Boundary Object, Bridging Concept, or Metaphor? Resilience in Recent Sustainability Research

The concept of resilience has become increasingly popular over the past years – especially in sustainability science. As of late 2020, there were almost 13,000 peer-reviewed publications in the Scopus scientific database that mentioned both resilience and sustainability. However, the definitions of resilience vary greatly. In their recent paper, Nüchter et al. (2021) investigate how

Caring for the Planet While Caring for Each Other: Leadership Collectives for Sustainability Transformations

The world faces multiple, interconnected sustainability challenges. Researchers publish ever more findings on trends and developments, knowledge on feedbacks and drivers, or frameworks for methodological approaches. While essential to sustainability theory and practice, however, this is not sufficient to induce real change. In their recent paper, Care et al. (2021) argue that sustainability transformations also

Of Sleeping Jackals And Proud Lions: Participatory Scenario Planning to Facilitate Human-Wildlife Coexistence

Where humans and wildlife coexist, conflicts are part of the interactions between the two groups. While ecological and economic aspects of human-wildlife conflicts have been extensively researched, social dimensions commonly receive less attention. In their recent paper, Jiren et al. (2021) introduce a step-by-step template for how to use participatory scenario planning to address human-wildlife

Winners and Losers – Benefit Profiles of Ecosystem Service Users in Southwestern Ethiopia

Food, fuel, shelter, tools – these are all examples of key livelihood products that forests and farmlands provide to humans. While such ecosystem services are important for human well-being, their accessibility is modified by a set of mediating factors that determine how much and which benefits different people receive. Hence, different groups of people –

Governance Challenges at the Interface of Food Security and Biodiversity Conservation

Food security and biodiversity conservation are two key challenges for many countries around the world. The simultaneous provision of food security and biodiversity conservation requires a governance system that can address intra- and intersectoral complexity. However, the two sectors are often treated as separate goals. In their recent study, Jiren et al. (2021) explore challenges

Can Plant Traits Predict Ecosystem Properties?

By Vicky Temperton, Jörn Fischer and Marina Frietsch Ecosystems around the world are subjected to changes driven by both natural dynamics and human activities. The functional traits of individual organisms shape their growth and reproduction and are thus key to understanding their response to global change. In addition, traits do not only affect individual performance

Living Together: Understanding Drivers of Human Tolerance Towards Mammals

In areas where people and wildlife share the same habitat, conflicts can arise between the two groups. This can undermine people’s tolerance of wildlife and thereby contribute to the ongoing decline in wildlife numbers. Hence, it is crucial to understand the factors that determine communities’ willingness to coexist with wildlife and tolerate potential costs in

Drowning in Plastic: Ocean Pollution as a Transdisciplinary Challenge

Each year, millions of tons of plastic are produced worldwide – a considerable part of which end up in the environment. Even in remote regions such as the arctic or the deep sea, remnants of plastic can be found. In 2019, a group of European experts gathered in San Sebastián, Spain, to discuss current challenges

Research for a Sustainable Future: The Social-Ecological Systems Institute

In its first annual report, the recently founded Social-Ecological Systems Institute (SESI) introduces itself. The institute is part of the Faculty of Sustainability of Leuphana University Lüneburg in Germany. It was created in 2020 to provide a space for like-minded faculty members with a shared interest in links between social and ecological phenomena. SESI members

Decision‑Making for Nature’s Contributions to People in the Cape Floristic Region: The Role of Values, Rules and Knowledge

Around the world, ecosystems are subjected to transformation and degradation, turning from multifunctional, biodiversity-rich landscapes into intensive agricultural systems or urban areas. Such land use changes undermine the capacity of biodiversity to contribute to people’s quality of life. On privately owned land, the conservation of the world’s increasingly threatened biodiversity depends on land managers’ decision-making.