, traditionally dominated by livestock production, could decrease GHG emissions significantly and simultaneously respond to other sustainability concerns. Our results, based on economic modelling of the agricultural sector, suggest that moderate changes in food diets and land use can reduce GHG emissions of agriculture by more than 40% by 2050 if productivity growth and policy changes support the overall change in the agriculture and food sector. Adaptation to climate change, e.g. more higher crop yields efficient input use, is necessary for productivity growth. Decreased demand for meat and decreased cultivation of feed crops would decrease GHG emissions and free up land for carbon sequestration through afforestation. Whilst healthier food diets imply less livestock and increased imports of protein crops for food, a reasonable volume of livestock production is useful for maintaining food security, grasslands, crop rotations, soil carbon, and biodiversity. We conclude that transition to low carbon and more sustainable agriculture is possible without risking food security at northern latitudes.

Pathways to sustainable land use and food systems in Canada - Hisham Zerriffi; Rene Reyes; Avery Maloney (Sustainability Science, 2023)

How can diverse national food and land-use priorities be reconciled with global sustainability targets? Lessons from the FABLE initiative - Aline Mosnier; Guido Schmidt-Traub; Michael Obersteiner; Sarah Jones; Valeria Javalera-Rincon; Fabrice DeClerck; Marcus Thomson; Frank Sperling; Paula Harrison; Katya Pérez-Guzmán; Gordon Carlos McCord; Javier Navarro-Garcia; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2023)
There is an urgent need for countries to transition their national food and land-use systems toward food and nutritional security, climate stability, and environmental integrity. How can countries satisfy their demands while jointly delivering the required transformative change to achieve global sustainability targets? Here, we present a collaborative approach developed with the FABLE—Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, and Energy—Consortium to reconcile both global and national elements for developing national food and land-use system pathways. This approach includes three key features: (1) global targets, (2) country-driven multi-objective pathways, and (3) multiple iterations of pathway refinement informed by both national and international impacts. This approach strengthens policy coherence and highlights where greater national and international ambition is needed to achieve global goals (e.g., the SDGs). We discuss how this could be used to support future climate and biodiversity negotiations and what further developments would be needed.

Participatory interventions for collective action and sustainable resource management: linking actors, situations and contexts through the IAD, NAS and SES frameworks - Juan Felipe Ortiz-Riomalo; Ann-Kathrin Koessler; Yaddi Miranda-Montagut; Juan Camilo Cardenas (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Overcoming complex environmental challenges demands different forms of stakeholder participation and collective action. While informative and relevant for participatory interventions, the literatures on collective action and participatory governance have largely remained disconnected. We illustrate how the institutional analysis and development (IAD), network of (adjacent) action situation (NAS) and social–ecological system (SES) frameworks can be combined to provide a coherent approach that integrates these literatures, applies their insights and bridges this disconnect. We compare two similar participatory interventions, one in Colombia and one in Peru, whose design and implementation we supported. Transdisciplinary in nature, both sought to foster collective action for watershed management. The frameworks allow us to demarcate, characterise and reflect upon the action situations (ASs) for the collective choice, coordination and knowledge generation that constituted each participatory intervention (i.e. the constituent NAS) and other relevant operational and institutional ASs that lay outside the boundaries of the participatory interventions. These other ASs may not be linked to one another or to the intervention’s constituent NAS, but they influence the outcomes of interest nevertheless, thereby shaping the potential of the participatory interventions for collective action and sustainable natural resource management. The framework then suggests, and our comparative analysis illustrates, that organisers and researchers of participatory interventions, such as multi-actor deliberative platforms and transdisciplinary research projects, should carefully consider, reflect upon and address the constellation of relevant actors, ASs and contexts co-determining the outcomes of interest. Our study demonstrates how the IAD, SES and NAS frameworks can support that endeavour.

Dialectic narratives, hostile actors, and Earth’s resources in Saskatchewan, Canada - Margot A. Hurlbert; Jane Akpan (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This paper uses networks of action situations (NAS) together with actor network theory (ANT) to identify the decisions that were made in Saskatchewan regarding power production and explore what future choices are available in the context of climate change. A theoretical and methodological contribution to NAS literature is made with focus on interconnected human and non-human objects (carbon, hydro, and uranium) or ‘actants’ and the development of discourses supporting or opposing their development. Actants provide the nodes of focus, while discourses explain the development of actants and their links. Identification and explanation of the emergence and recession of actants on the Saskatchewan landscape are analyzed with diagnostics of telecoupled systems, polycentric governance, and flows of faction situations. Focus group and survey data are used to identify future pathways and imaginaries of power production and the actants of carbon, hydro and uranium. Actants of carbon (coal) and hydro are possibly kept alive with carbon capture and storage and import of hydro-electricity from the distant action situation in a neighboring province (if the necessary infrastructure is built). While actants of renewables are strongly emerging, uranium currently mined on the Saskatchewan landscape is receiving strong support by government due to the possibility of small modular reactors (SMRs). This expanded theoretical conception of NAS illustrates distant action situations impact on local narratives and decision-making and dynamics of polycentric governance that are neither top down nor collaborative.

Correction to: Reforming China’s fertilizer policies: implications for nitrogen pollution reduction and food security - Xiaoxi Wang; Meng Xu; Bin Lin; Benjamin Leon Bodirsky; Jiaqi Xuan; Jan Philipp Dietrich; Miodrag Stevanović; Zhaohai Bai; Lin Ma; Shuqin Jin; Shenggen Fan; Hermann Lotze-Campen; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Multi-target scenario discovery to plan for sustainable food and land systems in Australia - Javier Navarro Garcia; Raymundo Marcos-Martinez; Aline Mosnier; Guido Schmidt-Traub; Valeria Javalera Rincon; Michael Obersteiner; Katya Perez Guzman; Marcus J. Thomson; Liviu Penescu; Clara Douzal; Brett A. Bryan; Michalis Hadjikakou (Sustainability Science, 2023)

A stakeholders’ pathway towards a future land use and food system in Germany - Livia Rasche; Uwe A. Schneider; Jan Steinhauser (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Food systems contribute considerably to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and influence land use. In Germany, many strategies have been proposed by policy-makers to reduce negative impacts and make the food system more sustainable. It is unclear how close the suggested policies, when bundled, will bring the food and land use system towards the targeted goals; and what stakeholders from non-policy-making organizations consider realistic changes in the German food system. We thus surveyed different stakeholder groups on their opinions about realistic changes in the food and land use system in Germany up to 2050, developed four stakeholder pathways, and used an accounting tool to determine the effect of each pathway on indicators such as land use, GHG emissions, and biodiversity conservation potential. The assessment showed that GHG emissions from agricultural activities and land use are reduced from 66 to − 2–22 TgCO 2 e by 2050, while the area where natural processes predominate increases from 19 to 27–32%, and the resilience of the food system is not negatively influenced. The change is caused mainly by a diet-change-induced reduction of livestock production and agricultural area transformation into areas with higher carbon sequestration rates. If followed, the common stakeholder pathway (based on all stakeholder responses) would thus lead towards a sustainable food and land use system, but only if the underlying assumption of a drastic diet change towards more plant-based products comes true. Stakeholders from the academic and public sectors were more likely to assume that such a change was realistic than stakeholders from the private sector.

Pathway to achieve a sustainable food and land-use transition in India - Chandan Kumar Jha; Ranjan Kumar Ghosh; Satyam Saxena; Vartika Singh; Aline Mosnier; Katya Perez Guzman; Miodrag Stevanović; Alexander Popp; Hermann Lotze-Campen (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Exploring complementarity among interdependent pastoral institutions in Mongolia - Ulan Kasymov; Irene Ring; Ganzorig Gonchigsumlaa; Nandintsetseg Dejid; Lukas Drees (Sustainability Science, 2023)
This article combines Aoki’s institutional complementarity concept with actor-centered institutional analysis of action situations to study herder behavior and institutional change in a complex pastoral social–ecological system. Transformation of the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem in the face of climate and social change has led to a decline in pastoral mobility, which in turn is making the ecosystem less sustainable. Responding to this concern, Mongolian policymakers have designed pasture use and conservation policies. We evaluate whether the enacted policies are complementary to herders’ strategic choices. First, we reconstruct institutional choices herders make in the commons domain, where herders interact to use common pastures. Second, we track this process in the political economy domain, where pasture users support or resist government policies. Finally, we evaluate the complementarity of the strategic choices and resulting institutions in the interdependent action situations of both domains. In combination with game-theoretic model building, we have employed the process tracing method during field research in Mongolia. We have not identified any evident, stable institutional complementarity between high pastoral mobility and support for a policy of leasing and certification of land for winter and spring camps. Conversely, our findings do suggest that policies for establishing pasture user groups and pasture use planning can be effective. A critical mass of herders choosing to comply with these policies and engage in pastoral mobility will be crucial for sustaining the ecosystem. This will strengthen conditions for institutional complementarity and create a new institutional arrangement overall.

Commoning the governance: a review of literature and the integration of power - Stefan Partelow; Aisa O. Manlosa (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The concept of commoning is continuing to gain scholarly interest, with multiple definitions and interpretations across different research communities. In this article, we define commoning as the actions by groups with shared interests towards creating shared social and relational processes as the basis of governance strategy. Perhaps it can be more simply defined as collective ways of relating and governing. This article addresses two specific gaps in the commoning literature: (1) to bridge disparate strands of literature on commoning by briefly reviewing each and arguing for integration through epistemic pluralism, and (2) to explicitly examine how power is manifest in commoning processes by bringing in a framework on power (i.e., power over, power with, power to, power within) to understand the links between power and commoning governance processes in two case studies. The two cases are tourism governance on Gili Trawangan, Indonesia and aquatic food production systems in Bulacan, Philippines. We preface this analysis with the argument that power is an integral part of the commoning concept, but that it has yet to be analytically integrated to applications of the broader institutional analysis and development framework or within the networks of action situations approach. We argue that by making explicit how an analysis of power can be coupled to a network of action situations analysis in a qualitative way, we are advancing a key feature of the commoning concept, which we introduce as rooted in epistemic and analytical pluralism in the analysis of governance. In the discussion, we expand on how each case study reveals each of the four power dynamics, and how they improve the understanding of commoning as a pluralistic and perhaps bridging analytical concept.

The dynamics of institutional arrangements for climate change adaptation in small island developing states in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans - Stacy-ann Robinson; D’Arcy Carlson; Emma Bouton; Mara Dolan; Allison Meakem; Anna Messer; J. Timmons Roberts (Sustainability Science, 2023)
The successful design, implementation and management of the institutional arrangements for climate change adaptation are critical components of sustainable development. This is especially true for small island developing states (SIDS), a group of 58 countries spread across three main geographic regions, which are acknowledged as being disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In many instances, the dynamics of these arrangements in SIDS are poorly understood and documented. This study helps to fill this gap by identifying and analyzing “networks of action situations” through semi-structured interviews with 14 national and international climate change officials and practitioners in four SIDS (Comoros, Maldives, Seychelles, and Singapore) in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans region. We find that there are a few strategic actors involved in multiple, mutually reinforcing and sometimes conflicting arrangements, which are simultaneously being shaped and reshaped at different scales. We also find varying patterns of power, politics and participation that act as both drivers of and barriers to adaptation in these countries. By deconstructing institutional interlinkages and strategic feedback loops, this paper contributes to a broader understanding of the complexities of environmental governance in small jurisdictions.

Diverse stakeholders and their interests matter to the U.S. Forest Service: a network of action situations analysis of how stakeholders affect forest plan outcomes - Elizabeth Baldwin; Danielle M. McLaughlin; Vincent Jasso; David Woods; David D. Breshears; Laura López-Hoffman; José R. Soto; Abigail Swann; Aaron Lien (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Reforming China’s fertilizer policies: implications for nitrogen pollution reduction and food security - Xiaoxi Wang; Meng Xu; Bin Lin; Benjamin Leon Bodirsky; Jiaqi Xuan; Jan Philipp Dietrich; Miodrag Stevanović; Zhaohai Bai; Lin Ma; Shuqin Jin; Shenggen Fan; Hermann Lotze-Campen; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Reactive nitrogen (N) is a requisite nutrient for agricultural production, but results in greenhouse gas and air and water pollution. The environmental and economic impacts of N fertilizer use in China are particularly relevant, as China consumes the largest amount of N fertilizer in the world to meet its soaring food demand. Here, we use an agro-economic land system model (MAgPIE) in combination with a difference-in-differences econometric model to provide a forward-looking assessment of China’s fertilizer policies in terms of removing fertilizer manufacturing subsidies and implementing measures to improve agricultural nutrient management efficiency. Our model results indicate that enhancing soil N uptake efficiency and manure recycled to soil alongside fertilizer subsidy removal can largely reduce N fertilizer use and N losses and abate N pollution in the short and long term, while food security remains largely unaffected. Enhancing soil N uptake efficiency appears to be decisive to achieving China’s national strategic target of zero growth in N fertilizer use. This study also finds that improving agricultural nutrient management efficiency contributes to higher land productivity and less cropland expansion, with substantial benefits for the environment and food security.

Identifying leverage points for shifting Water-Energy-Food nexus cases towards sustainability through the Networks of Action Situations approach combined with systems thinking - Elke Kellner (Sustainability Science, 2023)
In the twenty-first century, the world´s demand for natural resources is more pressing and deeply interconnected than ever before. The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has gained growing interest as a promising concept for complex resource management challenges. However, knowledge about the root causes of cross-sectoral coordination problems and how they can be shifted towards sustainability is still lacking. This paper fills this gap by conceptualising a WEF nexus case with the Networks of Action Situations approach combined with systems thinking. This approach allows a deep analysis of the root causes of coordination gaps, facilitates a joint understanding of the system dynamics to identify leverage points for shifting the WEF nexus towards sustainability, and to envision the impact of potential interventions on the network of action situations and their outcome. The value and the reciprocal benefits of the combined approach introduced are illustrated for a case in Switzerland, Europe. The results show a coordination gap between the different sectors and that not all sectors were considered equally. This leads to a prioritization of energy production over water-bound biodiversity and food production. The root causes for this outcome are a focus to mitigate climate change and awareness of biodiversity but much less awareness of the impacts of climate change on Swiss water bodies. The study identifies five deep leverage points for interventions, which are expected to ensure a shared systemic problem understanding and more balanced coordination between different sectors resulting in the sustainable and equitable provision and utilization of WEF resources.

The intertemporal governance challenges of Brazil’s Amazon: managing soybean expansion, deforestation rates, and urban floods - Martin Delaroche; Vitor M. Dias; Paulo Eduardo Massoca (Sustainability Science, 2023)

Challenges for environmental governance: policy issue interdependencies might not lead to collaboration - Johanna Hedlund; Daniel Nohrstedt; Tiffany Morrison; Michele-Lee Moore; Örjan Bodin (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Policy actors address complex environmental problems by engaging in multiple and often interdependent policy issues. Policy issue interdependencies imply that efforts by actors to address separate policy issues can either reinforce (‘win–win’) or counteract (‘trade-off’) each other. Thus, if interdependent issues are managed in isolation instead of being coordinated, the most effective and well-balanced solution to the underlying problem might never be realised. This study asks if reinforcing and counteracting interdependencies have different impacts on perception and collaboration. Our empirical study of collaborative water governance in the Norrström basin, Sweden, shows that policy actors often avoid collaborating when the policy issues exhibit reinforcing interdependencies. Our evidence indicates a perceived infeasibility of acting on reinforcing interdependencies. We also find that actors do not consider counteracting interdependencies (‘trade-offs’) at all when they engage in collaboration. Further, even though actors were aware of counteracting and reinforcing interdependencies, our analyses suggest they might be less aware of the former. These findings illustrate that actors either avoid each other due to policy issue interdependencies or, at best, ignore existing interdependencies when engaging in collaboration. Our study highlights the importance of problem perception in accomplishing integrated solutions to complex environmental problems, and of how understandings of different types of interdependencies shape collaboration in environmental governance.

Irrigation modernization and the efficiency paradox: a meta-study through the lens of Networks of Action Situations - Patrick Hoffmann; Sergio Villamayor-Tomas (Sustainability Science, 2023)
Infrastructure and technology investments that increase water-use efficiency (also called modernization investments) have become one of the most preferred solutions to cope with water scarcity in the context of climate change, increase productivity to satisfy growing demand, and save water to maintain ecosystems. In many cases, however, the higher efficiencies have led to more, instead of less, water consumption. This is generally known as the efficiency paradox or rebound effect. Understanding the processes behind the efficiency paradox remains a difficult task, given the variety of variables that either directly or indirectly factor into farmers’ water-use decisions and the strategic nature of many of those. This is even more the case when water is managed collectively by water-user associations, as in many irrigation systems worldwide. In order to better understand this complexity, our study applies the Networks of Action Situations approach to 37 studies of irrigation modernization investments in collectively managed irrigation systems. Through a systematic case review method, we identify 12 different action situations and 192 institutional, physical, and informational linkages that connect them. Although some studies report linkages between the modernization-investment and water-saving decision situations, many others relate them to situations typically associated with the collective management of irrigation systems (like the water application or infrastructure maintenance situations). A number of these situations, also including the water-saving situation, involve collective action problems that need to be integrated in current analyses. The solution towards more water saving may indeed benefit from a more active involvement of irrigation associations, given their proven capacity to promote collective action among farmers vis-à-vis other irrigation management situations.

Unravelling hidden factors explaining competition for and overuse of groundwater in Azraq, Jordan: digging deeper into a network of action situations - Daniel Oberhauser; Ramona Hägele; Ines Dombrowsky (Sustainability Science, 2023)
In Azraq in Eastern Jordan, farmers, domestic users, and a wetland ecosystem compete for and overexploit limited groundwater resources. Current studies explain parts of the problem, but do not take a comprehensive social–ecological systems perspective and tend to miss underlying hidden factors. To explain decision-making in this complex social–ecological system, we combine the concept of networks of action situations (NAS) with the political economy concept of the social contract. While the NAS allows a systematic exploration of the system, the concept of the social contract allows a deeper understanding of how informal institutions and power influence the system. Besides a comprehensive literature review, we draw on social network mapping and 67 semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders. We find that the main conflict arises between a heterogeneous group of farmers, who use groundwater for irrigation agriculture supported by a strong political lobby, and the water authorities, which rely on the aquifer for domestic water supply at national level. The original wetland with its diverse ecosystem services has largely disappeared and its remainder is maintained artificially. Our analysis reveals that a diversity of action situations, including water, agricultural, environmental, energy, and land governance, but also the monarchy’s underlying social contract and the informal concept of wasta, influence outcomes on the ground. We show that no panacea exists, but that systems thinking may help identify a range of intervention points, some more sensitive than others, that could support a social–ecological transformation towards sustainability.

Networks of action situations: a systematic review of empirical research - Christian Kimmich; Elizabeth Baldwin; Elke Kellner; Christoph Oberlack; Sergio Villamayor-Tomas (Sustainability Science, 2023)
“Action situations”—events, venues, or physically interdependent instances of decision-making—have become a central unit of analysis in the social–environmental sciences, particularly among scholars interested in bridging the social with the biophysical or ecological side of interdependent decisions. A growing body of empirical studies in social–ecological systems research has recently used case and comparative studies to analyse multiple interdependent action situations, structured into networks. In this article, we take stock of this body of empirical research, synthesize the diverse approaches that scholars have taken to assess “networks of action situations”, and identify fruitful paths forward. We conduct a systematic review of the empirical literature in the field, reviewing and summarizing the key characteristics of the empirical studies, including network features, topologies, methods, and data sources used in each case. We summarize and discuss the conceptualizations, methods, diagnostic procedures, and conclusions used in this body of work in a narrative framework synthesis. The review indicates that an increasingly coherent approach is taking shape, but a systematic, protocol-driven, or formalized approach is only partly emerging. We derive future research needs that could help accumulate knowledge from empirical research.

From Necrocene to Naíocene—promising pathways toward sustainable agri-food systems - Markus Keck; Andrew Flachs (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Poverty and inequality implications of carbon pricing under the long-term climate target - Shiya Zhao; Shinichiro Fujimori; Tomoko Hasegawa; Ken Oshiro; Katsuya Sasaki (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Many countries have taken stringent climate policies to minimize the risks by climate change. But these policies could burden households and the poor with the extra costs and threaten their wellbeing. However, the consequences of climate policies on poverty and welfare loss are seldom presented in stringent long-term climate change mitigation projections. Carbon pricing is a cost-effective approach; how it affects households varies among countries. This study investigated the distributional effects and poverty implications of carbon pricing in China during the transition towards carbon neutrality and the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals. We assessed multiple poverty and equity standards in future scenarios with a newly developed integrated assessment model. It was found that climate change mitigation efforts would not greatly hinder poverty alleviation in China, with the poverty headcount under the $3.2/cap/day-threshold being less than 0.3 million people in 2050 in most scenarios. A carbon tax became a regressive factor mainly due to price increases in food and energy goods. This indicates that the distributional effects on carbon pricing should be considered. For example, supplementary policies that compensate for price changes, such as subsidies and early mitigation actions, that lead to modest price increases in the long term are worthy of consideration as valid instruments for the just transition towards the 2 °C or even 1.5 °C pathway.

Understanding the embeddedness of individuals within the larger system to support the energy transition - Katharina Biely; Emile Chappin; Gerdien de Vries; Siddharth Sareen; Thomas Bauwens (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Correction: Alternatives to sustainable development: what can we learn from the pluriverse in practice? - Shivani Kaul; Bengi Akbulut; Federico Demaria; Julien-François Gerber (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Building local capacity for managing environmental risk: a transferable framework for participatory, place-based, narrative-science knowledge exchange - Lindsey McEwen; Liz Roberts; Andrew Holmes; James Blake; Antonia Liguori; Tim Taylor (Sustainability Science, 2022)
This paper evaluates a unique, transdisciplinary participatory research and knowledge exchange methodology developed in the Drought Risk and You (DRY) project and offers it as a transferable framework for others engaging stakeholders and systemic connections with environmental risk. Drought in the UK is a complex, diffuse and hidden risk, involving multiple stakeholders and systemic connections across diverse sectors. Historically, drought risk management has been underpinned by specialist science and technology implemented by statutory stakeholders. This paper critically evaluates the social learning from a longitudinal research process that involved co-working with seven river catchment-based, multi-stakeholder groups. The DRY project was a creative experiment in bringing drought science and stories into the same space, aiming to reveal different knowledges—specialist science, practical sector-level insight, and local knowledge—as a new evidence base to support better decision-making in UK drought risk management. An evaluative multi-method research methodology was overlaid on this process, using surveys, within meeting reflective evaluations, and summative semi-structured narrative interviews. This paper reflects on participant experiences of the ‘open’ scientific modelling development, ‘storying’ approaches, and their iterative interaction. It outlines the enablers, inhibitors and required support for this engagement process, which aimed to facilitate integration of different forms of knowledge as evidence, with social and sustainability learning among diverse stakeholders at its core. The process offered opportunity for valuable experiential learning as researchers of the nuanced impacts of intersecting factors on participatory place-based methods. It showed that similar approaches to science-narrative dialogic processes can play out locally to integrate aspects of social and sustainability learning in different ways. This sustainability learning provided a valuable platform for creative multi-stakeholder scenario-ing possible drought futures for increased local climate resilience. It then proposes a transferable research framework that promotes participatory, place-based, narrative-science knowledge exchange for building local capital for managing systemic environmental risk.

How context affects transdisciplinary research: insights from Asia, Africa and Latin America - Flurina Schneider; Aymara Llanque-Zonta; Onintsoa Ravaka Andriamihaja; R. Ntsiva N. Andriatsitohaina; Aung Myin Tun; Kiteme Boniface; Johanna Jacobi; Enrico Celio; Clara Léonie Diebold; Laby Patrick; Phokham Latthachack; Jorge Claudio Llopis; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Transdisciplinary research (TDR) has been developed to generate knowledge that effectively fosters the capabilities of various societal actors to realize sustainability transformations. The development of TDR theories, principles, and methods has been largely governed by researchers from the global North and has reflected their contextual conditions. To enable more context-sensitive TDR framing, we sought to identify which contextual characteristics affect the design and implementation of TDR in six case studies in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and what this means for TDR as a scientific approach. To this end, we distinguished four TDR process elements and identified several associated context dimensions that appeared to influence them. Our analysis showed that contextual characteristics prevalent in many Southern research sites—such as highly volatile socio-political situations and relatively weak support infrastructure—can make TDR a challenging endeavour. However, we also observed a high degree of variation in the contextual characteristics of our sites in the global South, including regarding group deliberation, research freedom, and dominant perceptions of the appropriate relationship between science, society, and policy. We argue that TDR in these contexts requires pragmatic adaptations as well as more fundamental reflection on underlying epistemological concepts around what it means to conduct “good science”, as certain contextual characteristics may influence core epistemological values of TDR.

How public catering accelerates sustainability: a German case study - Melanie Speck; Lynn Wagner; Felix Buchborn; Fara Steinmeier; Silke Friedrich; Nina Langen (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Public catering has become increasingly important in recent years. With increasing annual customers, the sector’s impact on the environment is also growing continuously. At the same time, public catering offers a lever to promote sustainable nutrition that has rarely been used so far. Small changes in kitchen practices and food offers can thus be multiplied into a significant positive impact on environmental challenges, such as climate change or loss of biodiversity due to the large number of servings. In contrast to private households, management decisions in public catering can influence the food-related environmental impact of thousands of customers. This article deals with the nationwide level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resource use in the German public catering segment “business” and its saving potentials by different scenarios of unsupported and supported recipe revision. In this paper, we define "unsupported" as the intuitive optimization of recipes by employees of public catering businesses. In contrast, “supported” approaches had to meet specific target goals, for example of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung; engl. German Nutrition Society or the sustainable level. Specifically, we will test how (A) an unsupported recipe revision, (B) a recipe revision based on dietary recommendations and (C) a recipe revision using scientific guidance affect the environmental impact of a dish. As a methodological framework, an online survey of public catering companies was conducted as well as a scenario analysis at menu level and at nationwide level. The results are based on empirical data on the one hand, and on extrapolations on the other. The results show that the nationwide implementation of recipe revision according to scientific guidance—such as concrete target goals for the GHG emissions per serving—can save up to 44% of resource use in the German business catering sector (which corresponds to 3.4 million tons of resources per year) and as much as 40% of GHG emissions (0.6 million tons GHG emissions per year). Even in the scenario of unsupported recipe revision, GHG and resource savings of up to 20% can be realized. The results show that public catering can reduce its material and carbon footprint by 20% overnight. Moreover, the findings show indications for the sustainable transformation of public catering. Nevertheless, it must be noted that these are some first steps of the transformation, which will require further changes with even greater impacts and political activities.

The dialectics of capital: learning from Gran Chaco - M. Graziano Ceddia; Rodrigo Montani; Walter Mioni (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The critical impact of humans on the biosphere has led scientists to coin the term Anthropocene. The global environmental changes associated with it are happening under the aegis of capitalism. A transition towards sustainability requires a critical scrutiny of capitalism. The social–ecological system (SES) approach conceptualises the relationship between the socio-economic subsystem and the biosphere. However, in its various operationalisations it either treats the former as a black box or it fails to capture dynamic aspects. We address these limits and develop a Dialectical Socio-Ecological System (D-SES) framework, which combines process ecology with historical materialism, to describe the emergence and persistence of capitalist dynamics. We draw on data collected through fieldwork and desk research and deploy our framework to study capital-intensive agriculture in the Chaco Salteño, an important agricultural frontier in South America, obtaining some general insights. We open up the socio-economic subsystem and break it down into a lower-level material/economic sphere and an upper-level cultural/institutional sphere. Capitalist dynamics emerge out of the peculiar relationships occurring both within and between these spheres. This configuration shows the typical signs of autocatalysis. It attracts resources and capital to expand itself (centripetality). It becomes more complex and organised over time, fine-tuning production modes, cultures, and institutions (directionality). It is subject to the laws of competition and profit maximisation, which emerge independently from the individual actors and processes making up the system (autonomy). Finally, it engenders frictions, reflecting class antagonism between the direct producers and the appropriators of wealth. These frictions can become leverage points for a system’s transformation.

Barriers to institutional social sustainability - Walter Leal Filho; Amanda Lange Salvia; Claudio Ruy Portela Vasconcelos; Rosley Anholon; Izabela Simon Rampasso; João Henrique Paulino Pires Eustachio; Olena Liakh; Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis; Raquel Cementina Olpoc; Joseph Bandanaa; Yusuf A. Aina; Regine Lolekola Lukina; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)

New intergenerational evidence on reverse socialization of environmental literacy - Ji Liu; Qiaoyi Chen; Jingxia Dang (Sustainability Science, 2022)

A system leverage points approach to governance for sustainable development - Mitzi Bolton (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Governments are inherently responsible for citizens' well-being. Given that achieving sustainable development ["Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs"—(WCED in Our common future, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987)] is core to the attainment and maintenance of citizens' well-being, and increasingly understood to require major transformations in integrated social, technological and ecological systems (Sachs et al. in The decade of action for the sustainable development goals: sustainable development report 2021, Cambridge, 2021), it follows that governments have a significant role in shaping transformations. Muted progress on long-standing social, environmental, and economic challenges alongside spiralling public budgets and intergenerational debt suggests, however, that public governance systems are inadequate to facilitate the transformations urgently required. Conceptualising the practice of public decision-making as a complex system, this paper investigates whether known influences on public decision-makers can be linked to Meadows’ (Leverage points: places to intervene in a system, Sustainability Institute, North Charleston, 1999) leverage point framework. Finding meaningful connections, it further explores how the leverage point framework can be employed to engage decision-making influences as enablers of desirable public outcomes. It is contended that shifting decision-makers’ focus one step beyond currently prevalent leverage points will set in motion the transformations in governance required to facilitate sustainable development.

Different perspectives on a common goal? The Q-method as a formative assessment to elucidate varying expectations towards transdisciplinary research collaborations - Verena Radinger-Peer; Elisabeth Schauppenlehner-Kloyber; Marianne Penker; Katharina Gugerell (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Transdisciplinary research (TDR) collaborations are considered effective when they yield relevant results for science and practice. In this context, the different expectations, experiences, skills, and disciplines of the team members involved determine TDR collaboration. Using the example of 13 team members involved in the 3-year TDR project ‘Römerland Carnuntum 2040’ (Austria), we aim to identify and compare diverse expectations regarding TDR collaboration. In doing so, we question the often emphasised dichotomy between science and practice as the main challenge of TDR collaboration and aim towards making individual expectations regarding TDR collaboration visible and tangible. The contribution of the present paper is twofold: on the one hand, we provide statements for a formative assessment to externalise implicit expectations, assumptions, and epistemologies of TDR project team members regarding TDR collaboration and results. On the other hand, we present the Q-methodology as a viable approach to uncover diverging viewpoints as visible, tangible, and enunciable differences that need to be acknowledged in early stages of TDR projects when allocating resources and planning further project steps. Our investigations result in two viewpoints: one emphasises learning, collective reflection, and knowledge exchange as the main TDR expectation. The second focuses on ‘changing practices’, assuming that the project supports the introduction of new practices for (sustainable) regional development. These diverging expectations reveal subconscious tensions, which have to be addressed when allocating resources and defining project success within the TDR project.

Ecological performance standards for regenerative urban design - Janine Benyus; Jamie Dwyer; Sara El-Sayed; Samantha Hayes; Dayna Baumeister; Clint A. Penick (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Identification and characterization of potential change agents among agri-food producers: regime, niche and hybrid actors - Arne Bünger; Daniel Schiller (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The multi-level perspective has been criticized for being functionalistic and paying little attention to actor-based perspectives. Nevertheless, for the identification and assessment of potential change agents in a sustainability transition, a clear conceptual and methodological approach is necessary. This paper, thus, develops a multi-dimensional typology of niche, regime, and hybrid actors, which is conceptually grounded in transition studies and empirically illustrated by a cluster analysis based on a survey of pig and poultry farmers in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Animal husbandry is chosen as a case study because a significant share of the environmental impact within the agri-food system is attributed to this sector and there is evidence for resistance to change by mainstream actors. Conceptually, the paper provides a framework of constitutive elements for different kinds of actors and contributes to an extension of the niche–regime dichotomy by adding the group of hybrid actors. The empirical results show that cluster analysis is a suitable approach to identify conceptually meaningful differences among interviewed farmers. Among pig and poultry farmers, the regime actors are by far the largest group. The smaller group of hybrid actors, however, has large potential to act as boundary spanners. A particularly interesting finding is that several larger farms are among the group of niche actors which hints at the possibility that larger farms are not necessarily resistant to change.

The Life Framework of Values and living as nature; towards a full recognition of holistic and relational ontologies - Jasper O. Kenter; Seb O’Connor (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The Life Framework of Values links the richness of ways we experience and think of nature with the diverse ways nature matters. In this paper, we further develop and clarify the Life Framework in response to comments by Neuteleers et al. (Sustain Sci 14(1):4, 2020, 10.1007/s11625-020-00825-7). They supported its application to move beyond the instrumentalism and anthropocentrism associated with ecosystem services and nature’s contributions to people, but were critical of our addition of the living as nature frame to O’Neill et al.’s (Environmental values. Routledge, London, 2008) original three (living from , in and with the natural world), and of the way we defined intrinsic and relational values. We argue that the original presentation of the frames was as distinct sources of concern for nature. The living as frame, characterised by oneness between nature and people, presents a unique source of concern not adequately represented by the original three frames. Whilst the Life Framework is open to diverse definitions of intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values, we present straightforward interpretations that are compatible with multiple ethical systems and can effectively serve deliberative processes. We demonstrate that intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values do not map onto the life frames one-to-one, as each frame layers multiple value justifications. Whilst a key purpose of the Life Framework is to facilitate recognition of a more inclusive set of values in valuation and policy, it can also enable more effective organisation, communication, assessment, bridging and deliberation of values. It also provides multiple levers for sustainability transformation, particularly by fully recognising holistic and relational understandings of people and nature.

Governance of working landscapes: a conceptual framework - Raphael Anammasiya Ayambire; Jeremy Pittman; Michael Drescher; Juan Moreno-Cruz; Andrea Olive (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Correction: Research strategies to catalyze agroecological transitions in low- and middle-income countries - Sarah K. Jones; Nadia Bergamini; Francesca Beggi; Didier Lesueur; Barbara Vinceti; Arwen Bailey; Fabrice A. DeClerck; Natalia Estrada-Carmona; Carlo Fadda; Etienne M. Hainzelin; Danny Hunter; Chris Kettle; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Local collective action for sustainability transformations: emerging narratives from local energy initiatives in The Netherlands - Mustafa Hasanov; Christian Zuidema (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The phrase “local collective action” is increasingly being used to describe how civil society engages with, and acts upon, sustainability transformations. While existing research has framed local collective action as an outcome of creating a shared agenda on a local level, there have been calls for exploring the diversity of ideas, motives, and ambitions people have when they join local energy initiatives. This article aims to identify the diverse attitudes towards local collective action envisioned by those who engage in local energy initiatives. We use Q methodology to analyze people’s perceptions of the local collective action they are engaged in and how those perceptions could manifest in different pathways for sustainability transformations. Forty-seven statements reflecting various approaches to local collective action were sorted by people engaged in various local energy initiatives in the northeast of the Netherlands. Based on the analysis, we distinguish four factors— Localism, Facilitation, Orchestration, and Radical Transformation —that express the diverse aspirations, motivations, and rationales associated with local collective action in local energy initiatives. The findings emphasize that for those engaged in local energy initiatives (LEIs), local collective action means navigating among different assumptions, values, and transformation processes, which often oscillate between guiding principles that emphasize “getting things done” and “creating a pleasant atmosphere”. We argue that these four factors can serve as a starting point for developing local collective action strategies to help local communities and authorities unpack possible tensions, confrontations, and conflicts concerning local energy initiatives. These findings point out that while local energy initiatives rely on people’s energy and enthusiasm, practitioners and governments should be cautious while embracing their ambitions and values.

Transformations towards sustainable food systems: contrasting Swedish practitioner perspectives with the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy - Karin Eliasson; Lotten Wiréhn; Tina-Simone Neset; Björn-Ola Linnér (Sustainability Science, 2022)
This study explores features of food system transformations towards sustainability in the Farm to Fork Strategy in relation to perspectives of Swedish food system practitioners. Transformations towards sustainable food systems are essential to achieve the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and the need for more sustainable food systems has been recognised in the European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork Strategy . The Swedish ambition to act as a global leader in achieving the 2030 Agenda and the European Commission’s aspiration for Europe to lead global food system transformations offer a critical opportunity to study transformational processes and agents of change in a high-income region with externalised environmental and sustainability impacts. Drawing on theories of complex systems transformations, this study identifies features of food system transformations, exploring places to intervene and examines the roles, responsibilities, and agency related to these changes. The results of this study provide three main conclusions highlighting (i) alignment of high-level policy and the perspectives of national practitioners at the paradigm level, especially concerning how food is valued, which is a crucial first step for transformational processes to come about (ii) a lack of clarity as well as diversity of pathways to transform food systems although common objectives are expressed, and (iii) governance mechanisms as enablers for a diversity of transformations. Moreover, these processes must acknowledge the contextual and complex nature of food systems and the level of agency and power of actors.

Defining the “Positive Impact” of socio-technical systems for absolute sustainability: a literature review based on the identification of system design principles and management functions - Malte Gebler; Max Juraschek; Sebastian Thiede; Felipe Cerdas; Christoph Herrmann (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Socio-technical systems represent complex interactions of humans with ecological, social and economic systems. A system’s design and its operations determine whether its impact is “negative”, “neutral/zero” or “positive” over the system life cycle with regard to its contribution to sustainable development. But coping with exceeded planetary boundaries and social challenges requires more than “net-zero” approaches to achieve biosphere resilience and healthy societies. While negative and zero impacts are widely studied, the term “ positive impact ” has just recently gained importance to describe the outcome of design, planning, operational, organizational or engineering processes. Various case studies, reviews and conceptual proposals exist—mostly applied in a specific context—but a clear definition is not yet detectable. Based on a review of existing literature, this paper: (i) analyzes current perceptions of negative, zero and positive impacts of socio-technical systems on absolute sustainability, (ii) summarizes the current state of knowledge on positive impact concepts for sustainable development, (iii) identifies relevant socio-technical system design principles for positive impacts on biosphere, society and economy, (iv) derives management functions and organizational prerequisites within socio-technical systems to enable positive impacts, (v) proposes a guiding framework and a definition for “positive impact of socio-technical systems for absolute sustainability”, and (vi) discusses briefly potential applications and further research demand. This review intends to synthesize existing knowledge from an industrial and engineering design perspective, and delivers an overview on the subject from a global sustainability level to the operational level. The derived insights provide a basis for method development, system design processes and new business models.

Research strategies to catalyze agroecological transitions in low- and middle-income countries - Sarah K. Jones; Nadia Bergamini; Francesca Beggi; Didier Lesueur; Barbara Vinceti; Arwen Bailey; Fabrice A. DeClerck; Natalia Estrada-Carmona; Carlo Fadda; Etienne M. Hainzelin; Danny Hunter; Chris Kettle; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Governments are updating national strategies to meet global goals on biodiversity, climate change and food systems proposed in the Convention on Biological Diversity post-2020 framework and agreed at the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference (COP26) and Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). This represents a unique and crucial opportunity to integrate and accelerate food system actions to tackle interconnected global challenges. In this context, agroecology is a game-changing approach that can provide the world’s growing population with nutritious, healthy affordable food, ensure fair incomes to farmers and halt and reverse the degradation of the natural environment. Here, we explore agroecological transition pathways in four case studies from low- and middle- income countries and identify catalysts for change. We find that enabling policy and market environments, participatory action research and local socio-technical support each plays a critical role in stimulating transitions towards agroecology. We propose strategies and priorities for research to better support agroecological transitions using these catalysts of change as entry points. Engagement of governments, private sector, civil society, farmers and farm workers in this research agenda is essential.

Amplifying actions for food system transformation: insights from the Stockholm region - David P. M. Lam; Amanda Jiménez-Aceituno; Leonie Guerrero Lara; My M. Sellberg; Albert V. Norström; Michele-Lee Moore; Garry D. Peterson; Per Olsson (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Food is essential to people and is one of the main ways in which people are connected to the world’s ecosystems. However, food systems often cause ecosystem degradation and produce ill-health, which has generated increasing calls to transform food systems to be more sustainable. The Swedish food system is currently undergoing substantial change. A varied set of local actors have created alternative sustainability initiatives that enact new ways of doing, thinking, and organizing. These actors can increase the transformative impact of their initiatives through multiple actions and a variety of amplification processes. We analyzed the actions adopted by 29 food initiatives active in the Stockholm region using information available online. We conducted 11 interviews to better understand the amplification processes of speeding up (i.e., accelerating impact) , scaling up (i.e., influencing higher institutional levels), and scaling deep (i.e., changing values and mind-sets). Our results indicated that the initiatives mainly seek to stabilize and grow their impact while changing the awareness, values, and mind-sets of people concerning the food they consume ( scaling deep ). However, these approaches raise new questions about whether these actions subvert or reinforce current unsustainable and inequitable system dynamics. We suggest there are distinct steps that local and regional governments could take to support these local actors via collaborations with coordinated forms of initiatives, and fostering changes at the municipality level, but these steps require ongoing, adaptive approaches given the highly complex nature of transformative change and the risks of reinforcing current system dynamics.

Preservation, modernization, and transformation: contesting bioeconomic imaginations of “manure futures” and trajectories toward a sustainable livestock system - Jonathan Friedrich; Jana Zscheischler; Heiko Faust (Sustainability Science, 2022)
In discourses on sustainability, its underlying conceptualizations and meanings, the role of imaginations and their influence on concrete social practices and mutually dependent sociomaterial structures have been overlooked. Therefore, our article uses Adloff and Neckel’s (Sustain Sci 14(4):1015-1025, 2019) conceptual framework to explore the role of imaginations in generating different trajectories from a concrete environmental problem, namely issues attributed to manure surpluses in Germany, to assess the hurdles and conflicting goals of a transformation toward a sustainable livestock system. Our study builds on qualitative, semistructured, and problem-centered interviews with both new innovation actors and incumbent actors in the current system. Our results show that different trajectories of “manure futures” exist, as we identify “preservation”, “modernization” and “transformation” as trajectories representing ideal types of change. We discuss the results in light of the theory of imaginations and reflect on the usefulness of the concept of imaginations for analyzing environmental discourses and practices. Furthermore, we find that normative framings of problems rather than factual knowledge describe contesting imaginations as barriers to sustainability transformations, a point that must be acknowledged when developing a sustainable livestock system. We conclude that contesting imaginations could result in conflicts that must be moderated as drivers for change yet could also point to transformations that are already underway.

Degrowing alternative agriculture: institutions and aspirations as sustainability metrics for small farmers in Bosnia and India - Andrew Flachs (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Correction to: Ecological footprint of your denim jeans: production knowledge and green consumerism - Fahad Asmi; Qingyu Zhang; Muhammad Azfar Anwar; Kristina Linke; Younes Ben Zaied (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Goal frames and sustainability transitions: how cognitive lock-ins can impede crop diversification - Chiara Sophia Weituschat; Stefano Pascucci; Valentina Cristiana Materia; Peter Tamas; Ruth de Jong; Jacques Trienekens (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Transitions towards more sustainable agricultural systems are often characterised by ‘lock-ins’, understood as self-reinforcing mechanisms that reproduce the status quo and impede change. While socioeconomic, technological and institutional lock-ins have been widely used to understand processes of sustainable transitions in agri-food systems, the role of so-called cognitive lock-ins is still under-investigated. In this study, we focus on how institutional settings create cognitive lock-ins in farmers’ decision-making related to the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. We apply goal framing for environmental behaviour and transition theory in explaining how socio-technical conditions may shape farmer’s decision-making. Empirically, we focus on the example of diversifying crop rotations with legumes as an established strategy to increase biodiversity and soil health, and reduce agrochemical use, emissions and pollution, which still remains rare in European agriculture. We use two cases in the Atlantic pedo-climatic region, Cornwall, UK, and Gelderland, Netherlands. Using in-depth interview data with farmers and extensive supplementary secondary data, we explore how context-specific socio-technical settings interact with farmers’ normative, gain-oriented and hedonic goal frames to shape the (un-)desirability of crop diversification with legumes. This creates conditions recognisable as cognitive lock-ins: the context of farmers’ decision-making creates cognitive processes that drastically reduce the perceived viability of alternative agricultural practices. Our findings in this case suggest the framework developed for this study may help to identify regionally specific, as well as common, barriers and solutions to crop diversification and comparable practices that are relevant to transitions towards sustainability in agri-food systems.

Agricultural trade and its impacts on cropland use and the global loss of species habitat - Florian Schwarzmueller; Thomas Kastner (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Agricultural expansion and intensification are threatening biodiversity worldwide, and future expansion of agricultural land will exacerbate this trend. One of the main drivers of this expansion is an increasingly global trade of agricultural produce. National and international assessments tracking the impact of agriculture on biodiversity thus need to be expanded by a consumption-based accounting of biodiversity loss. In this study, we use global trade data, provided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), to construct national trade profiles for 223 countries, at the level of 191 produced items and over the timespan of 15 years. We show how bilateral trade data and a national biodiversity indicator, the Species Habitat Index (SHI), can be combined to quantify consumption-based impacts of agricultural trade on biodiversity. We found that the cropland area for agricultural trade has increased from 17 (in 2000) to 23.5% (in 2013) of the global total cropland area. Especially, countries in Western Europe, North America, and the Middle East, create a large part of their biodiversity footprint outside their own country borders, because they import large amounts of agricultural products from areas where the SHI records high biodiversity loss. With our approach, we can thus identify countries where consumption-based interventions might be most effective for the protection of global biodiversity. Analyses like the one presented in this study are needed to complement territorial sustainability assessments. By taking into account trade and consumption, they can inform cross-border agreements on biodiversity protection.

The role of perceptions and social norms in shaping women’s fertility preferences: a case study from Ethiopia - Patrícia Rodrigues; Aisa O. Manlosa; Joern Fischer; Jannik Schultner; Jan Hanspach; Feyera Senbeta; Ine Dorresteijn (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The population–environment–food nexus is a sustainability challenge for the Global South, and for Africa in particular, where rapid human population growth typically overlaps with high levels of food insecurity and environmental degradation. In this context, it is important to understand the reasons driving high fertility in these regions. Here, we examined possible determinants of women’s fertility preferences in rural southwestern Ethiopia. Using a survey tool ( n = 120), we assessed women’s perceptions of four key environmental stressors, namely food insecurity, environmental degradation, human population growth, and land scarcity. Through statistical modelling we tested whether there was a relationship between perceptions of future trends in these stressors and women’s fertility preferences; expressed as their desired number of children and use of family planning methods. This analysis was complemented by a qualitative content analysis of the survey’s open-ended questions, to contextualize and interpret the quantitative data. Our quantitative results indicated that perceptions of future trends in key stressors had little effect on fertility preferences of respondents, with the exception of perceptions of human population growth. Our qualitative data suggested that this may be due to the influence of social-cultural norms and religion, decision-making with the husband, as well as a perceived utilitarian value of children. These findings have important implications for the development of interventions to slow down human population growth. Our findings suggest the need to look beyond improved physical access to family planning, and develop a new suite of deliberative approaches that engage with social norms, religion, and gender equity.

Co-creating sustainability indicators for the local water–energy–food nexus - Fabiano de Araújo Moreira; Michele Dalla Fontana; Patrícia Marra Sepe; Mathews Vichr Lopes; Lucas do Vale Moura; Larissa Santos Medeiros; Joop de Kraker; Tadeu Fabrício Malheiros; Gabriela Marques Di Giulio (Sustainability Science, 2022)

True cost accounting in agri-food networks: a German case study on informational campaigning and responsible implementation - A. Michalke; L. Stein; R. Fichtner; T. Gaugler; S. Stoll-Kleemann (Sustainability Science, 2022)
There is broad scientific consensus that current food systems are neither sustainable nor resilient: many agricultural practices are very resource-intensive and responsible for a large share of global emissions and loss of biodiversity. Consequently, current systems put large pressure on planetary boundaries. According to economic theory, food prices form when there is a balance between supply and demand. Yet, due to the neglect of negative external effects, effective prices are often far from representing the ‘true costs’. Current studies show that especially animal-based foodstuff entails vast external costs that currently stay unaccounted for in market prices. Against this background, we explore how informational campaigning on agricultural externalities can contribute to consumer awareness and tolerance of this matter. Further, we investigate the socially just design of monetary incentives and their implementation potentials and challenges. This study builds on the informational campaign of a German supermarket displaying products with two price tags: one of the current market price and the other displaying the ‘true’ price, which includes several environmental externalities calculated with True Cost Accounting (TCA). Based on interpretations of a consumer survey and a number of expert interviews, in this article we approach the potentials and obstacles of TCA as a communication tool and the challenges of its factual implementation in agri-food networks. Our results show that consumers are generally interested in the topic of true food pricing and would to a certain extent be willing to pay ‘true prices’ of the inquired foods. However, insufficient transparency and unjust distribution of wealth are feared to bring about communication and social justice concerns in the implementation of TCA. When introducing TCA into current discourse, it is therefore important to develop measures that are socially cautious and backed by relevant legal framework conditions. This poses the chance to create a fair playing (‘polluter pays’) with a clear assignment of responsibilities to policy makers, and practitioners in addition to customers.

Circular agri-food economies: business models and practices in the potato industry - Oliver Klein; Stefan Nier; Christine Tamásy (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Circular economies are an important pillar of sustainable production and consumption. This particularly applies to the agri-food industry, which is characterised by large amounts of organic waste and by-product streams posing a serious challenge for many food producers. Therefore, respective firms increasingly adopt circular economy business models (CEBMs) to manage these resource flows effectively. However, there is only little knowledge on the functioning of CEBMs in bio-based industries, especially from a socio-economic perspective. We address this gap by exploring enablers and motivations behind such business models as well as the institutional contexts they are embedded in. In methodological terms, we adopt a case study approach using the example of potato production in Lower Saxony (northwest Germany). The core of the paper is a qualitative in-depth analysis of four potato processors, adopting varying business models to valorise their by-product streams (e.g. peels, scraps, pulp) either ‘in-house’ or in partnerships with external partners. The findings show that the implementation of CEBMs results from a complex interplay of internal and external enablers, with economic considerations as the main impetus for the management of biological reverse cycles. Thereby, we found a shifting economic logic in the assessment of potato by-products from disposable waste to valuable resources for other sectors (e.g. livestock farming, bioenergy, biofuels). While being encouraged by targeted policies, the companies studied feel increasingly affected by emerging sustainability discourses, prompting them to (re)design and (re)frame their CEBMs in view of environmental and societal issues.

Sustainability science must challenge common sense: a response to Bodin (2021) - Ellinor Isgren; Stefano B. Longo (Sustainability Science, 2022)
In this comment, we respond to the claim of (Bodin, Sustain Sci 16: 2151–2155, 2021) that sustainability science, as a research community, has begun to “lean to the left” in a problematic manner. On one hand, we remain unconvinced by the examples cited as indications for this tendency, and argue for caution in making such judgements. On the other hand, we hold that that there may be reasons for seemingly “left leaning” positions which are scientific rather than purely political or ideological. Finally, we urge sustainability scientists to take heed of social theorists’ insights regarding the pitfalls of common sense analysis. This can better enable open and reflexive debate on the field’s development as well as the challenges it seeks to address.

Market power and food loss at the producer-retailer interface of fruit and vegetable supply chains in Germany - Ronja Herzberg; Thomas Schmidt; Markus Keck (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Food loss and waste are associated with an unnecessary consumption of natural resources and avoidable greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations have thus set the reduction of food loss and waste on the political agenda by means of the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3. The German Federal Government committed itself to this goal by implementing the National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction in 2019. However, this policy approach relies heavily on voluntary action by involved actors and neglects the possible role of power imbalances along the food supply chain. While current research on food loss and waste in industrialised countries predominantly focuses on the consumer level, this study puts emphasis on the under-researched early stages of the food supply chain from the field to retailers’ warehouses. Based on 22 expert interviews with producers, producer organisations and retailers, this article identifies major inter-stage drivers of food loss in the supply chains for fresh fruit and vegetables in Germany. Its main novelty is to demonstrate how market power imbalances and risk shifting between powerful and subordinate actors can reinforce the tendency of food loss on the part of producers further up the supply chain. Results indicate that prevalent institutional settings, such as contractual terms and conditions, trading practices, ordering processes, product specifications, and communication privilege retailers and encourage food loss. The mechanisms in which these imbalances manifest, go beyond the European Commission’s current legislation on Unfair Trading Practices. This study suggests a research agenda that might help to formulate adjusted policy instruments for re-structuring the German fruit and vegetable markets so that less food is wasted.

Managing biodiversity in the Anthropocene: discussing the Nature Futures Framework as a tool for adaptive decision-making for nature under climate change - Juliano Palacios-Abrantes; Renuka Badhe; Amanda Bamford; William W. L. Cheung; Wendy Foden; Catarina Frazão Santos; Kerry-Anne Grey; Nicola Kühn; Kristi Maciejewski; Henry McGhie; Guy F. Midgley; Izak P. J. Smit; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Conservation approaches to social-ecological systems have largely been informed by a framing of preserving nature for its instrumental societal benefits, often ignoring the complex relationship of humans and nature and how climate change might impact these. The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) was developed by the Task Force on scenarios and models of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services as a heuristic approach that appreciates the diverse positive values of nature and its contribution to people. In this overview, we convene a group of experts to discuss the NFF as a tool to inform management in social-ecological systems facing climate change. We focus on three illustrative case studies from the global south across a range of climate change impacts at different ecological levels. We find that the NFF can facilitate the identification of trade-offs between alternative climate adaptation pathways based on different perspectives on the values of nature they emphasize. However, we also identify challenges in adopting the NFF, including how outputs can be translated into modeling frameworks. We conclude that using the NFF to unpack diverse management options under climate change is useful, but that there are still gaps where more work needs to be done to make it fully operational. A key conclusion is that a range of multiple perspectives of people’s values on nature could result in adaptive decision-making and policy that is resilient in responding to climate change impacts in social-ecological systems.

The impact of weather changes on the supply and demand of electric power and wholesale prices of electricity in Germany - Kenta Tanaka; Ken’ichi Matsumoto; Alexander Ryota Keeley; Shunsuke Managi (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Introduction to the special feature on managing climate risks for a sustainable future: adaptation strategies and resilience-building - Qiang Ji; Shunsuke Managi; Dayong Zhang (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Environmental principles for modern sustainable economic frameworks including the circular economy - Piero Morseletto (Sustainability Science, 2022)
A set of newly defined environmental principles can advance the sustainability performance of economic frameworks such as industrial ecology, cradle-to-cradle, and the circular economy. Currently, the environmental sustainability of these frameworks is mainly derived from the application of efficiency principles such as waste reduction, or closing and narrowing production, and consumption loops. However, these same principles can bring, in some cases, unintended outcomes that are detrimental to the environment. Efficiency principles also fall short of environmental sustainability aspirations, doing little to contribute to addressing the causes of current global environmental crises. This paper examines 7 widely applicable principles aimed at explicit environmental sustainability: doing no harm to nature, minimising environmental damage, restoring/remediating environmental damage, net-positive impact, no net loss, maintaining the health of ecosystems, and continual environmental improvement. These principles could markedly improve efforts to actively pursue sustainability and foster new economic forms that address our current unsustainable trajectories.

Climate risks and foreign direct investment in developing countries: the role of national governance - Yingtong Chen; Dayong Zhang; Fei Wu; Qiang Ji (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Agriculture (re-)territorialisation: Balancing the promotion of local products and international trade in Europe - Nicolas Loodts; Christine Frison; Nicolas Dendoncker; Julie Hermesse (Sustainability Science, 2022)

The trade-off between natural capital and human capital in Pakistan - Moinul Islam; Bingqi Zhang; Shunsuke Managi (Sustainability Science, 2022)

In search of coastal landscape governance: a review of its conceptualisation, operationalisation and research needs - Carla Gonçalves; Paulo Pinho (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Common features of sustainable higher education sector according to an international sustainability ranking data - Mervi Friman; Arto Mutanen; Dusan Schreiber; Janne Salminen (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Impacts of strategic behavior in regional coalitions under the sectoral expansion of the carbon market in China - Jie Wu; Yan Xia; Sebastian Voigt (Sustainability Science, 2022)

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental values - Joanne Sneddon; Ella Daniel; Ronald Fischer; Julie A. Lee (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Immediate and cumulative stresses associated with the multiscale impacts of ecotourism on ecological status and resilience - Nao Takashina; Toshinori Tanaka (Sustainability Science, 2022)

The role of a nature-based program in fostering multiple connections to nature - Julia Baird; Gillian Dale; Jennifer M. Holzer; Garrett Hutson; Christopher D. Ives; Ryan Plummer (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Reconnecting to nature is imperative for the sustainability of humans on Earth, offering a leverage point for system change. Connections to nature have been conceptualized as a typology of five types as follows: material; experiential; cognitive; emotional; and, philosophical, ranging from relatively shallow to deeper connections, respectively. Educational programs that immerse individuals in nature have been designed to build an appreciation for places travelled, awareness of environmental issues and to promote pro-environmental behaviours. Using quantitative and qualitative data from 295 individuals who participated in National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) programs ranging from 14 to 90 days, we tested hypotheses to understand whether and to what extent NOLS influenced the five types of connections to nature. We further investigated whether deeper connection types were associated with greater intentions for pro-environmental behaviours. Findings showed that individuals generally reported greater connections to nature after the NOLS program, with emotional and material connections increasing the most. While intentions for pro-environmental behaviour increased from pre- to post-program, deeper connections to nature did not correspond to greater intention for pro-environmental behaviour. The strongest predictor of intention for pro-environmental behaviour was a cognitive connection, though an emotional connection was also a significant predictor. Ultimately, we found that the NOLS program fosters multiple connections to nature and increases intentions for pro-environmental behaviour. We call for more research to understand the relationships among connection to nature types and how those interactions may influence intentions for pro-environmental behaviour—in nature-based educational programs and in other contexts.

Ecological footprint of your denim jeans: production knowledge and green consumerism - Fahad Asmi; Qingyu Zhang; Muhammad Azfar Anwar; Kristina Linke; Younes Ben Zaied (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Confronting sustainable intensification with uncertainty and extreme values on smallholder tropical farms - Thomas Knoke; Elizabeth Gosling; Esther Reith; Andres Gerique; Perdita Pohle; Liz Valle Carrión; Wilman Santiago Ochoa Moreno; Luz Maria Castro; Baltazar Calvas; Patrick Hildebrandt; Martin Döllerer; Félix Bastit; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Sustainable intensification of agricultural lands might reconcile the conservation of tropical forest with food production, but in-depth assessments considering uncertainty and extreme values are missing. Uncertainty prohibits mapping probabilities to potential future states or ranking these states in terms of their likelihood. This in turn hampers the assessment of possible decision outcomes. Here, we use simulations to investigate how uncertainty may influence the social acceptability of alternative land-use strategies to halt tropical deforestation (including sustainable intensification), based on indicators representing farmer satisfaction. The results show how extreme values (worst values) for indicators of farmer satisfaction may undermine the adoption of sustainable intensification. We demonstrate that a pure forest conservation strategy leads to lower food production, but outperforms a sustainable intensification strategy that maintains food security. Pure forest conservation performed better, i.e., could secure higher farmer satisfaction, than sustainable intensification across a range of indicator groups. This suggests strong barriers to achieving sustainable intensification. Using agricultural subsidies breaks the dominance of pure forest conservation by enhancing the economic returns of sustainable intensification. We discuss the importance of access to labor and farmers’ preferences for the use of already cleared lands, which achieved the worst values under sustainable intensification and conclude that any assessment of land-use strategies requires careful consideration of uncertainty and extreme values.

The role of indigenous knowledge and local knowledge in water sector adaptation to climate change in Africa: a structured assessment - Luckson Zvobgo; Peter Johnston; Portia Adade Williams; Christopher H. Trisos; Nicholas P. Simpson (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Evidence is increasing of human responses to the impacts of climate change in Africa. However, understanding of the effectiveness of these responses for adaptation to climate change across the diversity of African contexts is still limited. Despite high reliance on indigenous knowledge (IK) and local knowledge (LK) for climate adaptation by African communities, potential of IK and LK to contribute to adaptation through reducing climate risk or supporting transformative adaptation responses is yet to be established. Here, we assess the influence of IK and LK for the implementation of water sector adaptation responses in Africa to better understand the relationship between responses to climate change and indigenous and local knowledge systems. Eighteen (18) water adaptation response types were identified from the academic literature through the Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative (GAMI) and intended nationally determined contributions (iNDCs) for selected African countries. Southern, West, and East Africa show relatively high evidence of the influence of IK and LK on the implementation of water adaptation responses, while North and Central Africa show lower evidence. At country level, Zimbabwe displays the highest evidence (77.8%) followed by Ghana (53.6%), Kenya (46.2%), and South Africa (31.3%). Irrigation, rainwater harvesting, water conservation, and ecosystem-based measures, mainly agroforestry, were the most implemented measures across Africa. These were mainly household and individual measures influenced by local and indigenous knowledge. Adaptation responses with IK and LK influence recorded higher evidence of risk reduction compared to responses without IK and LK. Analysis of iNDCs shows the most implemented water adaptation actions in academic literature are consistent with water sector adaptation targets set by most African governments. Yet only 10.4% of the African governments included IK and LK in adaptation planning in the iNDCs. This study recommends a coordinated approach to adaptation that integrates multiple knowledge sources, including IK and LK, to ensure sustainability of both current and potential water adaptation measures in Africa.

Central–local governance gaps: the evolving differentiation of climate policies in China - Bo Zhou; Qunwei Wang; Cheng Zhang (Sustainability Science, 2022)

From uncertainty to environmental impacts: reflection on the threats to water in Chacabuco Province (Chile): a combined approach in social sciences and geochemistry - Lucie Le Goff; Frédérique Blot; Anne Peltier; Laure Laffont; Sylvia Becerra; Cristián Henríquez Ruiz; Jorge Qüense Abarzua; Magali Philippe; Martin Paegelow; Ludovic Menjot; Gauthier Delplace; Eva Schreck (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Scanning the solutions for the sustainable supply of forest ecosystem services in Europe - M. Hernández-Morcillo; M. Torralba; T. Baiges; A. Bernasconi; G. Bottaro; S. Brogaard; F. Bussola; E. Díaz-Varela; D. Geneletti; C. M. Grossmann; J. Kister; M. Klingler; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Forests are key components of European multifunctional landscapes and supply numerous forest ecosystem services (FES) fundamental to human well-being. The sustainable provision of FES has the potential to provide responses to major societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or rural development. To identify suitable strategies for the future sustenance of FES, we performed a solution scanning exercise with a group of transdisciplinary forest and FES experts from different European regions. We identified and prioritized fifteen major challenges hindering the balanced provision of multiple FES and identified a series of potential solutions to tackle each of them. The most prominent challenges referred to the increased frequency and impacts of extreme weather events and the normative mindset regarding forest management. The respective solutions pointed to the promotion of forest resilience via climate-smart forestry and mainstreaming FES-oriented management through a threefold strategy focusing on education, awareness raising, and networking. In a subsequent survey, most solutions were assessed as highly effective, transferable, monitorable, and with potential for being economically efficient. The implementation of the solutions could have synergistic effects when applying the notion of leverage points. Seven emerging pathways towards the sustainable supply of FES have been identified. These pathways build on each other and are organized based on their potential for transformation: (1) shifting forest management paradigms towards pluralistic ecosystem valuation; (2) using integrated landscape approaches; (3) increasing forest resilience; (4) coordinating actions between forest-related actors; (5) increasing participation in forest planning and management; (6) continuous, open, and transparent knowledge integration; and (7) using incentive-based instruments to support regulating and cultural FES. These pathways can contribute to the implementation of the new EU Forestry Strategy to support the balanced supply of multiple FES. Graphical abstract

Mapping Sustainable Development Goals 8, 9, 12, 13 and 15 through a decolonial lens: falling short of ‘transforming our world’ - Judith E. Krauss; Andrea Jiménez Cisneros; Marina Requena-i-Mora (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) aspire to be integrated and indivisible, balance the three dimensions of sustainable development and transform our world by going beyond previously agreed language. Focusing on decoloniality and equity, we explore whether these aspirations are met in analysing five goals, their targets and indicators interlinking especially the economy–ecology spheres: SDGs 8 (economic growth), 9 (industry and innovation), 12 (sustainable production and consumption), 13 (climate action) and 15 (life on land). We examine two interconnected foci. Having mapped the connections which exist, according to official UN data, between these goals’ indicators, we examine definitions and delineations in SDGs 8, 9, 12, 13 and 15 through a decolonial lens, focusing on universality, absences and modernity–coloniality. A second step investigates the equity implications of these framings, using indicator data to illustrate abiding injustices. Our original contribution is thus retracing these connections and contradictions, their intellectual heritage and their equity implications in the detail of these five SDGs, their targets and indicators, combining the sustainable development and decolonial literatures in novel ways. We find that trade-offs, absences and justice shortcomings call into question the attainment of the SDGs’ objectives of leaving no one behind while safeguarding advances for people, planet, prosperity, peace and prosperity. We recognize the SDGs’ opportunity to rethink how we want to co-exist in this world. However, we argue that recognizing absences, trade-offs and equity shortcomings are key prerequisites to attain genuine transformations for justice and sustainability through the SDGs.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s international migration constrains its sustainable development under climate change - Qirui Li; Cyrus Samimi (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is seen as a region of mass migration and population displacement caused by poverty, violent conflict, and environmental stress. However, empirical evidence is inconclusive regarding how SSA’s international migration progressed and reacted during its march to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article attempts to study the patterns and determinants of SSA’s international migration and the cause and effects on sustainable development by developing a Sustainability Index and regression models. We find that international migration was primarily intra-SSA to low-income but high-population-density countries. Along with increased sustainability scores, international migration declined, but emigration rose. Climate extremes tend to affect migration and emigration but not universally. Dry extremes propelled migration, whereas wet extremes had an adverse effect. Hot extremes had an increasing effect but were insignificant. SSA’s international migration was driven by food insecurity, low life expectancy, political instability and violence, high economic growth, unemployment, and urbanisation rates. The probability of emigration was mainly driven by high fertility. SSA’s international migration promoted asylum seeking to Europe with the diversification of origin countries and a motive for economic wellbeing. 1% more migration flow or 1% higher probability of emigration led to a 0.2% increase in asylum seekers from SSA to Europe. Large-scale international migration and recurrent emigration constrained SSA’s sustainable development in political stability, food security, and health, requiring adequate governance and institutions for better migration management and planning towards the SDGs. Graphical abstract

Sustainable lifestyles: towards a relational approach - Jessica Böhme; Zack Walsh; Christine Wamsler (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The concept of sustainable lifestyles is said to have reached the limits of its usefulness. As commonly understood, it impedes an effective response to our increasingly complex world, and the associated societal challenges. In this context, the emerging paradigm of relationality might offer a way forward to renew our current understanding and approach. We explore this possibility in this study. First, we systematize if, and how, the current dominant social paradigm represents a barrier to sustainable lifestyles. Second, we analyze how a relational approach could help to overcome these barriers. On the basis of our findings, we develop a Relational Lifestyle Framework (RLF). Our aim is to advance the current knowledge by illustrating how sustainable lifestyles are a manifestation of identified patterns of thinking, being, and acting that are embedded in today’s “socioecological” realities. The RLF revitalizes the field of sustainable lifestyle change, as it offers a new understanding for further reflection, and provides new directions for policy and transformation research.

Advancing toward water security: addressing governance failures through a metagovernance of modes approach - Natalia Julio; Ricardo Figueroa; Roberto D. Ponce Oliva (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Does a trade-off exist between economic and environmental impacts of forest carbon payment programs? - Xiangping Liu; Seong-Hoon Cho; Guangsheng Chen; Dan Hayes; Burton English; Paul R. Armsworth (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Can Pakistan achieve sustainable water security? Climate change, population growth and development impacts to 2100 - Mac Kirby; Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Region-income-based prioritisation of Sustainable Development Goals by Gradient Boosting Machine - Atie Asadikia; Abbas Rajabifard; Mohsen Kalantari (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Epistemic stability and epistemic adaptability: interdisciplinary knowledge integration competencies for complex sustainability issues - A. Horn; E. Urias; M. B. M. Zweekhorst (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Global sustainability challenges transcend disciplines and, therefore, demand interdisciplinary approaches that are characterized by cross-disciplinary collaboration and integration across disciplines. In accordance with this need for interdisciplinary approaches, sustainability professionals have been reported to require interdisciplinary competencies. Although the necessity of interdisciplinary competencies is generally agreed upon, and there has been extensive research to understand competencies for interdisciplinarity, there is still no comprehensive understanding of how individual competencies shape the ability to integrate knowledge across disciplines. Therefore, based on empirical research and literature review, we propose a novel framework to understand competencies for interdisciplinarity. The empirical data were collected through written reflection and interviews with 19 students in the context of an interdisciplinary master’s course. We describe four typical behaviours—naïve, assertive, accommodating, and integrative. Based on these behavioural typologies, we define two sets of competencies that collaborators require to engage in interdisciplinary knowledge integration: Epistemic Stability (ES) and Epistemic Adaptability (EA). ES competencies are the competencies to contribute one’s own academic knowledge, such as theoretical and methodological grounding in one’s own field and confidence, and EA competencies are the competencies to engage with academic knowledge contributed by others, such as curiosity, openness and communicative skills. Our findings show that interdisciplinary knowledge integration requires ES and EA competencies. Our framework for interdisciplinary competencies offers insights for revising and designing more interventions to prepare (future) professionals for interdisciplinary work on sustainability issues, providing insights on criteria for assessment, management, and training.

Discursive dynamics and lock-ins in socio-technical systems: an overview and a way forward - Machteld Catharina Simoens; Lea Fuenfschilling; Sina Leipold (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Understanding the dynamics of stability and change is key to accelerate sustainability transitions. This paper aims to advance and inspire sustainability transition research on this matter by collecting insights from interpretative environmental discourse literature. We develop a heuristic that identifies and describes core discursive elements and dynamics in a socio-technical system. In doing so, we show how the interplay of meta-, institutionalized, and alternative discourses, dominant, marginal, and radical narratives, as well as weak and strong discursive agency influence the socio-technical configuration. The heuristic suggests three discursive lock-ins reinforcing the stabilization of socio-technical systems: unchallenged values and assumptions, incumbents’ discursive agency, and narrative co-optation. Furthermore, it explores three pathways of discursive change: disruptive, dynamic and cross-sectoral. Overall, this paper puts forward a discursive perspective on sustainability transitions. It offers additional analytical approaches and concepts for discursive transition studies, elaborated insights on the dynamics within and between the analytical dimensions of a socio-technical system, as well as a theoretical baseline for analyzing discursive lock-in mechanisms and pathways of discursive change.

Transformation archetypes in global food systems - André Zuanazzi Dornelles; Wiebren J. Boonstra; Izabela Delabre; J. Michael Denney; Richard J. Nunes; Anke Jentsch; Kimberly A. Nicholas; Matthias Schröter; Ralf Seppelt; Josef Settele; Nancy Shackelford; Rachel J. Standish; et al. (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Food systems are primary drivers of human and environmental health, but the understanding of their diverse and dynamic co-transformation remains limited. We use a data-driven approach to disentangle different development pathways of national food systems (i.e. ‘transformation archetypes’) based on historical, intertwined trends of food system structure (agricultural inputs and outputs and food trade), and social and environmental outcomes (malnutrition, biosphere integrity, and greenhouse gases emissions) for 161 countries, from 1995 to 2015. We found that whilst agricultural total factor productivity has consistently increased globally, a closer analysis suggests a typology of three transformation archetypes across countries: rapidly expansionist, expansionist, and consolidative. Expansionist and rapidly expansionist archetypes increased in agricultural area, synthetic fertilizer use, and gross agricultural output, which was accompanied by malnutrition, environmental pressures, and lasting socioeconomic disadvantages. The lowest rates of change in key structure metrics were found in the consolidative archetype. Across all transformation archetypes, agricultural greenhouse gases emissions, synthetic fertilizer use, and ecological footprint of consumption increased faster than the expansion of agricultural area, and obesity levels increased more rapidly than undernourishment decreased. The persistence of these unsustainable trajectories occurred independently of improvements in productivity. Our results underscore the importance of quantifying the multiple human and environmental dimensions of food systems transformations and can serve as a starting point to identify potential leverage points for sustainability transformations. More attention is thus warranted to alternative development pathways able of delivering equitable benefits to both productivity and to human and environmental health.

Fleeing the unsustainable city: soft policy and the dual effect of social capital in hurricane evacuation - Timothy Fraser (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Transformative change in context—stakeholders’ understandings of leverage at the forest–climate nexus - Janina Priebe; Elsa Reimerson; Isabella Hallberg-Sramek; Anna Sténs; Camilla Sandström; Erland Mårald (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Transformation acquires its meaning within contexts and particular settings where transformative change is experienced, and where people engage in meaning-making. We used the forest–climate nexus in Sweden as an empirical case study, and the leverage-points perspective as an analytical lens. The aim was to investigate contextual leverage for transformative change, and how our use of context and relations shapes our understanding of transformation and leverage for change. The empirical basis was a whole-day workshop, held in both northern and southern Sweden, for local forest stakeholders. To detract from current conflict and barriers to change, we asked the stakeholders to reflect on transformative change in the past and in the future, and the spatio-temporal relations that form the forest–climate nexus. Our analysis suggests that leverage associated with a transformative change in the future is commonly seen as universal and detached from context, reflecting, for example, national and global discourses on forests and climate change. Regarding transformative changes in the past, however, contextual leverage is linked to the community values and pluralism that drove the change in particular situations. Focusing on the complex spatio-temporal relations and meaning-making helps identify how leverage emerges from context, and how leverage also acquires a richer meaning for people experiencing transformative change.

Carbon neutrality commitment for China: from vision to action - Hanmin Dong; Yishuang Liu; Zhihui Zhao; Xiujie Tan; Shunsuke Managi (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Alternatives to sustainable development: what can we learn from the pluriverse in practice? - Shivani Kaul; Bengi Akbulut; Federico Demaria; Julien-François Gerber (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Synergies and trade-offs between sustainable development goals and targets: innovative approaches and new perspectives - Fabrice G. Renaud; Xin Zhou; Lee Bosher; Brian Barrett; Suiliang Huang (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Grassroots innovation for the pluriverse: evidence from Zapatismo and autonomous Zapatista education - Erandi Maldonado-Villalpando; Jaime Paneque-Gálvez; Federico Demaria; Brian M. Napoletano (Sustainability Science, 2022)

MetaMAP: a graphical tool for designing initiatives to support multiple sustainability goals - Ray Maher; Samuel Mann; Clive A. McAlpine (Sustainability Science, 2022)
This paper presents MetaMAP: a new graphical tool and framework for designing well-integrated sustainability initiatives, and managing synergies and trade-offs regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are highly interconnected, but many institutional structures and thinking paradigms lead us to look at them in isolation. This stifles innovation and social transformation. Most tools and frameworks, while valuable, focus on analysis, not design, and are limited to a particular discipline, sector, SDG, or geographic scale. Without holistic frameworks and collaborative tools, many sustainability practitioners may be playing chess without a board. To support a more integrated approach to achieve the SDGs, MetaMAP resembles architectural design tools which help users to synthesise knowledge, reframe complex situations, and identify stakeholders, leverage points, synergies, and trade-offs. MetaMAP applies a new meta-framework to organise concept maps developed collaboratively by interdisciplinary teams following a guided process. This framework integrates components of the natural environment, built environment, and society across multiple spatial and temporal scales. It incorporates concepts from social-ecological systems, planetary boundaries, design thinking, integral theory, ecosystem services, and ecological footprint, among others. MetaMAP was designed with input from over 170 people from diverse disciplines in five workshops, numerous case studies, and critique. This article demonstrates MetaMAP through its application to a case study in which a multidisciplinary team analysed the impacts of an Ecovillage across scales and designed synergetic initiatives. We then critique MetaMAP from four disciplinary perspectives. We envision that MetaMAP will support the design of sustainability initiatives which are more efficient, more broadly supported, and contribute to multiple SDGs simultaneously. By taking a systems view and applying design thinking, MetaMAP helps users to understand interlinkages, maximise synergies, and minimise trade-offs when designing specific SDG initiatives.

Place-based interpretation of the sustainable development goals for the land-river interface - Kim Vercruysse; Robert C. Grabowski; Ian Holman; Adani Azhoni; Brij Bala; Jeroen Meersmans; Jian Peng; Vijay Shankar; Shrikant Mukate; Arunava Poddar; Xiaoyu Wang; Zimo Zhang (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The land–river interface (LRI) is important for sustainable development. The environmental processes that define the LRI support the natural capital and ecosystem services that are linked directly to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, existing approaches to scale up or down SDG targets and link them to natural capital are insufficient for the two-way human–environment interactions that exist in the LRI. Therefore, this study proposes a place-based approach to interpret the SDG framework to support sustainable land/water management, by (i) identifying key priorities for sustainable development through a normative content analysis of the SDG targets, and (ii) illustrating these priorities and associated challenges within the LRI, based on a literature review and case-studies on human–environment interactions. The content analysis identifies three overarching sustainable development priorities: (i) ensuring improved access to resources and services provided by the LRI, (ii) strengthening the resilience of the LRI to deal with social and natural shocks, and (iii) increasing resource efficiency. The review of the current state of LRIs across the world confirms that these are indeed priority areas for sustainable development. Yet, the challenges of attaining the sustainable development priorities in the LRI are also illustrated with three examples of development-related processes. Urbanisation, dam construction, and aggregate mining occur within specific zones of the LRI (land, land–river, river, respectively), but their impacts can compromise sustainable development across the entire LRI and beyond. The existence of these unintended impacts highlights the need to consider the geomorphic, hydrological, and ecological processes within the LRI and how they interact with human activity. Identifying the place-based priorities and challenges for sustainable development will help achieve the SDGs without compromising the functions and services of the LRI.

Fight and build: solidarity economy as ontological politics - Penn Loh; Boone W. Shear (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Mapping Self-Help Groups (SHGs) as alternatives to capitalist development: an ethnographic enquiry from India - Atrayee Saha; Eswarappa Kasi (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Recognizing our authors - Kazuhiko Takeuchi (Sustainability Science, 2022)

The many faces of Post-Development: alternatives to development in Tanzania, Iran and Haiti - Julia Schöneberg; Daniel Haudenschild; Hadi Darvishi; Somayeh Momeni; Aram Ziai (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Post-Development, a body of transitional imaginaries, is not homogenous, neither in its critique, nor in the alternatives proposed. Given that the term ‘development’ is already highly contentious, the question of what ‘alternatives to development’ might be, becomes difficult to respond to. In this article, we argue that Post-Development can assume many faces that are highly dependent upon their conceptual and geographical contexts. In analysing practices of resistance, contestation and subversion in Tanzania, Iran and Haiti we investigate in what ways various forms of peasant and community organising can be considered transformative and non-hegemonic. In exploring their common ground, we attempt to examine in what ways strategies of reciprocity, solidarity and commoning in different geographical locations and contexts can be understood as means of survival and/or as efforts to provide alternative pathways for societal and economic transformation.

How ecovillages work: more-than-human understandings of rentabilidad in Mexican ecovillages - Olea Morris (Sustainability Science, 2022)
This article highlights the emergence of intentional communities known as ecovillages ( ecoaldeas ) in Mexico, exploring how humans seek to design sustainable futures in part by re-making rural livelihoods. Ecovillages are inherently speculative ventures, or as Burke and Arjona (2013) note, laboratories for alternative political ecologies, inviting—and indeed, necessitating—the reimagination of human lives with greater consideration for the natural world. In this sense, such communities might be understood as “exilic spaces” (O’Hearn and Grubačić 2016), in that they seek to build autonomous and self-sustaining agricultural, social, and economic systems while also reflecting a stance of resistance to neoliberal capitalist structures. At the same time, communities may also remain dependent on connections to broader regional or global markets in diverse and interconnected ways. Understanding ecovillages as diverse and emergent “worldings” (de la Cadena and Blaser 2018), I ask how these experimental social ventures reckon with their connections to the very systems they are positioned against. To trace out how communities negotiate this fragile space, this article is concerned with how ecovillagers spend their time at work—particularly when it comes to managing relationships with and between more-than-human beings. Drawing on participant observation with ecovillagers and more-than-human others they work with, I explore how the concept of “ rentabilidad ” (profitability) is differently constructed. To this end, I highlight ethnographic examples where rentabilidad is purposefully reconceptualized with more-than-human lives in mind; such a shift, I suggest, hinges on ecovillagers’ individualized relations with the beings they (imagine themselves) to care for.

The role of context in identifying linkages between SDG 2 (food) and SDG 6 (water) - Han Su; Maarten S. Krol; Rick J. Hogeboom (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 are formulated to promote the development of integrated, multisectoral policies that explicitly consider linkages across SDGs. Although multiple recent studies have tried to identify linkages across SDGs, the role of contextual factors in identifying SDG linkages is neither well described nor understood. For the case of SDG 2 and SDG 6, this study aims to (i) identify linkages—at country and SDG target level—through the application of various quantitative and qualitative identification methods, and (ii) explore contextual factors to explain the differences across identified linkages. Hereto, we first conducted a text analysis of 195 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) reported by 159 countries from 2016 to 2020. Next, we synthesized linkages reported by previous qualitative studies and conducted a quantitative (correlation) analysis on the UN’s SDG database. Last, we compared identified linkages across methods, paying special attention to the role of context. From the text analysis, we identified 221 country-specific linkages between 25 SDG target pairs and observed that countries increasingly report SDG linkages in their VNRs over time. Comparing text analysis, existing qualitative studies, and our quantitative correlation analysis, we found substantial differences between the number and nature of linkages identified. These differences can be explained in part by methodological considerations, but to a significant extent also by contextual factors, such as project design, technology application, phase of interventions, and project scale. We conclude by discussing the strengths and limitations of the methods involved, and suggestions for future studies.

Plurality in black rural development - Sarah Franzen (Sustainability Science, 2022)

The land–river interface: a conceptual framework of environmental process interactions to support sustainable development - Robert C. Grabowski; Kim Vercruysse; Ian Holman; Adani Azhoni; Brij Bala; Vijay Shankar; John Beale; Shrikant Mukate; Arunava Poddar; Jian Peng; Jeroen Meersmans (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Rivers and their surrounding lands are focal points of human development in the landscape. However, activities associated with development can greatly affect river processes, causing significant and often unintended environmental and human impacts. Despite the profound and varied environmental impacts that development-related alterations cause through hydrological, geomorphic, and ecological processes, they are not widely acknowledged outside of river management and affect resource availability and hazard exposure to people. In this paper, we propose a novel, interdisciplinary conceptual framework of river–land process interactions to support sustainable management and development. We introduce the term ‘land–river interface’ (LRI) to describe areas of the landscape in which river processes affect land, vegetation, and/or fauna, including humans, directly or indirectly. The multiple links between LRI processes and factors at the river basin, valley, and river channel (i.e. reach) scale are synthesized and a conceptual zonation of the LRI based on the process is proposed to serve as a framework to understand the impacts of human activity. Three examples of development-related activities (urbanization, dams and aggregate mining) illustrate how alteration to the form and functioning of river basins, valleys, and channels cause a range of impacts to be propagated throughout the landscape, often spatially or temporally distant from the activity. The diversity and severity of these impacts on the environment and people underscore the need to incorporate river processes, as represented in the LRI concept, into broader environmental management to better anticipate and mitigate negative impacts and maximize positive outcomes to deliver the benefits of sustainable development across society.

Solidarity as a development performance and practice in coffee exchanges - Lindsay Naylor (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Buen vivir as a territorial practice. Building a more just and sustainable life through interculturality - Miriam Lang (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Exploring synergies between the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and involuntary resettlement guidelines: the case of Mozambique’s natural gas project - Kei Otsuki; Griet Steel; Celio Panquene (Sustainability Science, 2022)
This paper explores synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, comprised of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its roadmap, and existing involuntary resettlement guidelines. On one hand, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development views displacement as a humanitarian problem but fails to address the potential effects of SDG-induced processes of economic and physical displacement and involuntary resettlement. On the other, involuntary resettlement guidelines pay limited attention to the sustainable development of resettled people as well as to the society in which resettlement becomes embedded. This paper explores possibilities to establish synergies between the SDGs and involuntary resettlement by drawing on the case of Mozambique’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which was showcased in the Government of Mozambique’s 2020 Voluntary National Review (VNR) of SDG progress. The paper will critically analyse how Mozambique as a ‘donor darling’ remains silent about displacement and resettlement processes induced by an LNG project that is used to show its commitment to multiple SDGs. The paper shows that there is a misalignment between how SDGs are used to evaluate a development project and how involuntary resettlement guidelines are applied to the same project. The paper argues that, to truly ‘leave no one behind’, the SDGs and involuntary resettlement guidelines need to be realigned by integrating SDG-induced displacement and resettlement into SDG10 on migration and inequality, into SDG16 on conflicts, and SDG17 on global partnerships.

Decolonising money: learning from collective struggles for self-determination - Gabriela Cabaña; Julio Linares (Sustainability Science, 2022)

The role of universities in SDGs solution co-creation and implementation: a human-centered design and shared-action learning process - Datu Buyung Agusdinata (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Pluriversality and beyond: consolidating radical alternatives to (mal-)development as a Commonist project - Barry K. Gills; S. A. Hamed Hosseini (Sustainability Science, 2022)
This article addresses contradictions in the 'pluriverse' of radical alternatives to maldevelopment, and proposes an integrative framework for fostering productive convergences among its forces. It argues that the 2020s and 2030s will be pivotal decades, in which the current global conjuncture, characterized by intensifying economic turmoil, climate change, and ecological crises, will translate into increased mass discontent, global polarization, political instabilities, and social unrest across the world. However, there is no reason to believe that this intensification of crises will automatically result in the end of unproductive divisions among the global left. Thus, we argue that a higher level of proactivism, at a meta-ideological standing, which we refer to here as the ‘Commonist Project’, is both necessary and possible. The article proposes a fourfold framework of how to promote sustainable convergences and solidarities, going beyond temporary pragmatic coalitions and alliances. This proposal draws on the idea of ‘commoning transformative knowledge’, realized through creating new transversal integrative assemblages of alternative-futures-making initiatives. In the end, the argument is empirically supported by drawing on the authors’ critical reflections on their own cross-organizational experiences of fostering dialogic and praxis-based methodologies across various groups and forces pursuing post-capitalist alternatives through the People’s Sovereignty Network.

Flexible institutionalisation in Auroville: a prefigurative alternative to development - Suryamayi Clarence-Smith; Lara Monticelli (Sustainability Science, 2022)

System-level consequences of synergies and trade-offs between SDGs: quantitative analysis of interlinkage networks at country level - Jonathan H. P. Dawes; Xin Zhou; Mustafa Moinuddin (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a complex system of 17 goals and 169 individual targets whose interactions can be described in terms of co-benefits and trade-offs between policy actions. We analyse in detail target-by-target interlinkage networks established by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) SDG Interlinkages Tool. We discuss two quantitative measures of network structure; the leading eigenvector of the interlinkage networks (‘eigencentrality’) and a notion of hierarchy within the network motivated by the concept of trophic levels for species in food webs. We use three interlinkage matrices generated by IGES: the framework matrix which provides a generic network model of the interlinkages at the target level, and two country-specific matrices for Bangladesh and Indonesia that combine SDG indicator data with the generic framework matrix. Our results echo, and are confirmed by, similar work at the level of whole SDGs that has shown that SDGs 1–3 (ending poverty, and providing food security and healthcare) are much more likely to be achieved than the environmentally- related SDGs 13–15 concerned with climate action, life on land and life below water. Our results here provide a refinement in terms of specific targets within each of these SDGs. We find that not all targets within SDGs 1–3 are equally well-supported, and not all targets within SDGs 13–15 are equally at risk of not being achieved. Finally, we point to the recurring issue of data gaps that hinders our quantitative analysis, in particular for SDGs 5 (gender equality) and 13 (climate action) where the huge gaps in indicator data that mean the true nature of the interlinkages and importance of these two SDGs are not fully recognised.

Jin-jiyan-azadi. Matristic culture and Democratic Confederalism in Rojava - Eleonora Gea Piccardi; Stefania Barca (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Ranking the sustainable development goals: perceived sustainability priorities in small island states - Maarten B. Eppinga; Eric N. Mijts; Maria J. Santos (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to elicit global mobilization to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and are increasingly used in support of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Previous studies have highlighted interdependencies between SDGs, with potential interactions between four Sustainability Domains: Economy, Governance, Planet and Society. This study aimed to assess whether people’s perception of the relative importance of the SDGs reflects recognition of the need to prioritize efforts across Domains, or whether this perception is based on different valuations of the Sustainability Domains themselves. We designed an interactive online tool in which participants used the Q-sort technique to rank the SDGs according to their subjective valuation of importance. We analyzed the rankings of 108 participants, all learners at universities in three Small Island States (SIS): Aruba, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Analysis of the correlation structure among participants’ Q-sorts showed that higher perceived importance of the Society- and Economy-related SDGs 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9 traded off with lower perceived importance of the Planet-related SDGs 13, 14 and 15. Furthermore, SDG rankings of learners from Aruba occurred furthest toward the Planet-based part of this trade-off axis. For ESD programs, our method provides a novel tool to identify key interactions between SDGs that may not yet be recognized by program participants. In this way, communicating the need for simultaneous action and policy development across Sustainability Domains could be specifically tailored to the local context. Such connections may increase the effectiveness of ESD in addressing the substantial sustainability challenges facing SIS.

Ecosystem services and disservices in the Luanhe River Basin in China under past, current and future land uses: implications for the sustainable development goals - Jiren Xu; Brian Barrett; Fabrice G. Renaud (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Understanding how ecosystem services (ES) and ecosystem disservices (EDS) are affected by human-induced landscape changes is important to minimise trade-offs and maximise synergies between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets, and for equitable development across governance scales. However, limited research investigates how ES and EDS can change under past, current, and future land uses. This study, conducted in the Luanhe River Basin (LRB), demonstrates the interaction between humans and the environment under past, current, and future land uses at the river basin scale in China, using a stakeholders’ participatory capacity matrix to characterise both ES and EDS. Results indicate that forests and water bodies provided the highest overall ES capacity, while the lowest scores were reached in built-up and unused land areas. Built-up land and cropland provided the highest overall EDS, while the lowest EDS scores were for water bodies. By applying the ecosystem services potential index (ESPI) and ecosystem disservices potential index (EDSPI), we found that the ESPI of all the ES declined from 1980 to 2018 and would continue to decline until 2030 without sustainable and conservation development strategies in the LRB. The EDSPI under all future scenarios in 2030 was projected to increase compared to the baseline in 1980. This study recommends establishing and implementing sustainable environmental protection policies and cross-regional and trans-provincial eco-compensation schemes for minimising trade-offs in ES. The study proposes an integrated research framework that could be useful for understanding the effect of historical and future human–environment interactions on ES and EDS, and SDGs achievement.

A framework to harness effective partnerships for the sustainable development goals - David Horan (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The sustainable development goals (SDGs) offer a broad, holistic framework of interdependent economic, social, and environmental objectives to enable integrated and collaborative approaches to their implementation. A key obstacle for operationalizing such an approach is knowing the right actors to engage on specific challenges. It is acknowledged that linkages across sectors, scales, and actors could provide an evidence base to assess and forge participation in multistakeholder partnerships for implementation. However, technical tools that could help to identify relevant actors and discussions of institutional arrangements to bring these actors on board are notably lacking in the extant literature. To support an evidence-based and systematic approach to coalition building that accounts for synergies and trade-offs across goals and targets, this paper proposes broad-based partnerships and a framework that lead actors can use to help harness collaborative SDG implementation: (1) define the partnership’s scope, (2) identify the main interlinkages, (3) assign responsibilities, (4) select the best available indicators, (5) assess the challenges, and (6) forge a broad-based partnership. After describing key decisions at each step, the article discusses applications of the proposed analytic partnership-building framework to problems that warrant the approach at global, regional, and national levels covering issues such as policy coordination across line ministries, global partnerships for SDG13 implementation in SIDS, energy compacts for SDG7 implementation, and integrated multilateral responses to crises.

Development of an SDG interlinkages analysis model at the river basin scale: a case study in the Luanhe River Basin, China - Xin Zhou; Mustafa Moinuddin; Fabrice Renaud; Brian Barrett; Jiren Xu; Qiuhua Liang; Jiaheng Zhao; Xilin Xia; Lee Bosher; Suiliang Huang; Trevor Hoey (Sustainability Science, 2022)
While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are broadly framed with 17 goals, the goals and their targets inherently connect with each other forming a complex system. Actions supporting one goal may influence progress in other goals, either positively (synergies) or negatively (trade-offs). Effective managing the synergies and trade-offs is a prerequisite for ensuring policy coherence. This is particular relevant at the river basin scale where the implementation of national policies may generate inequalities at the sub-basin levels, such as the upstream and the downstream. In the existing literature, there is still a lack of methodologies to assess the SDG interlinkages and their differences at the subnational levels. This paper presents a methodology on the development of an SDG interlinkages analysis model at the basin scale and its application to a case study in China’s Luanhe River Basin (LRB). Seven broad areas, namely land use and land cover change, climate change, ecosystem services, flood risks, water sector, urbanisation, and energy, were set as the scope of study. Through a systematic review, key elements of the SDG interlinkages system were identified and their interactions were mapped. The resulting generic SDG interlinkages model were validated with expert survey and stakeholders’ consultation and tailored to the LRB. Quantification of the SDG interlinkages was conducted for 27 counties in the LRB and demonstrated by the results of 3 selected counties located in the upstream, midstream and downstream areas, respectively. The methodology and its applications can be used to support integrated water resource management in river basins.

Impact of Malaysian palm oil on sustainable development goals: co-benefits and trade-offs across mitigation strategies - Khayriyyah Mohd Hanafiah; Aini Hasanah Abd Mutalib; Priscillia Miard; Chun Sheng Goh; Shahrul Anuar Mohd Sah; Nadine Ruppert (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Evolution of water quality and biota in the Panjiakou Reservoir, China as a consequence of social and economic development: implications for synergies and trade-offs between Sustainable Development Goals - Mengjiao Wei; Suiliang Huang; Ling Li; Tianqi Zhang; Waseem Akram; Zobia Khatoon; Fabrice G. Renaud (Sustainability Science, 2022)

A systems model of SDG target influence on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - Carl C. Anderson; Manfred Denich; Anne Warchold; Jürgen P. Kropp; Prajal Pradhan (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and aim to address issues ranging from poverty and economic growth to climate change. Efforts to tackle one issue can support or hinder progress towards others, often with complex systemic interactions. Thus, each of the SDGs and their corresponding targets may contribute as levers or hurdles towards achieving other SDGs and targets. Based on SDG indicator data, we create a systems model considering influence among the SDGs and their targets. Once assessed within a system, we find that more SDGs and their corresponding targets act as levers towards achieving other goals and targets rather than as hurdles. In particular, efforts towards SDGs 5 ( Gender Equality ) and 17 ( Partnerships for the Goals ) may accelerate progress, while SDGs 10 ( Reduced Inequalities ) and 16 ( Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions ) are shown to create potential hurdles. The model results can be used to help promote supportive interactions and overcome hindering ones in the long term.

Exploring trade-offs between SDGs for Indus River Dolphin conservation and human water security in the regulated Beas River, India - Andrea Momblanch; Nachiket Kelkar; Gill Braulik; Jagdish Krishnaswamy; Ian P. Holman (Sustainability Science, 2022)
In India’s Indo-Gangetic plains, river flows are strongly altered by dams, barrages and water diversions for irrigation, urban supply, hydropower production and flood control. Human demands for freshwater are likely to intensify with climatic and socio-economic changes, exacerbating trade-offs between different sustainable development goals (SDGs) dependent on freshwater (e.g. SDG2, SDG6, SDG7, SDG11 and SDG15). Freshwater ecosystems and endangered aquatic species are not explicitly addressed in the SDGs, but only nested as targets within SDG6 and SDG15. Thus, there is high risk that decisions to advance other SDGs may overlook impacts on them. In this study, we link a water resource systems model and a forecast extinction risk model to analyze how alternative conservation strategies in the regulated Beas River (India) affect the likelihood of survival of the only remaining population of endangered Indus River Dolphins (IRD) in India in the face of climate change-induced impacts on river hydrology and human water demands, explicitly accounting for potential trade-offs between related SDGs. We find that the frequency of low flow released from the main reservoir may increase under some climate change scenarios, significantly affecting the IRD population. The strongest trade-offs exist between the persistence of IRD, urban water supply and hydropower generation. The establishment of ecologically informed reservoir releases combined with IRD population supplementation enhances the probability of survival of the IRD and is compatible with improving the status of relevant SDGs. This will require water managers, conservation scientists, and other stakeholders to continue collaborating to develop holistic water management strategies.

Large-scale flood risk assessment under different development strategies: the Luanhe River Basin in China - Jiaheng Zhao; Huili Chen; Qiuhua Liang; Xilin Xia; Jiren Xu; Trevor Hoey; Brian Barrett; Fabrice G. Renaud; Lee Bosher; Xin Zhou (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Increasing resilience to natural hazards and climate change is critical for achieving many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In recent decades, China has experienced rapid economic development and became the second-largest economy in the world. This rapid economic expansion has led to large-scale changes in terrestrial (e.g., land use and land cover changes), aquatic (e.g., construction of reservoirs and artificial wetlands) and marine (e.g., land reclamation) environments across the country. Together with climate change, these changes may significantly influence flood risk and, in turn, compromise SDG achievements. The Luanhe River Basin (LRB) is one of the most afforested basins in North China and has undergone significant urbanisation and land use change since the 1950s. However, basin-wide flood risk assessment under different development scenarios has not been considered, although this is critically important to inform policy-making to manage the synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs and support long-term sustainable development. Using mainly open data, this paper introduces a new framework for systematically assessing flood risk under different social and economic development scenarios. A series of model simulations are performed to investigate the flood risk under different land use change scenarios projected to 2030 to reflect different development strategies. The results are systematically analysed and compared with the baseline simulation based on the current land use and climate conditions. Further investigations are also provided to consider the impact of climate change and the construction of dams and reservoirs. The results potentially provide important guidance to inform future development strategies to maximise the synergies and minimise the trade-offs between various SDGs in LRB.

Exploring mechanisms for systemic thinking in decision-making through three country applications of SDG Synergies - Karina Barquet; Linn Järnberg; Ivonne Lobos Alva; Nina Weitz (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Increased systems thinking capacity—that is, the capacity to consider systemic effects of policies and actions—is necessary for translating knowledge on Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) interactions into practice. Various models and tools that seek to support more evidence-based policy-making have been developed with the purpose of exploring system effects across SDGs. However, these often lack integration of behavioral aspects and contextual factors that influence the decision-making process. We analyze three applications of a decision-support approach called SDG Synergies, which aims at building capacity in systems thinking among decision-makers and implementing agencies. Our objective is to explore how behavior and context influences whether and how knowledge is taken up and acted upon when making decisions. Drawing on empirical material from Mongolia, Colombia, and Sri Lanka, we identify three sets of mechanisms that appear important for enabling more systemic thinking: system boundaries (time, scale, and space), rules of engagement (ownership, representation, and purpose), and biases (confirmation biases and participation biases). Results highlight some key challenges for systemic thinking that merit further attention in future applications, including the importance of localizing SDGs and incorporating this knowledge to national-level assessments, an unwillingness of stakeholders to acknowledge trade-offs, the challenge of addressing transformational as opposed to incremental change, and striking a balance between the flexibility of the approach vis-à-vis scientific robustness.

Deepening our understanding of which policy advice to expect from prioritizing SDG targets: introducing the Analytic Network Process in a multi-method setting - Werner Toth; Harald Vacik; Helga Pülzl; Henrik Carlsen (Sustainability Science, 2022)
The indivisibility principle of the 2030 Agenda is considered key for the implementation of policies in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, science is not only asked to develop new methods for assessing SDG target interactions but also to translate findings of methodological insights into policy advice for easy take-up by policymakers. The present paper demonstrates how to adopt the multi-criteria analysis technique Analytic Network Process (ANP) for prioritizing SDG targets in considering all positive and possible indirect SDG target interactions at once. The application of the ANP is linked to a multi-method setting embracing positive scores derived from the analytical methods Nilsson-scale, a cross-impact matrix, and network analysis techniques. This supports the prioritization of SDG targets when considering n -order neighbours in a network with respect to their synergies. The ANP allows evaluating the synergistic potential and progress controllability of SDG target rankings calculated by CI-matrix metrics and thus provides conclusions on the importance of n -order interactions of SDG targets in a network for the final ranking. We showed that the application of a combination of different analytical methods improves the overall quality of the formulated policy advice regarding its scope and methodological profoundness. In this context, we compared the analytical methods involved with respect to their ability to formulate policy advice and finally presented a framing how to translate methodological results into concrete and applicable policy advice.

Two degrees and the SDGs: a network analysis of the interlinkages between transnational climate actions and the Sustainable Development Goals - Johanna Coenen; Lisa-Maria Glass; Lisa Sanderink (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Given the interconnectedness of climate change and sustainable development, policymakers and scholars have started to investigate how climate actions can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and vice versa. To date, research has mainly focused on the national and international levels, while little is known about the interlinkages between climate actions and the SDGs at the transnational level. Not only nation states, but also non-state actors undertake ambitious actions designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to promote sustainable development. Using content analysis and network analysis techniques, we examine the interlinkages between the climate actions of 72 transnational initiatives and the 169 targets of the 17 SDGs. We find that actions of 71 initiatives contribute to achieving 16 SDGs, thus generating valuable co-benefits. Besides SDG 13 on climate action and SDG 17 on partnerships for the goals, transnational climate actions frequently address SDGs 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure, SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy, and SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production. While SDG 3 on good health and well-being and SDG 4 on quality education are barely addressed, SDG 5 on gender equality is not at all covered by transnational climate actions. Additionally, the network reveals that SDG 9 is highly synergistic with many other frequently addressed SDGs and functions as an important connector between them. Finally, our results indicate that transnational initiatives fill a governance gap left by states with regards to SDG 12. Climate initiatives of non-state actors can thus complement state-led actions to implement the Paris Agreement and the SDGs jointly.

Modelling land system evolution and dynamics of terrestrial carbon stocks in the Luanhe River Basin, China: a scenario analysis of trade-offs and synergies between sustainable development goals - Jiren Xu; Fabrice G. Renaud; Brian Barrett (Sustainability Science, 2022)
A more holistic understanding of land use and land cover (LULC) will help minimise trade-offs and maximise synergies, and lead to improved future land use management strategies for the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, current assessments of future LULC changes rarely focus on the multiple demands for goods and services, which are related to the synergies and trade-offs between SDGs and their targets. In this study, the land system (combinations of land cover and land use intensity) evolution trajectories of the Luanhe River Basin (LRB), China, and major challenges that the LRB may face in 2030, were explored by applying the CLUMondo and InVEST models. The results indicate that the LRB is likely to experience agricultural intensification and urban growth under all four scenarios that were explored. The cropland intensity and the urban growth rate were much higher under the historical trend ( Trend ) scenario compared to those with more planning interventions ( Expansion , Sustainability , and Conservation scenarios). Unless the forest area and biodiversity conservation targets are implemented ( Conservation scenario), the forest areas are projected to decrease by 2030. The results indicate that water scarcity in the LRB is likely to increase under all scenarios, and the carbon storage will increase under the Conservation scenario but decrease under all other scenarios by 2030. Our methodological framework and findings can guide regional sustainable development in the LRB and other large river basins in China, and will be valuable for policy and planning purposes to the pursuance of SDGs at the sub-national scale.

Valuation of nature and nature’s contributions to people - Shunsuke Managi; Moinul Islam; Osamu Saito; Marie Stenseke; Luthando Dziba; Sandra Lavorel; Unai Pascual; Shizuka Hashimoto (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Development of a graphical resilience framework to understand a coupled human-natural system in a remote arid highland of Baja California Sur - J. C. Lerback; B. B. Bowen; S. J. Macfarlan; E. Schniter; J. J. Garcia; L. Caughman (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Correction to: Natural resources, human mobility and sustainability: a review and research gap analysis - Caroline Zickgraf; Saleem H. Ali; Martin Clifford; Riyanti Djalante; Dominic Kniveton; Oli Brown; Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Correction to: Envisioning just transformations in and beyond the EU bioeconomy: inspirations from decolonial environmental justice and degrowth - Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Environmental flows: issues and gaps—a critical analysis - Chandrashekhar Bhuiyan (Sustainability Science, 2022)

Natural resources, human mobility and sustainability: a review and research gap analysis - Caroline Zickgraf; Saleem H. Ali; Martin Clifford; Riyanti Djalante; Dominic Kniveton; Oli Brown; Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson (Sustainability Science, 2022)

How does government expenditure impact sustainable development? Studying the multidimensional link between budgets and development gaps - Omar A. Guerrero; Gonzalo Castañeda (Sustainability Science, 2022)
We develop a bottom-up causal framework to study the impact of public spending on high-dimensional and interdependent policy spaces in the context of socioeconomic and environmental development. Using data across 140 countries, we estimate the indicator-country-specific development gaps that will remain open in 2030. We find large heterogeneity in development gaps, and non-linear responses to changes in the total amount of government expenditure. Importantly, our method identifies bounds to how much a gap can be reduced by 2030 through sheer increments in public spending. We show that these structural bottlenecks cannot be addressed through expenditure on the existing government programs, but require novel micro-policies intended to affect behaviors, technologies, and organizational practices. One particular set of bottlenecks that stands out relates to the environmental issues contained in the sustainable development goals 14 and 15.

A natural language processing model for supporting sustainable development goals: translating semantics, visualizing nexus, and connecting stakeholders - Takanori Matsui; Kanoko Suzuki; Kyota Ando; Yuya Kitai; Chihiro Haga; Naoki Masuhara; Shun Kawakubo (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Sharing successful practices with other stakeholders is important for achieving SDGs. In this study, with a deep-learning natural language processing model, bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), the authors aimed to build (1) a classifier that enables semantic mapping of practices and issues in the SDGs context, (2) a visualizing method of SDGs nexus based on co-occurrence of goals (3) a matchmaking process between local issues and initiatives that may embody solutions. A data frame was built using documents published by official organizations and multi-labels corresponding to SDGs. A pretrained Japanese BERT model was fine-tuned on a multi-label text classification task, while nested cross-validation was conducted to optimize the hyperparameters and estimate cross-validation accuracy. A system was then developed to visualize the co-occurrence of SDGs and to couple the stakeholders by evaluating embedded vectors of local challenges and solutions. The paper concludes with a discussion of four future perspectives to improve the natural language processing system. This intelligent information system is expected to help stakeholders take action to achieve the sustainable development goals.

The effect of financial crises on deforestation: a global and regional panel data analysis - Alexander S. Antonarakis; Lucia Pacca; Andreas Antoniades (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Managing our transition to sustainability requires a solid understanding of how conditions of financial crisis affect our natural environment. Yet, there has been little focus on the nature of the relationship between financial crises and environmental sustainability, especially in relation to forests and deforestation. This study addressed this gap by providing novel evidence on the impact of financial crises on deforestation. A panel data approach is used looking at Global Forest Watch deforestation data from > 150 countries in > 100 crises in the twenty-first century. This includes an analysis of crises effects on principle drivers of deforestation; timber and agricultural commodities—palm oil, soybean, coffee, cattle, and cocoa. At a global level, financial crises are associated with a reduction in deforestation rates (− 36 p.p) and deforestation drivers; roundwood (− 6.7 p.p.), cattle (− 2.3 p.p.) and cocoa production (− 8.3 p.p.). Regionally, deforestation rates in Asia, Africa, and Europe decreased by − 83, − 43, and 22 p.p, respectively. Drivers behind these effects may be different, from palm oil (− 1.3 p.p.) and cocoa (− 10.5 p.p.) reductions in Africa, to a combination of timber (− 9.5 p.p) and palm oil in Asia. Moreover, financial crises have a larger effect on deforestation in low-income, than upper middle- and high-income countries (− 51 vs − 39 and − 18 p.p. respectively). Using another main dataset on yearly forest cover—the ESA-Climate Change Initiative—a picture arises showing financial crises leading to small global decreases in forest cover (− 0.1 p.p.) with a small agricultural cover increase (0.1 p.p). Our findings point to financial crises as important moments for global deforestation dynamics. Yet, to consolidate benefits on decreasing deforestation, governments need to enhance their sustainable forest management during crisis periods rather than let it slip down national agendas. Finally, to achieve the SDGs related to forests, better global forest cover datasets are needed, with better forest loss/gain data, disturbance history, and understanding of mosaicked landscape dynamics within a satellite pixel.

Correction to: Transdisciplinary partnerships for sustainability: an evaluation guide - Ryan Plummer; Jessica Blythe; Georgina G. Gurney; Samantha Witkowski; Derek Armitage (Sustainability Science, 2022)

An actionable understanding of societal transitions: the X-curve framework - Aniek Hebinck; Gijs Diercks; Timo von Wirth; P. J. Beers; Lisa Barsties; Sophie Buchel; Rachel Greer; Frank van Steenbergen; Derk Loorbach (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Sustainability transition research seeks to understand the patterns and dynamics of structural societal change as well as unearth strategies for governance. However, existing frameworks emphasize innovation and build-up over exnovation and break-down. This limits their potential in making sense of the turbulent and chaotic dynamics of current transition-in-the-making. Addressing this gap, our paper elaborates on the development and use of the X-curve framework. The X-curve provides a simplified depiction of transitions that explicitly captures the patterns of build-up, breakdown, and their interactions. Using three cases, we illustrate the X-curve’s main strength as a framework that can support groups of people to develop a shared understanding of the dynamics in transitions-in-the-making. This helps them reflect upon their roles, potential influence, and the needed capacities for desired transitions. We discuss some challenges in using the X-curve framework, such as participants’ grasp of ‘chaos’, and provide suggestions on how to address these challenges and strengthen the frameworks’ ability to support understanding and navigation of transition dynamics. We conclude by summarizing its main strength and invite the reader to use it, reflect on it, build on it, and judge its value for action research on sustainability transitions themselves.

Nexus approach and environmental resource governance in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review - Jude Ndzifon Kimengsi; Raphael Owusu; Roland Azibo Balgah (Sustainability Science, 2022)
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is replete with significant environmental resources including forests, water, land, and energy; although its transition to a bio-resource economy is yet to be actualized. Consequently, there are limited socio-economic gains from resource valorization. These challenges which stall progress towards the attainment of several interlinked sustainable development goals, are rooted, among others in resource governance defects. Furthermore, the persistence of knowledge fragmentation on resource governance shades possibilities for an in-depth theorizing of the nexus approach. In this light, two questions beg for answers: (i) To what extent are governance indicators captured in empirical studies on the nexus approach in SSA? (ii) What questions and approaches should inform future research on the nexus approach in SSA? To answer these questions, this paper systematically reviews 100 peer-reviewed articles (with 154 cases) that address governance questions in nexus studies within the broad framework of bioeconomy transitioning in SSA. Using the PROFOR analytical framework, our analysis reveals the following: (1) Although sub-regional variations exist in the application of nexus thinking, the overall emphasis in SSA is on first-level resource transformation. (2) With only 5% of studies explicitly mentioning the nexus approach, there is a strong indication for nexus thinking to be prioritized in future research. (3) While efficiency is the most recurrent in the literature (69%), its assurance in resource nexus and transformation is insignificant. (4) Interlinked questions of equity, participation, transparency, and conflict management have not been sufficiently addressed in studies on the nexus approach. The paper suggests an urgent need for in-depth, multi-country, and interdisciplinary research on these governance parameters in the nexus approach, as prerequisite to advancing the science–policy intercourse in nexus thinking in SSA.

Behavioral adaptation to climate change: new insights on psychosocial frameworks from the context of managed forests - Alexandra Paige Fischer; Michal Russo; Garrett Powers (Sustainability Science, 2022)