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Climate change represents a growing ecological challenge. The (sub) arctic and boreal regions of the world experience the most rapid warming, presenting an excellent model system for studying how climate change affects mammals. Moose (Alces alces) are a particularly relevant model species with their circumpolar range. Population declines across the southern edge of this range are linked to rising temperatures. Using a long-term dataset (1988–1997, 2017–2019), we examine the relative strength of direct (thermoregulatory costs) and indirect (food quality) pathways linking temperature, precipitation, and the quality of two important food items (birch and fireweed) to variation in moose calf mass in northern Sweden. The direct effects of temperature consistently showed stronger relationships to moose calf mass than did the indirect effects. The proportion of growing season days where the temperature exceeded a 20 °C threshold showed stronger direct negative relationships to moose calf mass than did mean temperature values. Finally, while annual forb (fireweed) quality was more strongly influenced by temperature and precipitation than were perennial (birch) leaves, this did not translate into a stronger relationship to moose calf weight. The only indirect path with supporting evidence suggested that mean growing season temperatures were positively associated with neutral detergent fiber, which was, in turn, negatively associated with calf mass. While indirect impacts of climate change deserve further investigation, it is important to recognize the large direct impacts of temperature on cold-adapted species.

In this article, we analyze the role of measurements practices in a public dispute about the impacts of t mining in the Netherlands. Drawing on studies of material participation and agential realism, we analyze how measurement practices shape he boundaries of subsurface objects. We detail how these boundaries become relevant for assessing mining impacts and show how this enables and constrains material participation. Simply put, if a process or thing is not measured into being, it cannot participate in negotiations about causality and impact. Our analysis shows that scientific conventions narrowly determined what measurements are credible and, consequently, limited the participation of other objects and processes in negotiations about damage and compensation. This underscores how ontological disagreements about the existence and measurability of subsurface processes affect what claims can be made. We conclude by discussing conditions for pluralist and equitable processes of material participation in measurement practices.

Green (and blue) spaces receive attention as important components of cities that can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, support biodiversity and improve public health. Green space planning aims to transform cities towards urban sustainability and resilience. In a longitudinal study, representatives from eleven European municipalities that had previously been interviewed in 2014 were re-interviewed in 2020–2021 on changes in urban greening and related practices. The interviewees reported mainly advancements in dealing with ecological issues, such as new plans, strategies, regulations or funding programmes for climate adaptation or biodiversity support, as well as some progress in co-governance with non-governmental stakeholders. Promising developments include breaking professional silos by creating new units that can better deal with complex urban issues. In a few cases, high-level local politicians induced profound changes. These changes stimulated the development of new planning and governance cultures, resulting in more co-creation of urban green spaces. However, from a transformation studies perspective, incremental strategies dominate, and even when municipal representatives are aware that substantive changes are needed, they often lack the means to act. For more radical system change, significant extra efforts are needed.

Community forest management (CFM) has become an influential approach in the sustainable use, management, and conservation of forests worldwide. It ranges from community-based self-governance of local village forests to co-management approaches with state forest agencies in public forests. However, analyses show complex relationships between states and communities in CFM. At least three ideal types can be identified. The first refers to local communities that collectively decide to manage surrounding forests themselves due to a lack of state involvement. As a manager of the public good, such absence of the state may easily lead to deforestation and forest degradation that such communities wish to avoid. A second type refers to the co-management approaches of local communities and state forest agencies. Here, forest officials and community members cooperate in managing local forests. A final type refers to indigenous communities with strong customary forest institutions whose territorial claims are recognized by the state. While communities always need specific institutions, knowledge, and tenure rights in place to make CFM perform, each ideal type presupposes various degrees of state capacity and state autonomy. The article concludes that weak states (to some degree) and strong communities (of a certain kind) may indeed form a “convincing liaison” in CFM, although it is not the only arrangement that may produce (some) positive social and environmental impacts on the ground, as the cases explored illustrate.

Urban forests play a crucial role for the wellbeing of city dwellers, and their importance for people has been emphasised during the COVID-19 pandemic. This exploratory study analyses the visit patterns and visitor attitudes and perceptions in a peri-urban forest nearby Bonn, Germany, as well as the impact of the lockdown. Methodically, we combined automated visitor counting with a total of 345 on-site interviews. Respondents were asked a variety of open-ended and closed questions on various aspects of forest management and recreation. The results show that shortly after the inception of the lockdown the number of forest visitors doubled and the visit pattern changed markedly. In contrast, people’s associations with the forest remained rather stable. The forest visitors interviewed primarily associated the forest with tranquillity, recreation and fresh air, and they were generally positive about forest management. However, these expectations conflicted with the sense of crowdedness experienced during the lockdown, when novel forest uses and new motivations for visiting the forest arose, with an important focus on the forest as a place for social interaction. These were mainly a result of the lockdown restrictions, rather than COVID-19 itself, which left people with more time and flexibility, and less alternative activities. The results highlight the importance of forest management in catering to people’s expectations and ultimately for the role that forests play for people’s wellbeing. This was the case before the lockdown but arguably even more so during, in response to a variety of needs resulting from unprecedented circumstances.

Nature is a vital context for transcendent experiences fostering the spiritual dimensions of humankind. Analysing data from protected areas in China, this paper investigates the ways in which spirituality permeates nature-based tourism. A thematic analysis was undertaken to interpret 27 semi-structured in-depth interviews with professionals and tourists. Findings enable the construction of a hierarchical framework of spiritual tourism achievement and highlight the need to create links between protected areas, tourists, and ‘mediums’. Nature is acknowledged as a means of overcoming spiritual emptiness in a secular nation where religions function in a limited way and traditional wisdom is undervalued. This study proposes a nature-based, philosophy-oriented tourism development model, which sheds light on theoretical and industrial domains alike.

The Mongolian Altai is part of the larger Altai mountain range extending 2,000 km from the Gobi Desert to the plains of West Siberia and across the borders of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, China, and Mongolia. The World Heritage nomination document draws connections between past rock art styles, past communities, and climatic variability but it does not mention how the rock art might be related to contemporary rock markings and other cultural features in and of the landscape, such as sacred natural sites, stupas, and ovuus. The term biocultural landscape stems from the concept of biocultural diversity which in turn has its roots in a broadening of the concept of biodiversity with cultural elements, in an attempt to relate biodiversity to people. The concept requires a radically different way of conceptualising landscapes as it challenges multicultural and radical perspectivism by taking multi-naturalism as a starting point

According to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a “Whole-of-Society” approach is needed to initiate transitions to a nature-positive society. Many look at civil society to initiate and accelerate such transitions. In this article, we investigate strategies from Civil Society Actors (CSAs) to contribute to transformative change, with specific focus on Tiny Forests and Beach Clean-Ups in the Netherlands. Results show that CSAs have a clear Theory of Change to achieve their goals, and act upon that vision through assembling power and resources, developing policy-relevant environmental knowledge, mobilising public support and media coverage and initiating innovative sustainable practices. Adopting mosaic governance approaches, CSAs strategically position themselves in social and institutional networks, connecting professionals and citizens for political leverage. However, our findings show that the step from local impact towards transition remains a large one and the contribution of CSAs should be valued as emergent, co-produced and part of a broader transition movement.

The human relationship with nature is a topic that has been explored throughout human history. More recently, the idea of connection to nature has merged as an important transdisciplinary field of study. Despite increased scholarly attention to connection to nature, the notion of disconnection from nature remains undertheorized and understudied.In this perspective article, we argue for a more comprehensive understanding of disconnection from nature to strengthen theories of human-nature relationships that goes beyond individual relationships and considers social and collective factors of disconnection, including institutional, socio-cultural and power dimensions.Drawing on case insights, we present the 'wheel of disconnection' to illustrate how disconnections from nature manifest across individual or societal meaning-making processes, thereby problematizing existing research that seeks to create dualisms between human positive and negative impacts on the environment in isolation from cultural or political contexts.We do not seek to discount research or important practical efforts to foster an individual's connection to nature by elevating disconnection. Instead, we hope that creating greater awareness and understanding of disconnection will be able to guide opportunities going forward for strengthening a connection to nature along a continuum from the individual to the social. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Since 1990, global forest area has been reducing; tropical forests have suffered from different anthropogenic and natural factors that account for forest loss. Tropical deforestation is the second driver of anthropogenic emissions; increasing demand and investments in tropical forests drive these emissions. These forests attract significant foreign direct investments, but the effects of these investments on carbon emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry are not well enshrined in the literature for the countries under study. This paper seeks to analyse the impact of foreign direct investments on carbon emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry amongst 30 tropical forest countries from 1996 to 2019. The sampled countries were disaggregated by tropical blocs: Amazon, Congo basin, Australasia, and Southeast Asia, and by income levels; low-income, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income. The findings reveal a U-shape structure of the impact of FDI on carbon emissions from LULUCF within Congo basin and Amazon countries; at higher levels of FDI, emissions from LULUCF will increase while Australasia and Southeast Asian countries show an inverted U-shape impact, thus at higher levels of FDI, there will be a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions from LULUCF. The income levels reveal an inverted U-shape for low-income and high-income countries and a U-shape for upper-middle-income countries; the impact for lower-middle-income countries is not significant. Overall, for the whole sample, the impact depicts a U-shape. This paper proposes high-level development of environmental conditions for FDI for different sectors that align with country and regional green growth plans. Enhancing national and regional governance systems to enforce decisions and fight corruption effectively can significantly promote green FDI for green growth.

Although international actors have intervened to improve the management of the Cameroonian woodfuel sector, the impacts of these interventions have been little explored. This study investigated the influence of international interventions on policy processes and their impacts on the woodfuel actors and resources in Cameroon. Based on a systematically conducted review of English literature and five interviews, and using the international influence pathway framework as a conceptual lens, international norms and discourses, rules, and direct access were found to have influenced woodfuel governance in Cameroon, while direct access to formal laws and policies and by programmes on the ground had more positive but also negative impacts. Due to the nature of the laws and policies which were influenced, the complex national woodfuel context, and the short-term and small-scale characteristics of programmes, positive impacts on actors and resources created by international interventions were limited. These findings lead to recommendations to increase the scale and continuity of the programmes by ensuring more synergies with informal, local and international market-based 'rules', such as REDD+ and forest certification; to focus on increasing woodfuel supply and decreasing demand; and to focus more attention on involving and empowering local people in these policy processes.

The Dutch landscape is highly connected with other (inter)national landscapes, implying that considering telecoupling is foundational for nature inclusive transitions in the Netherlands. Our review demonstrated that there are multiple framings of telecoupling, with a development from structural to actor based and governance approaches. Each of the identified approaches uses different angles, such as systems impact, flow focused or intervention impact. To effectively use the concept of telecoupling, it is important to further develop and connect to scholarship such as power, equity, transformative change and environmental justice, which is currently lacking. This also includes different perspectives and knowledge often overlooked in systems approaches (e.g. local knowledge) and the learning across methodologies (e.g. Social learning, ethnography)

Formulating adequate responses to pressing socio-ecological challenges requires effective and legitimate knowledge production and use. The academic debate has gradually shifted from a linear model of science–policy relations towards co-productive alternatives. Yet, in practice, the linear model remains lingering. This paper uses a case study of a collaboration between a Dutch research institute and a ministerial department to examine how and why this linear model is so persistent. Our analysis shows the dominance of the linear model in this collaboration, while openings for a more co-productive relationship remain largely unexplored. Our findings illustrate that an important reason for this persistence of the linear model is the lack of a convincing and attractive alternative imaginary of science–policy practices, which defines clear roles and competencies for researchers as well as policy actors involved. We argue this is symptomatic of a wider tendency among both researchers and policy actors to construct science as an obligatory passage point towards policy. However, this tendency not only enables policy actors to offload their responsibility but also fails to capitalise on the opportunities offered by these practices to explicate the politics embedded in and foregrounded by knowledge production. Such an engagement with the politics of knowledge by experts as well as policymakers can encourage more effective and legitimate knowledge production and use.

Effectiveness is intensely debated in this journal (e.g. the 2019 special issue made by Therivel and Gonzalez 2019; Cashmore et al. 2020). SEA effectiveness is often understood as ‘how well [SEA] w...

Many of Asia’s sacred groves consist of small islands of trees within veritable seas of agricultural land and urban industrial sprawl, but many still embody the values of a single moral community of humans and non-humans, all partaking in the shared productivity of a cosmopolity inseparable from ecology. This chapter begins with a short summary of some of the common features of Asia’s sacred forests. The importance of sacred groves in socioecological and biocultural systems is emphasized by several authors offering concise overviews of the role of indigenous sacred natural sites in conservation. The chapter ends with some thoughts on how a long-term view of Asia’s sacred forests may help engender greater creative, inclusive, and socially just resource governance in response to the interlocking crises of the Anthropocene.

In IJsberen met optimisme stelt Koen Arts dat de Aarde niet gered gaat worden door nog meer feiten op tafel te gooien, harder te alarmeren, of luider de schoonheid van de natuur te bezingen. Hij vliegt het op geheel eigen wijze aan: hij gaat golfen met Trump, pleit voor buitenseks en schuift aan bij formatiegesprekken. Ook zijn er gastoptredens van Maarten van Rossem, de paus, de koning, zelfs Cristiano Ronaldo. De vijftig verhalen gaan de wereld rond – deels in een pre-coronatijd, toen dat nog leuk was – van de moerassige Braziliaanse Pantanal tot Nieuw-Zeeland en de hypermoderne luchthaven van Doha. Nergens kan de natuur ontsnappen aan Arts’ beschouwingen, die evengoed ontstaan uit zijn hand en hart als uit zijn hoofd. Hij ontleedt het mens-natuur thema door te schipperen tussen feit en verbeelding, theorie en ervaring, oprechtheid en spel, beschrijvingen van alledaagse sleur en romantisch verlangen – en presenteert zo een originele en provocerende verhalenbundel.

Agriculture is facing increasing challenges as a result of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and demographic change. Yet, at the same time, currently dominant agricultural practices contribute to exacerbate these challenges. It is therefore widely recognized that there is a need for an agricultural sustainability transition. However, what this transition should look like and how it should be brought about is a value-based, normative judgement with differing implications for different people, making transition processes inherently political. In order to govern these processes in a way that recognizes the ethical implications of the political nature of agricultural transitions, we need to understand all the components that influence, and are influenced by, transition processes, interactions across societal levels, and the normative and power dynamics that come together to shape the direction and outcomes of transition processes. In addition, we need insights into what aspects people consider when they build their perceptions of the legitimacy and justice of an agricultural transition. In this paper we draw together overarching lessons learned from extensive reviews of dominant transition, legitimacy, and justice theories, interviews with stakeholder organisations, and a survey of 400 English adults.

Plus d'un quart de la déforestation (27 %) est provoqué par un changement d'utilisation des terres dû à la production de commodités (Curtis et al. 2018). Les estimations de perte de forêt tropicale attribuées à la progression des cultures, des pâturages et des plantations forestières vont de 62 à 80 % (Pendrill et al. 2019 ; Hosonuma et al. 2012), 26 % de ces pertes étant attribués à la demande internationale de commodités (Pendrill et al. 2019). Partant de cette constatation, on considère que la déforestation est un problème relevant de la responsabilité de la communauté internationale puisque les produits qui en sont à l'origine dans un lieu précis sont vendus et consommés dans le monde entier. On estime que 10 % de la déforestation de la planète sont liés à la consommation, dans les pays membres de l'UE, de commodités importées qui sont produites de façon non durable, la déforestation en Europe étant négligeable (Cuypers et al. 2013).Ce phénomène a donné lieu à deux nouveaux termes : commodités à risque pour les forêts et déforestation due aux commodités. Les commodités liées à la déforestation importée et produites en Afrique centrale sont l'huile de palme, le cacao, le café, le caoutchouc, le bois et le coton.

The global diversity of forest use and management responses of forest-dependent Indigenous peoples to climate change remains poorly understood and lacks synthesis. Yet, such knowledge is essential for informed policy decisions and inclusive mitigation strategies. Through a systematic literature review, forest-dependent Indigenous peoples' responses to climate change and extreme weather events were analysed, including the prevalence of the strategies, their drivers, the role of sensitivity to climate change and the integration of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in forest use and management. Also, an assessment was made of how forest dependence and traditional knowledge are acknowledged in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). The results show knowledge clusters around coping and adaptation, mitigation, and joint strategies in North and South America and Asia. Multiple Correspondence Analysis showed that articles documenting adaptations trategies were associated to a reactive response time, Indigenous peoples as drivers and the integration of TEK and information on their climate sensitivity. The diversity of applied strategies found, mostly related to non-timber forest products (NTFPs), comprised ecologically sustainable and unsustainable practices. Mitigation s trategies, mostly REDD+ projects, which were significantly associated with proactive and external initiatives, largely omitted information on the sensitivity of the studied Indigenous group and the involvement of traditional knowledge. Joint strategies seem to be a good compromise of participatory efforts and were largely linked to integrating Indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge. Knowledge gaps include evidence of forest-related resilient livelihood strategies. Future research should focus on participatory and sustainable climate measures, the role of TEK and the drivers for the success of forest-related climate responses, as well as the potential effectiveness of joint adaptation-mitigation measures for forest-dependent Indigenous peoples on a global scale.

Long-term follow-up is essential to support and assess the environmental and socioeconomic outcomes of reforestation activities and improved cookstove adoption.Ongoing and ‘refresher’ training of actors to build and maintain specific capacities is important, given the time needed for trees to mature and the relatively short lifetime of a cookstove made with clay.Indicators to monitor the durability and scalability of reforestation initiatives are needed to ensure that when activities deviate from the plan they can be corrected in time, and address the actors and technological aspects.International organizations that fund or implement such projects should consider the views of the local communities and build a framework that involves both men and women, as well as both host and refugee communities.This model from East Cameroon could be useful for scaling out to other settlements, as it is based on an integrated landscape and value chain approach.

Over fifty years of global conservation has failed to bend the curve of biodiversity loss, so we need to transform the ways we govern biodiversity. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity aims to develop and implement a transformative framework for the coming decades. However, the question of what transformative biodiversity governance entails and how it can be implemented is complex. This book argues that transformative biodiversity governance means prioritizing ecocentric, compassionate and just sustainable development. This involves implementing five governance approaches – integrative, inclusive, adaptive, transdisciplinary and anticipatory governance – in conjunction and focused on the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and unsustainability. Transforming Biodiversity Governance is an invaluable source for academics, policy makers and practitioners working in biodiversity and sustainability governance. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.INGRID J. VISSEREN-HAMAKERS serves as Professor and Chair of the Environmental Governance and Politics (EGP) group at Radboud University, Netherlands, and specializes in transformative global environmental governance. She aims to contribute to both academic and societal debates on how societies and economies can become sustainable. Her research focuses on governing the relationships between animal interests, biodiversity and food, among others.MARCEL T. J. KOK is Programme Leader of the International Biodiversity Policy group at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. His research concentrates on global environmental governance and scenario analysis of global environmental problems, with a focus on biodiversity. He specializes in bottom-up governance approaches.

In Indigenous societies in Guatemala, sacred natural sites are central to people’s well-being. The spiritual dimension enacted at sacred natural sites is characteristic of Indigenous peoples’ relationship with the wider landscape as expressed through their role in natural resource management and governance. In this chapter we are guided by the ontologies of spiritual leaders from Guatemala Ajq Ijab who view sacred places as part of their cosmology. As spiritual leaders, the Ajq Ijab create common ground between the communities they do their spiritual work with, and actors from outside these communities. Through their spiritual work, the Ajq Ijab revitalise their sacred natural sites that are a resilient source of inspiration when creating common grounds in defence of threats from outside pressures. In this process, they draw from their spirituality through practices of ritual, ceremony, healing and enacting traditional law. The extent to which common grounds offer a pathway for the revitalisation and conservation of sacred natural sites depends on how well spiritual leaders and their supporters can broker their interests with other actors and gain political legitimacy and power.

This chapter illustrates how agroforestry has been created while changing its role in response to the local livelihoods and socio-economic change in three case study sites.Although agroforestry is often valued as a tool to offer economic benefits for farmers and regulative functions to the environment, local people do not necessarily manage agroforestry solely with explicit economic incentives or environmental benefits. This chapter aims to rethink agroforestry as the result of the relationship between people and nature, which has changed over time.In three case studies in the agroforestry region of tea in South-East Asia, coffee in Central America, and cacao in Central Africa, the respective authors conducted tree census of agroforesty, interviews, and participatory observation on management practices and social context of its change aiming to understand the current tree components of agroforestry as a result of social change.While the management method varied as each case study dealt with a different region and crop, we found some commonalities. In particular, those agroforestries were integrated into swidden agriculture. Farmers created agroforestry by using the tree composition of fallow forests by adjusting their shade environment. The primary focus of farmers was not to develop predesigned agroforestry to improve the productivity of specific crops, but to manage it rusticly as an application of local agriculture with original vegetation. Farmers maintained agroforestry while engaging in various livelihoods in response to internal and external socio-economic changes, including environmental and agricultural policies and markets.Agroforestry is focused on as an environmentally harmonious farming method, but its effectiveness will depend on whether it can be operated as a dynamic agricultural space that can be customized in response to social changes.

To support the implementation of the Mount Kenya Sustainable Landscape and Livelihoods Programme, Wageningen University & Research and ETC Consultants conducted a Situation Analysis (SA) and set the baseline for an Impact Evaluation (IE). The SA is based on detailed literature review, focus group discussions and key informant interviews in three counties in the Mt. Kenya Region (Embu, Kirinyaga and Nyeri). The IE is based on quantitative surveys amongst 977 coffee and tea farmers in Kirinyaga county. With a focus on improving the programme effectiveness, and possibly adapting the current proposed Theory of Change, three key recommendations emerge from both these studies: the need to more clearly define the scope of the intervention; strategies to ensure its effective management; and the need to design additional metrics to capture the full impact of the programme.

Een duurzaam watersysteem vereist een grotere en niet-vrijblijvende bijdrage vanuit beleidssectoren zoals de landbouw en industrie. Zonder een duidelijk perspectief op de ruimtelijke ordening van Nederland en een ander sturingsmodel blijft het echter aanmodderen met waterkwaliteit.

The rewilding discourse to date has mostly been concerned with ecological dimensions of rewilding, but attention for human dimensions of rewilding is growing, and here we focus on the rewilding of humans. The rationale being, that human rewilding is a crucial process in restoring the broken relationship between humans and nature on both individual and societal levels. We consider what human rewilding could mean in a practical sense by presenting two case studies. The first is the rewilding of daily life, based on a yearlong experiment of living outside, and a straightforward research question: In a land without wilderness, is it possible to find wildness in everyday life? The second is the rewilding of education in a way that challenges traditional didactic frameworks and approaches. Conceptually, we approach human rewilding as a set of visions and practices that acknowledge human evolutionary history within the contemporary context of life on Earth. We argue that human rewilding is a necessary, complimentary component to ecological rewilding efforts. It provides a constructive and fundamental answer to the question of where humans sit in rewilding efforts, and suggests no less than a human inclusive, integrated part of the answer to global environmental crises.

Karen ontologies are largely informed by an animist mode of interpretation that reveals itself in people’s perceptions of and actions related to the forest. Important aspects of these ontologies are the influence of spirits, cycle of the moon, and communication with animals, which together act as a form of discipline, rhythm, and meaning. Our research demonstrates how indigenous knowledge is underpinned by ontologies that are different from the ontologies underpinning scientific knowledge and conservation practice. We argue that when spirits are not recognized as integral to the ontologies of indigenous Karen people, their knowledge is (mis)understood, and miscommunication and friction occur, which may eventually lead to conservation conflict. We propose that spirits are recognized as part of indigenous ontologies, which should be equally considered on a par with naturalist ontologies underpinning mainstream nature conservation. This demands an increased awareness of the role of spirits in forest use and practice, which inevitably leads to reconsideration of what is considered sustainable and equitable forest conservation.

In the Netherlands, novel types of community forestry are emerging. The original interpretation of community forestry as common property management connected to indigenous or traditional ecological knowledge hardly applies to these modern manifestations of community forestry. The Dutch cases are primarily based on common identities rather than on common property, and they focus on the management of integrated green spaces rather than of forests only. These examples illustrate how in response to processes of modernisation, both the institutional context of community forestry and its management orientation are changing. In response to dynamics in cultural ecological knowledge, two novel forms of community forestry are identified in the Netherlands: (i) rural approaches towards the management of green spaces reflecting biocultural memories, and (ii) peri-urban approaches towards the management of innovative green spaces reflecting biocultural creativity. While pertinent to the Dutch context, we argue that our proposed reconceptualisation of community forestry to community-based green space management characterised by a sense of shared identity may offer value for cases in other economically developed countries too.

Europe has a rich diversity of landscapes because of differences in biophysical conditions, land use practices and cultures. Immigration brings new people from other cultures to the continent, with different preferences regarding the landscape they live in. Because of these and other differences cultural minorities may lack access to landscape use and planning. We explore this problem and discuss what the case of cultural minorities in the Netherlands can tell us about inclusion of vulnerable groups in landscape use and planning.

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025° × 0.025°) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with individual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from ~1.3 million sample plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of biodiversity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers. The team collaboration and manuscript development are supported by the web-based team science platform: science-i.org, with the project number 202205GFB2. We thank the following initiatives, agencies, teams and individuals for data collection and other technical support: the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI) for establishing the data standards and collaborative framework; United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program; University of Alaska Fairbanks; the SODEFOR, Ivory Coast; University Félix Houphouët-Boigny (UFHB, Ivory Coast); the Queensland Herbarium and past Queensland Government Forestry and Natural Resource Management departments and staff for data collection for over seven decades; and the National Forestry Commission of Mexico (CONAFOR). We thank M. Baker (Carbon Tanzania), together with a team of field assistants (Valentine and Lawrence); all persons who made the Third Spanish Forest Inventory possible, especially the main coordinator, J. A. Villanueva (IFN3); the French National Forest Inventory (NFI campaigns (raw data 2005 and following annual surveys, were downloaded by GFBI at https://inventaire-forestier.ign.fr/spip.php?rubrique159; site accessed on 1 January 2015)); the Italian Forest Inventory (NFI campaigns raw data 2005 and following surveys were downloaded by GFBI at https://inventarioforestale.org/; site accessed on 27 April 2019); Swiss National Forest Inventory, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, Switzerland; the Swedish NFI, Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SLU; the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (89967 and 109244) and the South African Research Chair Initiative; the Danish National Forestry, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, UCPH; Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel of Brazil (CAPES, grant number 88881.064976/2014-01); R. Ávila and S. van Tuylen, Instituto Nacional de Bosques (INAB), Guatemala, for facilitating Guatemalan data; the National Focal Center for Forest condition monitoring of Serbia (NFC), Institute of Forestry, Belgrade, Serbia; the Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems (Germany) for providing National Forest Inventory data; the FAO and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for undertaking the SAFE (Safe Access to Fuel and Energy) and CBIT-Forest projects; and the Amazon Forest Inventory Network (RAINFOR), the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network (AfriTRON) and the ForestPlots.net initiative for their contributions from Amazonian and African forests. The Natural Forest plot data collected between January 2009 and March 2014 by the LUCAS programme for the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment are provided by the New Zealand National Vegetation Survey Databank https://nvs.landcareresearch.co.nz/. We thank the International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA); the Forestry Corporation of New South Wales, Australia; the National Forest Directory of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Argentine Republic (MAyDS) for the plot data of the Second National Forest Inventory (INBN2); the National Forestry Authority and Ministry of Water and Environment of Uganda for their National Biomass Survey (NBS) dataset; and the Sabah Biodiversity Council and the staff from Sabah Forest Research Centre. All TEAM data are provided by the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network, a collaboration between Conservation International, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and partially funded by these institutions, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and other donors, with thanks to all current and previous TEAM site manager and other collaborators that helped collect data. We thank the people of the Redidoti, Pierrekondre and Cassipora village who were instrumental in assisting with the collection of data and sharing local knowledge of their forest and the dedicated members of the field crew of Kabo 2012 census. We are also thankful to FAPESC, SFB, FAO and IMA/SC for supporting the IFFSC. This research was supported in part through computational resources provided by Information Technology at Purdue, West Lafayette, Indiana.This work is supported in part by the NASA grant number 12000401 ‘Multi-sensor biodiversity framework developed from bioacoustic and space based sensor platforms’ (J. Liang, B.P.); the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture McIntire Stennis projects 1017711 (J. Liang) and 1016676 (M.Z.); the US National Science Foundation Biological Integration Institutes grant NSF‐DBI‐2021898 (P.B.R.); the funding by H2020 VERIFY (contract 776810) and H2020 Resonate (contract 101000574) (G.-J.N.); the TEAM project in Uganda supported by the Moore foundation and Buffett Foundation through Conservation International (CI) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS); the Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences (TREECHANGE, grant 6108- 00078B) and VILLUM FONDEN grant number 16549 (J.-C.S.); the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK (NERC) project NE/T011084/1 awarded to J.A.-G. and NE/S011811/1; ERC Advanced Grant 291585 (‘T-FORCES’) and a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award (O.L.P.); RAINFOR plots supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the UK Natural Environment Research Council, notably NERC Consortium Grants ‘AMAZONICA’ (NE/F005806/1), ‘TROBIT’ (NE/D005590/1) and ‘BIO-RED’ (NE/N012542/1); CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+ funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the European Union, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (CRP-FTA) and donors to the CGIAR Fund; AfriTRON network plots funded by the local communities and NERC, ERC, European Union, Royal Society and Leverhume Trust; a grant from the Royal Society and the Natural Environment Research Council, UK (S.L.L.); National Science Foundation CIF21 DIBBs: EI: number 1724728 (A.C.C.); National Natural Science Foundation of China (31800374) and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2019BC083) (H.L.). UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant code: NE/S01537X/1) (T.J.); a Serra-Húnter Fellowship provided by the Government of Catalonia (Spain) (S.d.-M.); the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, grant 442640/2018-8, CNPq/Prevfogo-Ibama number 33/2018) (C.A.S.); a grant from the Franklinia Foundation (D.A.C.); Russian Science Foundation project number 19-77-300-12 (R.V.); the Takenaka Scholarship Foundation (A.O.A.); the German Research Foundation (DFG), grant number Am 149/16-4 (C.A.); the Romania National Council for Higher Education Funding, CNFIS, project number CNFIS-FDI-2022-0259 (O.B.); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2019-05109 and STPGP506284) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (36014) (H.Y.H.C.); the project SustES—Adaptation strategies for sustainable ecosystem services and food security under adverse environmental conditions (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000797) (E.C.); Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología del estado de Durango (2019-01-155) (J.J.C.-R.); Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi, Government of India (file number PDF/2015/000447)— ‘Assessing the carbon sequestration potential of different forest types in Central India in response to climate change’ (J.A.D.); Investissement d’avenir grant of the ANR (CEBA: ANR-10-LABEX-0025) (G.D.); National Foundation for Science & Technology Development of Vietnam, 106-NN.06-2013.01 (T.V.D.); Queensland government, Department of Environment and Science (T.J.E.); a Czech Science Foundation Standard grant (19-14620S) (T.M.F.); European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007– 2013) under grant agreement number 265171 (L. Finer, M. Pollastrini, F. Selvi); grants from the Swedish National Forest Inventory, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (J.F.); CNPq productivity grant number 311303/2020-0 (A.L.d.G.); DFG grant HE 2719/11-1,2,3; HE 2719/14-1 (A. Hemp); European Union’s Horizon Europe research project OpenEarthMonitor grant number 101059548, CGIAR Fund INIT-32-MItigation and Transformation Initiative for GHG reductions of Agrifood systems RelaTed Emissions (MITIGATE+) (M.H.); General Directorate of the State Forests, Poland (1/07; OR-2717/3/11; OR.271.3.3.2017) and the National Centre for Research and Development, Poland (BIOSTRATEG1/267755/4/NCBR/2015) (A.M.J.); Czech Science Foundation 18-10781 S (S.J.); Danish of Ministry of Environment, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Integrated Forest Monitoring Program—NFI (V.K.J.); State of São Paulo Research Foundation/FAPESP as part of the BIOTA/FAPESP Program Project Functional Gradient-PELD/BIOTA-ECOFOR 2003/12595-7 & 2012/51872-5 (C.A.J.); Danish Council for Independent Research—social sciences—grant DFF 6109– 00296 (G.A.K.); Russian Science Foundation project 21-46-07002 for the plot data collected in the Krasnoyarsk region (V.K.); BOLFOR (D.K.K.); Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, Government of India (grant number BT/PR7928/ NDB/52/9/2006, dated 29 September 2006) (M.L.K.); grant from Kenya Coastal Development Project (KCDP), which was funded by World Bank (J.N.K.); Korea Forest Service (2018113A00-1820-BB01, 2013069A00-1819-AA03, and 2020185D10- 2022-AA02) and Seoul National University Big Data Institute through the Data Science Research Project 2016 (H.S.K.); the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, grant 442640/2018-8, CNPq/Prevfogo-Ibama number 33/2018) (C.K.); CSIR, New Delhi, government of India (grant number 38(1318)12/EMR-II, dated: 3 April 2012) (S.K.); Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, government of India (grant number BT/ PR12899/ NDB/39/506/2015 dated 20 June 2017) (A.K.); Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) #88887.463733/2019-00 (R.V.L.); National Natural Science Foundation of China (31800374) (H.L.); project of CEPF RAS ‘Methodological approaches to assessing the structural organization and functioning of forest ecosystems’ (AAAA-A18-118052590019-7) funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia (N.V.L.); Leverhulme Trust grant to Andrew Balmford, Simon Lewis and Jon Lovett (A.R.M.); Russian Science Foundation, project 19-77-30015 for European Russia data processing (O.M.); grant from Kenya Coastal Development Project (KCDP), which was funded by World Bank (M.T.E.M.); the National Centre for Research and Development, Poland (BIOSTRATEG1/267755/4/NCBR/2015) (S.M.); the Secretariat for Universities and of the Ministry of Business and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia and the European Social Fund (A. Morera); Queensland government, Department of Environment and Science (V.J.N.); Pinnacle Group Cameroon PLC (L.N.N.); Queensland government, Department of Environment and Science (M.R.N.); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2018-05201) (A.P.); the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project number 20-05-00540 (E.I.P.); European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 778322 (H.P.); Science and Engineering Research Board, New Delhi, government of India (grant number YSS/2015/000479, dated 12 January 2016) (P.S.); the Chilean Government research grants Fondecyt number 1191816 and FONDEF number ID19 10421 (C.S.-E.); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Priority Program 1374 Biodiversity Exploratories (P.S.); European Space Agency projects IFBN (4000114425/15/NL/FF/gp) and CCI Biomass (4000123662/18/I-NB) (D. Schepaschenko); FunDivEUROPE, European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement number 265171 (M.S.-L.); APVV 20-0168 from the Slovak Research and Development Agency (V.S.); Manchester Metropolitan University’s Environmental Science Research Centre (G.S.); the project ‘LIFE+ ForBioSensing PL Comprehensive monitoring of stand dynamics in Białowieża Forest supported with remote sensing techniques’ which is co-funded by the EU Life Plus programme (contract number LIFE13 ENV/PL/000048) and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Poland (contract number 485/2014/WN10/OP-NM-LF/D) (K.J.S.); Global Challenges Research Fund (QR allocation, MMU) (M.J.P.S.); Czech Science Foundation project 21-27454S (M.S.); the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project number 20-05-00540 (N. Tchebakova); Botanical Research Fund, Coalbourn Trust, Bentham Moxon Trust, Emily Holmes scholarship (L.A.T.); the programmes of the current scientific research of the Botanical Garden of the Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (V.A.U.); FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology—Project UIDB/04033/2020. Inventário Florestal Nacional—ICNF (H. Viana); Grant from Kenya Coastal Development Project (KCDP), which was funded by World Bank (C.W.); grants from the Swedish National Forest Inventory, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (B.W.); ATTO project (grant number MCTI-FINEP 1759/10 and BMBF 01LB1001A, 01LK1602F) (F.W.); ReVaTene/ PReSeD-CI 2 is funded by the Education and Research Ministry of Côte d’Ivoire, as part of the Debt Reduction-Development Contracts (C2Ds) managed by IRD (I.C.Z.-B.); the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF, grant 89967) (C.H.). The Tropical Plant Exploration Group 70 1 ha plots in Continental Cameroon Mountains are supported by Rufford Small Grant Foundation, UK and 4 ha in Sierra Leone are supported by the Global Challenge Research Fund through Manchester Metropolitan University, UK; the National Geographic Explorer Grant, NGS-53344R-18 (A.C.-S.); University of KwaZulu-Natal Research Office grant (M.J.L.); Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Dirección General de Asuntos de Personal Académico, Grant PAPIIT IN-217620 (J.A.M.). Czech Science Foundation project 21-24186M (R.T., S. Delabye). Czech Science Foundation project 20-05840Y, the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (LTAUSA19137) and the long-term research development project of the Czech Academy of Sciences no. RVO 67985939 (J.A.). The American Society of Primatologists, the Duke University Graduate School, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the National Science Foundation (grant number 0452995) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (grant number 7330) (M.B.). Research grants from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnologico (CNPq, Brazil) (309764/2019; 311303/2020) (A.C.V., A.L.G.). The Project of Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City (grant number CKJ-JYRC-2022-83) (H.-F.W.). The Ugandan NBS was supported with funds from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the Austrian Development Agency (ADC) and FAO. FAO’s UN-REDD Program, together with the project on ‘Native Forests and Community’ Loan BIRF number 8493-AR UNDP ARG/15/004 and the National Program for the Protection of Native Forests under UNDP funded Argentina’s INBN2.

Conservation translocations are a frequently used management tool applied by nature conservationists. Many conservation translocations have a low success rate, which is caused by various biological and societal factors. While conservation translocations are often set in human-dominated landscapes, they tend to be poorly embedded in social-ecological systems. Indeed, the primacy of biological aspects in translocation processes seems to undercut attention for societal dimensions. A key societal dimension is public participation. In this article, we identified and analyzed processes that affect the implementation of public participation. In addition, we considered whether, and under which circumstances, a legislative framework enables meaningful public participation. We used a Policy Arrangement Approach to grasp the processes at play. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with key-actors involved in the design and planning of conservation translocations in Scotland. Interviewees argued that inclusive decision-making was either unintentionally or deliberately neglected. Underlying causes related to regularly witnessed barriers such as traditional expert-driven approaches, entrenched power relations, and uncertainties on how to deliver open and inclusive public participation practices. Moreover, there was a mismatch between conservationists' expectations on how public participation should be implemented and recognized fundamentals of public participation, e.g. transparency and dialogue. The results demonstrate that while a legislative framework raises awareness and provides guidance, it is unable to take away current barriers. Due to the uncertainties around democratic decision-making, it is unrealistic to expect that a mere legislative framework alone would solve current challenges. Yet, conversely the absence of one may increase current challenges.

Governance of woodfuel value chains, especially charcoal, remains a challenge in most African countries. Institutions for supporting, regulating and guiding its production and trade are often spread across several ministries and agencies resulting in legal pluralism that is often poorly coordinated. In Kenya forest charcoal rules have been implemented since 2009, aimed at formalizing and legalizing charcoal production and trade. However, their implementation came short of expectations, contributing to deforestation in gazetted and protected areas. As a result, in February 2018, a logging moratorium was imposed that banned charcoal production in public and community forests, leading to increased cross-border trade with significant flows coming from Uganda, as well as DRC and South Sudan. This study sought to understand the institutional mechanisms shaping formal and informal charcoal cross-border trade flows across the Kenya-Uganda border post at Busia. Stakeholder and value chain actor interviews were conducted, complemented by a market survey, literature review and document analysis. Quantitative data on charcoal trade was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and qualitative data analyzed using Atlas.ti 9. Between August 2018 and December 2020, approximately 155,500 tons of charcoal were formally imported into Kenya from Uganda (97.3%), DRC (2.5%) and South Sudan (0.2%). More men (67%) than women (31%) participate in the formal trade. Formal imports by men accounting for 55%, women 41% and 4% by companies during the same period. An estimated 24% of 5682 bags of charcoal traded during the two-weeks market survey was informal. The findings suggest that formal trade in charcoal is regulated largely by national forestry and revenue administration’s laws, with the role of East Africa Community trade protocols ambiguous Corrupt practices were reported at roadblocks and tax collection points, raising questions on the effectiveness of regulations. Enhanced harmonization of national regulations, coordination and cooperation across agencies within and across borders are recommended to attain more sustainable charcoal value chains in East Africa.

Interest in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has increased due to their role in poverty reduction, conservation, and food security. However, data on the current environmental and socio-economic aspects of NTFPs harvests are sparse. Using secondary data from literature review as well as participatory rural appraisal tools, information was gathered on NTFPs collectors, and on the relative socio-economic importance of the main NTFPs collected, collectors’ access to NTFPs and sustainability of collection in major collection sites in the South West and Littoral Regions of Cameroon. An estimated 5500 collectors of NTFPs operate in the South West and Littoral Regions of Cameroon. The study revealed that NTFPs are important in the livelihoods of the village communities in the study area constituting 33% to their household income after agriculture (50.6%). The most important NTFPs collected in the study area were Gnetum spp., Irvingia spp., and Ricinodendron heudelotii. In important harvest divisions like the Manyu and Mungo divisions, the contribution of Gnetum spp. and Irvingia spp. to collectors NTFP related income is statistically significant (chi squared-test X2; p

While there is much debate on transformative change among academics and policymakers, the discussion on how to govern such change is still in its infancy. This article argues that transformative governance is needed to enable the transformative change necessary for achieving global sustainability goals. Based on a literature review, the article unpacks this concept of transformative governance. It is: integrative, to ensure local solutions also have sustainable impacts elsewhere (across scales, places, issues and sectors); inclusive, to empower those whose interests are currently not being met and represent values embodying transformative change for sustainability; adaptive, enabling learning, experimentation, and reflexivity, to cope with the complexity of transformative change; and pluralist, recognizing different knowledge systems. We argue that only when these four governance approaches are: implemented in conjunction; operationalized in a specific manner; and focused on addressing the indirect drivers underlying sustainability issues, governance becomes transformative.

Karen people’s interactions with the forest are informed by their ontologies. Important aspects of these ontologies are the influence of spirits, the cycle of the moon and communication with nonhumans. We foreground that Karen ontologies and knowledge systems are heterogeneous yet different from other ontologies and knowledge systems informing forest conservation in Myanmar (Burma). We recognise that interaction between Karen people and other conservation actors needs to be understood in the context of socio-economic and transformative political factors and is affected by spirits and other nonhumans. Based on empirical research, we argue that Indigenous people andconservationists can better support each other if they are each understood concerning their own ontology. This way, spirits and other nonhumans can be recognised as having agency in forest management and governance. We demonstrate how spirits, nonhumans and religious beliefs affect Indigenous ontologies and prompt us to think of ontologies as heterogeneous and overlapping. We conclude that moving past Eurocentric dualisms opens up new ways to think about how different ontologies inform our ideas about what is considered important in makingforest conservation in Myanmar more sustainable and socially equitable.

Report Available in Swedish and English. The aim of this synthesis fact sheet is to present a sustainable spatial planning framework for revitalising green spaces and meeting spots for social inclusion, biodiversity and well-being, including safety and security. In this report we provide important insights for city planners about how new partnerships can be established between social entrepreneurs, NGOs, municipalities and marginalised groups, with a view to achieve social inclusion, biodiversity and well-being outcomes in green spaces and associated meeting spots. This work is supported by VIVA-PLAN, an international research consortium funded by FORMAS, The Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development. Three urban districts were included for study in the VIVA-PLAN project. Two of these are located in Sweden (Ronna in Södertälje, Lorensborg/Bellevuegården in Malmö) and one in Denmark (Urbanplanen in Copenhagen). These cases were selected because they share similar environmental challenges and opportunities. All are socially and economically marginalised urban areas, with a highly diverse population. In addition, they all have in-between green spaces of which use and development is being contested. This study provides a spatial overview of the existing ecological green structure, as well as the social values and preferences linked to those in Bellevuegården and Lorensborg, and in Ronna. Green space with high biodiversity value were often appreciated, but even green spaces assessed as low ecological value can often have important benefits for residents. This study is useful for understanding how different ecological and social values coexist, which places and functions can give rise to conflicts of interest, and where synergies can be created between the needs of residents and those of planning or conservation practitioners. It helps planners to seek solutions taking both biodiversity benefits and social benefits into account. The results of the two studies discussed in this reporthave been used in two co-creation events, specifically developed within VIVA-PLAN andVIVA-Hack.

Credibility, legitimacy, and diversity of knowledge are critical

Literature on co-production is booming. Yet, most literature is aspirational and methodological in nature, focusing on why co-production is important for environmental governance and knowledge production and how it should be done, and does not address the question why these processes often fail to achieve stated objectives of empowerment and societal transformation. In this review, we address this gap by reviewing literature on the political and power dimensions of co-production. Our review shows how depoliticization dynamics in co-production reinforce rather than mitigate existing unequal power relations and how they prevent wider societal transformation from taking place. Drawing on literature about participation, deliberative governance, and democracy, the review concludes by emphasizing the importance of (re)politicizing co-production by allowing for pluralism and for the contestation of knowledge.

The Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) aims to bridge between science and policy by assessing and synthesizing diverse forms of knowledge about biodiversity. With its explicit ambition to include not just natural science, but also social science and humanities as well as indigenous and local knowledge systems, IPBES is operating as a pioneer in uncharted territory. This Review assesses the state of research on IPBES processes in order to identify the challenges and lessons to be drawn from its efforts to include different kinds of experts, stakeholders and knowledge systems. The Review discusses both procedural and substantive dimensions of inclusiveness and identifies a paradox between on the one hand IPBES’ demand for diversity and on the other hand its aim of achieving consensus. Specifically, it illustrates how IPBES’ orientation towards consensus in decision-making and in assessment work shapes and constrains diversity and inclusiveness. This finding has implications for environmental assessment processes within and beyond IPBES and suggests a need to open up procedures and practices of participation and inclusion in order to accommodate pluralism, contestation and incommensurable perspectives and knowledge systems. Review of how a multilateral negotiation platform on biodiversity is championing diversity in both participants (by gender and ethnic groups) and forms of knowledge, such as traditional or indigenous.

The chapter focuses on people’s experiences of natural places and changes in their sense of place through the use of social media. It explores how social media are linked to senses of place and experiences of nature from a social–ecological–technological systems perspective. This is illustrated through four empirical cases representing specific people–place–tech systems, i.e. systems where different social, ecological and tech contexts interact. From a system perspective, those couplings are integrated parts of people’s experiences of nature that bridge virtual and physical worlds, thereby facilitating and communicating cognitive, affective and behavioural social-ecological interactions. These interactions foster novel individual and co-constructed meanings of place and thus plural senses of place; they can also mobilise people around shared meanings of place that are used to question dominant views. Thus, it is argued that social media can mediate and proliferate plural meanings of place, leading to new conceptualisations of senses of place.