Landscape products: bridging sustainable production and sustainable landscapes

Contributing to sustainability and human well-being, traditional agricultural systems can serve a multitude of functions. But current developments replace these systems with more mass-marketable substitutes, creating complex environmental, sociocultural, and economic issues. So far, solutions to these challenges have been often too commodity-focused, ignoring the non-monetary functions of the agricultural systems, and the possibility of

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Discussing the relational paradigm: A review of Prof. Dr. Berta Martín-López inaugural lecture

On Wednesday, the 16th November, Prof. Dr. Berta Martín-López held her inaugural lecture at Leuphana University. The welcoming words by Prof. Dr. Simone Abels, vice president of the graduate school, scientific qualification and teacher education, succinctly summarized Martín-López’ contribution to the SESI and Leuphana University by quoting sincere accounts of her colleagues about her competent,

A river of emotion: Exploring the combination of sense of place theory and the ecosystem service concept

Nile, Yangtze or Rhine – rivers have always had a significant role in human history. River landscapes are complex social-ecological systems, serving as hotspots for biodiversity and certain cultural ecosystem services (CES). Nowadays, river landscapes face changes both impacting biodiversity as well as human lives. People perceive these changes differently – but there are hardly

Invitation: Inaugural lecture by Prof. Dr. Berta Martín-López

Today, we cordially invite you to the inaugural lecture by Prof. Dr. Berta Martín-Lopéz! She will look at the “Relational paradigms in place-based social-ecological research”. For all our local readers, friends & colleagues, feel free to join us at the Leuphana University in UC 40.501. The inaugural lecture will be held in a brown-bag lunch

Defining values in valuation – the IPBES assessment on diverse values of nature

The state of our planet says a lot about humankind – amongst other things, how we value our environment. The biodiversity crisis is just one outcome of our past decisions of valuing nature, and the Sustainable Development Goals are one of the more ambitious attempts to re-evaluate and change our choices to more sustainable ones.

How can we achieve successful transdisciplinary research? It depends on the context

Transdisciplinary Research (TDR) stands at the core of sustainability sciences: The approach of researchers and local actors co-producing knowledge should ideally tackle our society’s most urgent issues and facilitate sustainable transformation. But as usual, that is easier said than done, as the process is much more complicated in real life: While TDR approaches have been

Everyone has a “map” to tell? Translating stories of participatory scenario narratives into maps of spatially explicit information

In research, stories are often created using scenario planning to understand future land use and land cover (LULC) changes. With scenario narratives, decision-makers can proactively consider uncertainties when choosing between different policy options. Many global scenarios need downscaling to the local level to make an assessment of potential futures possible for particular landscapes. While this

Everything according to plan? A new perspective on Ecosystem Services for land-use planners

According to stereotypes, Germans love their orderliness and systems, and these must be planned diligently. Regional and urban planning is no exception – but faced with challenges like global climate change, planners are increasingly required to come up with green infrastructure and sustainable urban development solutions. Thus, considering the concept of Ecosystem services (ES) becomes

Working with uncertainties: The future of integrating agriculture and biodiversity in the Muttama Creek Catchment Area, Australia.

As land-use change and agricultural intensification are key drivers of today’s biodiversity crisis, farmers are increasingly asked to display how they protect the natural environment on their farms, for example by consumers or financiers. There is also an ongoing discussion in academic circles about the best solution to protecting biodiversity in agriculture. The future of

I know that feeling: The relevance of the relation between values and knowledge for collaborative approaches

As recently more and more knowledge systems and their embedded values gain recognition in sustainability sciences, their importance for achieving more equitable, inclusive decision-making and land management become clearer as well. Sustainability sciences that only focus on underlying values can exclude certain stakeholder groups if knowledge is restricted to forms only valid according to the