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We argue that the often-proclaimed disregard of ex-ante assessments of the provision of ecosystem goods and services in policy-making processes is not only due to a neglect or a misinterpretation of the results of such assessments in the relevant political processes, but also due to an inaccurate inclusion of political variables into those assessments. To address this weakness, we combine a model-based scenario analysis with a policy network analysis. Analyzing the structure of the policy network and taking into account the policy preferences of the individual network actors allows us to assess the feasibility and likelihood of policy developments as derived from scenario-based modeling assessments. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach in an analysis of potential policy measures aimed at maintaining crucial ecosystem goods and services in Swiss mountain regions, with a specific focus on agriculture, which is arguably one of the most important sectors for various ecosystem goods and services in those regions. Our results show that a production-oriented agricultural policy still has strong political support and, consequently, a status-quo protection scenario is very likely. In contrast, a more environmentally friendly agricultural policy is unlikely if it leads to extensive new regulations for agricultural production. Even with a greening scenario performing best within a set of ex-ante model-based assessments of future policy options, our policy network analysis suggests that changes in agricultural policy would have to reconcile the support of the provision of nonmarketable ecosystem goods and services with market deregulation policies in order to become politically feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes both a theoretical and empirical contribution to a better understanding of how specific forms of network governance play a crucial role in enhancing sustainable development in rural areas. Drawing on the literature on social capital and social networks, I argue that a region has to achieve a certain level of cohesion in the network structure among actors from different societal sectors and governmental levels to strengthen rural sustainable development. However, to sustain positive regional development in the longer term, network structures also need to guarantee fragmentation and flexibility by including actors with varying views and interests. Empirically, the paper looks at the new policy of regional nature parks in Switzerland. The policy provides a good test case for the theoretical argument, because it aims at taking a cooperative and network-oriented approach to enhance rural sustainable development. Two case studies demonstrate that regional park projects have in fact strengthened the vertical cohesion between government levels. Remaining fragmentation at the local level could be a hindering factor while further establishing a park project in the region. In the longer term, however, it could guarantee the necessary flexibility to adapt to new ecological and socioeconomic developments that cannot be directly influenced by a region itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the factors that hinder or support publishing interdisciplinary research? What does a successful interdisciplinary publishing process look like? We address these questions by analyzing the publishing process of the interdisciplinary research project titled "Mountland." Project researchers published most of their main results as a Special Feature of Ecology and Society. Using the story wall method and qualitative content analysis, we identified ten factors contributing to the success or failure of publishing interdisciplinary research. They can be assigned to four groups of resources: scientific resources, i.e., previous joint research, simultaneously written manuscripts; human resources, i.e., coordination, flexibility, composition of the team; integrative resources, i.e., vision of integration, chronology of results; and feedback resources, i.e., internal reviews, subject editors, external reviewers. According to this analysis, an ideal-typical publishing process necessitates, among other things, (1) a strong, interdisciplinary coordinator, (2) a clear shared vision of integration and a common framework, (3) flexibility in terms of money and time, (4) a certain sense of timing regarding when and how to exchange results and knowledge, (5) subject editors who are familiar with the specific project and its interdisciplinary merits, and (6) reviewers who are open minded about interdisciplinary efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain regions provide essential ecosystem goods and services (EGS) for both mountain dwellers and people living outside these areas. Global change endangers the capacity of mountain ecosystems to provide key services. The Mountland project focused on three case study regions in the Swiss Alps and aimed to propose land-use practices and alternative policy solutions to ensure the provision of key EGS under climate and land-use changes. We summarized and synthesized the results of the project and provide insights into the ecological, socioeconomic, and political processes relevant for analyzing global change impacts on a European mountain region. In Mountland, an integrative approach was applied, combining methods from economics and the political and natural sciences to analyze ecosystem functioning from a holistic human-environment system perspective. In general, surveys, experiments, and model results revealed that climate and socioeconomic changes are likely to increase the vulnerability of the EGS analyzed. We regard the following key characteristics of coupled human-environment systems as central to our case study areas in mountain regions: thresholds, heterogeneity, trade-offs, and feedback. Our results suggest that the institutional framework should be strengthened in a way that better addresses these characteristics, allowing for (1) more integrative approaches, (2) a more network-oriented management and steering of political processes that integrate local stakeholders, and (3) enhanced capacity building to decrease the identified vulnerability as central elements in the policy process. Further, to maintain and support the future provision of EGS in mountain regions, policy making should also focus on project- oriented, cross-sectoral policies and spatial planning as a coordination instrument for land use in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective implementation of payment for environmental services (PES) must allow for complex interactions of coupled social-ecological systems. We present an integrative study of the pasture-woodland landscape of the Swiss Jura Mountains combining methods from natural and social sciences to explore feedback between vegetation dynamics on paddock level, farm-based decision making, and policy decisions on the national political level. Our modeling results show that concomitant climatic and socioeconomic changes advance the loss of open grassland in silvopastoral landscapes. This would, in the longer term, deteriorate the historical wooded pastures in the region, which fulfill important functions for biodiversity and are widely considered as landscapes that deserve protection. Payment for environmental services could counteract this development while respecting historical land-use and ecological boundary conditions. The assessed policy feedback process reveals that current policy processes may hinder the implementation of PES, even though a payment for the upkeep of wooded pasture would generally enjoy the backing of the relevant policy network. To effectively support the upkeep of the wooded pastures in the Jura, concomitant policy changes, such as market deregulation, must also be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]