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In light of the projected climate change for the coming decades, there is an urgent need for multifunctional landscapes that are capable to provide a diversity of ecosystem services. This requires a better understanding of social and ecological factors that influence how these landscapes are managed and how this, in turn, influences the provision of ecosystem services. Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes are one of the main factors that lead to spatiotemporal changes of ecosystems services. As such, the identification of the main socioeconomic drivers of LULC can give important insights about the drivers of ecosystem services. However, the analysis of ecosystem services in a context of socio-ecological systems is still underdeveloped. Brazil has witnessed intense changes in LULC in the last five centuries, which may have influenced the provision of ecosystem services at local, regional and global scales. In the southeast mountain area of the Atlantic Forest biome, the Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais is characterized by a heterogeneous landscape mosaic composed of pasture and coffee fields intermingled with forest fragments, which are predominantly inhabited and managed by family farmers. The Zona da Mata is considered a complex socio-ecological system and is an interesting case to study the spatio-temporal provision of ecosystem services. In Chapter 2, I assessed the LULC changes from 1986 to 2015 and their main socioeconomic drivers. By combining data obtained from satellite images, workshops and secondary data, I showed that forest and coffee areas increased, and pasture decreased. These changes were associated with government measures to protect the environment, financial support of family farmers, migration to cities and the agroecological movement. A scenarios analysis of contrasting socio-economic narratives indicated that sustainable measures taken by the government to protect the environment and support family farmers with financial credit will lead to increase forest and coffee areas in the Green Road scenario. In contrast, the socioeconomic development in the Fossil Fuel scenario, which projects a decline in environmental protection and focuses on rapid economic development, there will be a decline in forest areas. In Chapter 3, I explored the spatial variation of ecosystem services from 1986 to 2015 and the impacts of LULC changes on ecosystem services provision levels and their interactions. To map the spatio variation of ecosystem services, I used the LULC maps from 1986 and 2015 (Chapter 2) and the InVEST model. This analysis indicated that the conversion of forest to pasture has strong negative impacts on soil erosion control and water flow regulation, manifesting mostly as trade-offs and dis-synergies between ecosystem services. In Chapter 4, I investigated the separate effects of LULC changes and climate on water dynamics from 1990 to 2015, and explored scenarios of LULC change and climate change for 2045. For this purpose, I used the SWAT model and climate data combined with historical and future LULC maps developed in Chapter 2. I found that the variation in climate variables was the main factor for the observed increase in the river streamflow in the study period and that forest can buffer extreme precipitation events. The exploration of future scenarios indicated that the increase in forest cover under the Green Road scenario is expected to decrease the surface runoff water and increase evapotranspiration as compared to the Fossil Fuel scenario, mitigating the impacts of soil erosion and climatic extremes in the region. Projected changes in precipitation and temperature are expected to have negative impacts for agriculture in the future. In Chapter 5, I assessed the impact of climate change on the suitability of Coffea arabica production in the study region and the potential of agroforestry systems to mitigate these impacts. For this, I combined the species distribution model MaxEnt with current and future climate projections. Agroforestry system have the potential to reduce air temperatures under the canopy of trees. I explored the effect of the altered the microclimate in agroforestry systems on the suitability for coffee production by adjusting future climate data to reflect conditions in agroforestry systems. I found that the area suitability for coffee production from the current monoculture coffee systems will decline by 60% under the projected climatic changes. However, the implementation of coffee agroforestry systems can mitigate these negative impacts of climatic change and maintain 75% of the area suitable for coffee production in 2050. Combining social and ecological systems in an interdisciplinary framework, generated insights in the relationships between climate and LULC change, and how this influences several ecosystem services. This framework connects different research fields and allows different stakeholders to work together to find effective ways to work towards multifunctional landscapes that promote the sustainable use of ecosystem services.

Environmental policy integration (EPI) is the incorporation of environmental concerns and objectives into non-environmental policy areas, such as energy, transport and agriculture, as opposed to pursuing such objectives through purely environmental policy practices. EPI is promoted to overcome policy incoherence and institutional fragmentation, to address the driving forces of environmental degradation and to promote innovation and synergy. But how effective are EPI strategies employed in practice? In this chapter we provide a meta-analysis of scientific, empirical research on EPI to address this question. An important finding is the discrepancy between the adoption of EPI in terms of objectives and commitments and its actual implementation, that is, translation into concrete measures. Overall, we found relatively few cases where environmental objectives were given a substantial status in non-environmental policies. The barriers we identified suggest that the actual detailed design or architecture of the strategies that are employed to promote EPI really matters.

De oude paradigmastrijd laait weer op met de Half Earth beweging, maar hoe zinvol is die? Pleidooi voor een ‘vijfde weg’…

Increasing global cocoa demand in the new millennium has triggered farmers in developing countries to expand cocoa cultivation. A challenge is how to sustainably increase cocoa production without causing deforestation. We examine this trade-off around the Lore Lindu National Park in Indonesia and investigate the determinants of environmental efficiency by applying a distance output function that includes cocoa production and rainforest plant abundance. We analyze 208 cocoa producers' variables from 2015 using both measured and self-reported data. We find that cocoa intensification results in higher ecosystem degradation, and that producers in our sample display a 50% mean efficiency. This low value points to the increased infestation of cocoa pod borer and the failure of the Gernas government program. Increasing efficiency could lead to a win-win-win situation: higher cocoa production from fewer hectares, and with more native rainforest plants co-existing with cocoa on those hectares. On average, efficiency scores suggest that there is scope to expand production by 367 kg of cocoa per farm and year on the existing planted area, to increase rainforest plants per 5 ∗ 5 m area by 109 while maintaining existing areas and production levels, or to reduce acreage by 0.52 ha per farm without reducing production.

Current wildlife management practices rely largely on quantitative data to legitimise decisions, manage human–wildlife conflicts and control wildlife populations. This paper draws attention to the affective relationships between humans and animals inevitably formed in the practice of producing these data. Based on fieldwork that explores wild boar management in the Veluwe, the Netherlands, we demonstrate the significance of these affective encounters. Specifically, we develop an understanding of mindedness that draws on processes of affective learning in wildlife management practices. To understand this mindedness and how it emerges in wild boar management practices, we use the concepts of affect, attunement and animal subjectivities. First, we show how the numero-politics involved in wildlife management presumes animal minds to be static and generically defined by species, and their presence and behaviour to be context independent. Subsequently, we describe the entanglements of humans, wild animals and the landscape, aiming to produce an appreciation of the mutuality that is involved in knowing and conserving wildlife. This, we propose, helps to demonstrate how various – individual or collective – forms of human and non-human mindedness are implicated in management practices but remain invisible and underappreciated in formal accounts. We conclude by explicating a multinatural approach to the management of wildlife that explicitly builds on an acknowledgment of mindedness as a feature of individuals, collectives and landscapes.

Context. The reasons for recent landscape change in the European countryside are complex and poorly substantiated. Identification of drivers of landscape transition and assessment of the effects on the provision of landscape services are subject of recent debate.Objectives. Aims of the paper are to explore what implications rural landscape transitions (as identified by land use and land cover changes) have for the provision of landscape services, and whether these changes can be related to specific drivers of change.Methods. The paper records gross landscape change on the basis of land use and land cover changes in six case study areas in five countries, and assesses the impacts on the provision of landscape services in the past 25 years.Results. In the past decades the observed land use and land cover changes in the case studies are relatively small, with a dominance of urbanisation and afforestation processes. However, the impacts of these changes are clearly reflected in a change in landscape services.Conclusions. Although the landscape transitions do affect the services, spatial data alone is insufficient to assess cause-effect relationships of landscape transitions,landscape structure and pattern. Circumstantial evidence points to substantial effects of EU and national policies on landscape services through landscape transition. These—often unintentional—effects can substantially affect biodiversity, cultural identity and landscape character. More research is needed onthe exact cause-effect relationships between policies and landscape service provision.

The interactions among the forest, agriculture and climate change policy domains are quite complex. On the one hand, forests provide important livelihoods and ecosystem services. These include protection of biodiversity and water sources, climate regulation, absorption of CO2, the reduction of the risks and impacts of extreme weather events, and important recreational and spiritual values in different parts of the world, just to mention a few. On the other hand, agriculture provides food, animal feed, bioenergy, and employment, and is a source of income for more than 500 million smallholder farmers globally. However, commercial agriculture is considered the main driver of deforestation. This tension has been enhanced in the past by conflicting policies (including agricultural subsidies) that promoted increasing agricultural productivity and considered standing forest as “lazy lands” (land with no economic or social value). This led to clearcutting forest to make land “productive”. While this framing has changed, and different instruments have been developed to protect and conserve forests, the expansion of agriculture into forested areas continues. Moreover, both forests and agriculture are highly vulnerable and affected by climate change. Paradoxically at the same time, deforestation, forest degradation and agriculture contribute to about one quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. So there is functional interplay among the three domains, as they are all connected in biogeophysical and socio-economic or economical terms. As such, greater coherence can be promoted through improved coordination and integration among the domains.The global governance systems of forests, agriculture and climate change are characterized by their fragmented nature, that is, an increasing number of institutions governing each domain, a multitude of actors from different spheres of society, and a wide array of norms and discourses. Specifically, this dissertation addresses this fragmentation from a framing perspective. Frames are understood in this dissertation as ‘underlying structures of belief, perception and appreciation’ (Schön and Rein 1994: 23) and framing as ‘...the process by which people develop a particular conceptualization of an issue or reorient their thinking about an issue’ (Chong and Druckman 2007: 104). This dissertation is positioned solidly within global environmental governance research. It aims to further our knowledge of the role of framing in the integration of global governance in the nexus of forests, agriculture and climate change. In order to do so, three research questions are analysed:RQ1: What efforts have been taken to enhance integration among the forest, agriculture and climate change governance systems and how does framing contribute to the degree of integration?RQ2: How did forests receive an increasingly prominent place on the global climate change agenda, while agriculture is still lagging behind, and what role has framing played in this degree of integration?RQ3: How and to what extent has framing played a role in the design and evolution of the Global Alliance on Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA)?Different conceptual frameworks are developed in each chapter to answer the research questions. These are encompassed within the Integrative Governance literature and are combined with frame theory elements. The methodologies used involve semi-structured interviews, an international workshop with experts active in one or more of the studied domains, and in-depth literature reviews, content and document analyses.The dissertation concludes that compatible frames are a precondition for integration. Compatible frames have the potential to enable integration or at least, not hinder it. Efforts to integrate incompatible frames among domains can result in broad and meaningless agreements, with a significant amount of time and resources invested. Even though the forest, agriculture and climate change governance systems are highly fragmented and encompass multiple frames, actors may attempt to bridge and connect compatible frames among domains. Strategic framing can be used in different ways to enhance integration (e.g. by expanding frames or reframing). Framing is then considered a skill and a necessary quality for actors engaging in integration efforts. The dissertation also presents a model for framing and integration that provides some insights into how framing can be used to enhance or prevent integration. It finalizes with a set of policy recommendations, including the development of a land-use readiness fund and the need to promote approaches outside the intergovernmental frameworks, where different frames are present and the fear of binding commitments does not play a role. The dissertation concludes that the fragmentation of global governance is a fact, and incompatible frames are an important factor influencing this fragmentation. Also, while actors may connect compatible frames among domains, these frames will not necessarily support sustainable paths. This dissertation argues that we need to identify and support frames that enhance the desired transformative changes towards sustainability.

Despite growing evidence pointing to the multiple benefits of home gardening, few studies have considered the health and well-being benefits perceived by gardeners who are principally motivated by biodiversity conservation (i.e. home gardening for biodiversity conservation). This study explores the environmental, social and economic co-benefits (and costs) of home gardening for biodiversity conservation in the City of Winnipeg, Canada. A total of 42 semi-structured interviews (30–60 min each) were conducted with 50 home gardeners who were formally certified or locally recognised for undertaking multiple gardening activities that promote biodiversity conservation. Thematic analysis revealed that study participants self-reported a range of environmental, psychological, physiological and social outcomes associated with their home gardening experiences. Despite home gardening often being a solitary activity, most gardeners valued the multiple forms of social interaction that occurred during important social events in their garden, or when connecting with passers-by. Home gardeners also cited benefits related to connection to nature and place attachment; attention restoration; reduced stress and anxiety; improved mood; satisfaction and pride; increased self-esteem and courage to do things differently in life; and, important education or learning opportunities. However, conflicts relating to the nexus between biodiversity and perceived tidiness of gardens emerged, which raise important ethical and social justice issues for sustainability planning. We compare key insights to the benefits (and costs) of community gardening and make some recommendations for future research, including how to engage more disadvantaged groups in gardening for conservation.

Njansang -Ricinodendron heudelotii (Baill.) Pierre ex Pax.- is a commonly traded non-timber forest product from Central African humid forests, used as a spice. South West Cameroon was selected as major production area and market where little data exist on the contribution of njansang to stakeholders livelihoods in the value chain. Interviews were used to gather information from 261 harvesters, traders and processing enterprises. From 2013 to 2015, 65.8 tons were harvested, with 13.17 tons traded in markets in the South West Region and in Nigeria for a value of €33,511. The ease of accessing markets makes a significant difference to the quantity harvested and contribution to harvesters’ household income. Average profit for harvesters is higher in regional markets than in local ones. Harvester’s profits were higher than buy’amsell’ams, retailers and exporters. Processors add the most value and earn the highest unit profits. Livelihood dependence upon njansang decreases along the chain, with harvesters more dependent than traders. Seasonality, corruption, storage and processing, influence price. Long-term value chain sustainability could be improved by increasing collaboration between stakeholders, collective action, disseminating knowledge about processing and storage techniques, and promoting domestication and cultivation to enable trade in this largely wild harvested NTFP to continue sustainably.

In this introduction to the Special Issue, we set out the key definitions, theoretical concepts and analytical dimensions of integrated forest governance. By so doing, we identify and account for the interplay between forest policy integration and integrated forest management as two constituting elements of integrated forest governance. Second, we summarize the main findings reported in the regular papers, and link them to the outlined definitions, theoretical concepts and analytical dimensions. This introduction further takes stock and classifies the main paradoxes of, barriers to, and drivers of forest policy integration and integrated forest management. It then structures the main empirical findings and conclusions along the key analytical dimensions and links them to the state of the art knowledge. Finally, we draw policy relevant conclusions and outline suggestions for future research.

The role of urban parks in delivering cultural ecosystem services related to outdoor recreation is widely acknowledged. Yet, the question remains as to whether the recreational opportunities of parks meet the demands of increasingly multicultural societies and whether recreational patterns vary at spatial scales. In a pan-European survey, we assessed how people use urban parks (in five cities, N = 3814) and how recreational patterns relate to respondents’ sociocultural and geographical contexts (using 19 explanatory variables). Our results show that across Europe (i) respondents share a general pattern in their recreational activities with a prevalence for the physical uses of parks, especially taking a walk; (ii) the geographic context matters, demonstrating a high variety of uses across the cities; and that (iii) the sociocultural context is also important; e.g., the occupation and biodiversity valuations of respondents are significantly associated with the uses performed. The sociocultural context matters particularly for physical park uses and is associated to a lesser extent with nature-related uses. Given that our results attest to a high variety of park uses between sociocultural groups and the geographical context, we conclude that it is important to consider the specific backgrounds of people to enhance recreational ecosystem services in greenspace development.

International audience; Understanding complex processes of landscape change is crucial to guide the development of future landscapes and land resources. Through Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, we studied the processes of landscape change of six different environmental zones in Europe. Results show that landscapes are complex systems, with many interactions. Except for one, all regions show a strong decline in landscape quality. Dominant drivers are EU policy and the global economy, sometimes in conjunction with environmental drivers or the governance system. The process of change differs for all cases, through urbanisation or land abandonment in some cases, and agricultural intensification in others. The (un)intended effects of policies are difficult to predict. Although some EU Policies directly improve landscape quality, their indirect effects as well as other EU policies outweigh this positive influence and jointly result in a decrease of landscape quality. To counter these negative side effects, targeted landscape policies are urgently needed.

In the Congo Basin, the economic, social and environmental value of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), such as bush mango (Irvingia gabonensis) is widely acknowledged. However, knowledge of the volumes traded, extent and distribution of revenues along the value chain is limited while little is known about the chain's sustainability. The survey of the value chain was followed by field observations and semi structured interviews with 174 stakeholders in Estuaire, Nyanga and Ngounié provinces of Gabon. Women dominate in the bush mango value chain. Most bush mango sold in urban and rural markets came from neighbouring countries. There is skewed distribution of revenues, with traders and processors earning higher incomes than harvesters. Deforestation, lack of harvesting standards and poor management of resources, according to the stakeholders, represent the main factors threatening the sustainability of the chain. Long-term socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the chain calls for raising the political visibility of the chain, training and collective action.

Agri-environmental schemes (AESs) have been implemented in many countries in Europe. However, there is mixed evidence about their effectiveness. Several studies in different countries suggest that AESs are more effective when designed at landscape level and implemented by groups of collaborating farmers (‘farmer collectives’). The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has enabled groups of farmers to be applicants for and final beneficiaries of AESs subsidies for the period 2015–2020, but it is unclear what is needed for farmer collectives engaged in AESs to contribute to more agrobiodiversity. In this paper, the lens of ‘professionalization’ is used to conceptualize and operationalize the performance of farmer collectives. We have developed an assessment framework that facilitates the characterization and development of the degree of professionalization of farmer collectives. The ultimate aim is achieving ecological effectiveness of AESs by professionalization of the farmer collectives. The framework distinguishes three categories of professionalization: organizational, occupational and systemic, and provides a new lens for research on AESs. It can also be used by practitioners involved in AESs to provide insight into, and reflect upon, the performance of farmer collectives.

Dutch policies have advocated sustainable commodity value chains, which have implications for the landscapes from which these commodities originate. This study examines governance and policy options for sustainability in terms of how ecosystem services are addressed in cocoa, soy, tropical timber and palm oil value chains with Dutch links. A range of policies addressing ecosystem services were identified, from market governance (certification, payments for ecosystem services) to multi-actor platforms (roundtables) and public governance (policies and regulations). An analysis of policy narratives and interviews identified if and how ecosystem services are addressed within value chains and policies; how the concept has been incorporated into value chain governance; and which governance options are available. The Dutch government was found to take a steering but indirect role in all the cases, primarily through supporting, financing, facilitating and partnering policies. Interventions mainly from end-of-chain stakeholders located in processing and consumption countries resulted in new market governance, notably voluntary sustainability standards. These have been successful in creating awareness of some ecosystem services and bringing stakeholders together. However, they have not fully addressed all ecosystem services or stakeholders, thus failing to increase the sustainability of value chains or of the landscapes of origin. We argue that chains sourced in tropical landscapes may be governed more effectively for sustainability if voluntary, market policy tools and governance arrangements have more integrated goals that take account of sourcing landscapes and impacts along the entire value chain. Given the international nature of these commodities. These findings have significance for debates on public-private approaches to value chain and landscape governance.

Given the role played by the sectors of artisanal sawn wood and fuel wood in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is necessary for them to be better integrated in the development and implementation of public policies. This article aims at identifying the most pragmatic levels to facilitate the formalization of these activities. A chain analysis of the legality was used to assess the relevance to develop specific measures to formalize each sector or, conversely, to favor cross-sectoral measures. These two sectors are vastly informal; access to the resource is made in scattered sites and benefits from strong social legitimacy. There emerges a similarity of crossing and sales points for these products in the city of Kisangani. Based on the analysis of the legality of chain completed, the intermediate level is more effective in promoting the formalization because it is in the city that one can fight most effectively against illegal products. It is useful to take inter-sectoral measures.

In order to reverse the trend of continuous decline in species diversity and abundance in agricultural landscapes, various governance arrangements have been implemented that promote, organise and finance nature conservationby farmers. The scientific literature predominantly focuses on agri-environment schemes (AES), i.e. publicly funded financial compensation schemes for farmers who implement prescribed conservation measures. Less attention has been paid to governance arrangements initiated by actors outside the public domain. Thispaper analyses a unique partnership between a nature conservation NGO – BirdLife Netherlands (BLN) – and a network of about 130 dairy and cattle farmers, aimed at meadow bird protection in the Netherlands. Meadow birds breed in large numbers in the Netherlands, mainly on farmland, but their numbers have been declining as a consequence of agricultural intensification, urbanisation and predation, amongst other things. Established in 2010, the partnership is gradually evolving from bilateral cooperation between BLN and individual farmers into a network. Based on desk research, interviews and five focus group sessions with almost 40 representatives of the partnership, we conclude that the main (perceived) achievements include: a large contribution to awareness ofand recognition for the important role and efforts of farmers in meadow bird protection among citizens, politicians, policy-makers and companies in agri-food chains; a modest contribution to improving conservation efforts by participating farmers; and a modest contribution to their knowledge about conservation of meadow birds. The main success factors are the alignment of interests and complementarity of the partners and motivation derived from meeting peers. The partnership clearly complements AES in terms of its functions.

Ecological restoration requires value-laden choices about what goals, references, and methods to use in a particular area. The restoration ecology literature has identified a number of interrelated dilemmas pertaining among others to the use of historical references or the creation of novel ecosystems and to the selection of appropriate measures of intervention. In this study, we investigate the narratives that Dutch professionals in ecological restoration use to justify these choices and we analyze the values, beliefs, and human-nature relationships they reflect. Based on our analysis, we identify three interrelated sets of values, beliefs, and human-nature relationships, which we call here narrative clusters. These are: (1) virtuous stewardship, which foregrounds human responsibility to care for nature; (2) autonomous nature, which foregrounds the self-regulating capacities of nature; and (3) pragmatic wise use, which foregrounds the use of nature by humans and the importance of practical considerations. These narrative clusters connect well with established sociological and philosophical classifications of nature and human-nature relationships. However, our analysis also shows that in the navigation of the different dilemmas of conservation, practitioners draw on a wide variety of arguments to justify their practices. In doing so, they blur the boundaries between different views of nature, between ethical and pragmatic arguments, and between nature and culture. We conclude the article by reflecting on the implications of these findings for the conceptualization and practice of restoration.

An increased involvement of citizens in the management of European green spaces raises questions about its contributions to nature conservation. In this research, we study the effects of different types of active citizenship in green space. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, we look at the benefits of 50 green self-governance practices in which citizens aim to realize, manage or protect green space in the Netherlands. While most of these practices contribute to nature conservation (80%) and/or the conservation of cultural landscapes (50%), our analysis shows that the benefits of green self-governance are much broader. This includes so called ‘co-benefits’, social, cultural and economic benefits such as the use function of green for human activity (78%), environmental education (88%) and social cohesion (50%). The benefits and co-benefits of green self-governance strongly depend on the type of practice. Using a typology of green self-governance, we show that a majority of practices focuses on direct benefits to nature conservation through hands-on activities and/or political actions. However, we also show that this focus is regularly combined with efforts to realize co-benefits. Practices with an explicit focus on co-benefits often also produce benefits - and vice-versa. In this way, co-benefits can provide a first step towards the realization of more direct benefits to nature conservation. Even so, there are also tensions between benefits and co-benefits, for example when an increase of recreation negatively affects biodiversity values or when ‘wild’ nature is being replaced by a cultivated garden. Relating to co-benefits can be an effective strategy for governments or environmental NGO’s, but we have to be aware that the benefits generated by green self-governance are generally of a much smaller scale than those realized by ‘traditional’ managers of green space such as authorities.

A variety of public policies and private strategies have been implemented to stimulate farmers to implement nature conservation measures. Examples include publicly funded agri-environment schemes (AES) but also eco-labels and Alternative Food Networks; strategies that have been implemented in response to the continuous decline in species abundance and diversity due to agricultural intensification and scale enlargement. Whereas AES as a distinct governance strategy has been evaluated in detail, less is known about other strategies. In this paper, we assess the relative importance of the variety of public and private strategies aimed at enhancing species abundance and diversity in Italian olive farming through a reduction in agrochemical use. In a survey of olive farmers in the region of Tuscany, we found that although farmers are exposed to a variety of public and private strategies, personal motives to reduce agrochemical use are most important. Moreover, having a Corporate Social Responsibility plan or engaging in direct sales to consumers are the only strategies that are related to a reduction in agrochemical use. These findings suggest self-governance is a powerful strategy for enhancing species diversity and abundance in agricultural landscapes. Yet it also means contributing to nature conservation and restoration is a voluntary act. Olive farmers who do not voluntarily contribute to nature conservation by reducing agrochemicals need to be incentivized by show-casing farmers who did reduce their agrochemical use, by critical consumers or by stricter rules in AES or in generic agri-environmental legislation.

As the climate change problem becomes more eminent, there is more pressure to increase efforts in all sectors and countries. The land-use sector is seen as an option to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and key in achieving a balance in GHG emissions and removals by sinks by 2050, as envisioned in the Paris Agreement. This article presents two comparative case studies within the climate change arena and aims to understand how and why: 1) tropical deforestation and forest degradation have secured a prominent place on the international climate change agenda, while 2) agriculture has not secured a prominent place. We use the agenda-setting multi-stream approach (MSA), while adding a framing layer. Based on primary data (including an international workshop with forest and agriculture experts, interviews, and participation in key international meetings), and secondary data, this article concludes that REDD + is an example of how a condition was framed as a problem, a viable proposal was developed, and political will and receptivity was shown, all of which placed REDD + high on the agenda, and generated its legal and methodological framework over the course of ten years. In these efforts, the role of policy entrepreneurs was key. Agriculture, on the other hand, is a more complex sector with multiple interests and millions of stakeholders. The consideration of agriculture, in particular its mitigation component, is therefore a highly contentious issue. The fear of new binding commitments and the potential threat to food security and production, and the lack of a convincing proposal that addresses the multiple values of agriculture has impeded substantive progress. Also, the absence of a committed policy entrepreneur limits the place of agriculture in the climate change agenda under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) refers to the incorporation of environmental concerns into sectoral policies in order to reduce policy incoherence and achieve synergies to more effectively address environmental problems such as environmental degradation. Landscape governance can be considered as a specific, spatial manifestation of EPI: it aims to balance agricultural production, nature conservation and livelihood needs at the landscape level through multi-stakeholder decision making. Despite their common focus on policy conflicts, both concepts have been elaborated in largely isolated bodies of literature, while little is known about their common concern of how actors at the landscape level deal with these policy conflicts. This paper addresses this under-explored theme, by drawing from both EPI and landscape governance theories, and adding new insights from institutional and innovation literature. We develop a framework specifying how actors at local, district and national levels deal with policy conflicts and employ strategies to overcome them. We illustrate the analytical framework with a case from Rwanda, where landscape restoration has become a new policy area which has brought sectoral policy conflicts to the fore. We characterise these policy conflicts, and analyse the ways in which local, district and national actors manage to overcome them, by using the landscape as a functional regulatory space for policy integration. What we learn from this case is that EPI is not just designed at national levels by formally assigned policy makers, but it happens in landscapes where landscape actors define their priorities and set hierarchically defined policy objectives to their hand. They flexibly fit in and conform to existing rules yet informally combining these to suit their spatial context; or they entrepreneurially stretch and transform the rules, while seeking alliances with policy makers to have the outcomes institutionalised. In both cases they contribute to solving policy conflicts in both the horizontal and the vertical sense. By doing so, we show the usefulness of the framework for identifying policy conflicts and contributing to policy integration at the landscape level.

Private forests are widespread in Europe providing a range of ecosystem services of significant value to society, and there are calls for novel policies to enhance their provision and to face the challenges of environmental changes. Such policies need to acknowledge the importance of private forests, and importantly they need to be based on a deep understanding of how property rights held by private forest owners vary across Europe. We collected and analysed data on the content of property rights based on formal legal requirements existing in 31 European jurisdictions. To allow a comparison across jurisdictions, we constructed an original Property Rights Index for Forestry encompassing five rights domains (access, withdrawal, management, exclusion and alienation). We documented substantial variation of the private forest owners’ rights, and notably to i) make decisions in operational management and the formulation of management goals, ii) withdraw timber resources from their forest, and iii) exclude others from the use of forest resources. We identified broad relations between the scope for decision making of private forest owners and jurisdictions’ former socio-political background and geographical distribution. The variation in the content of property rights has implications for the implementation of international environmental policies, and stresses the need for tailored policy instruments, when addressing European society’s rural development, the bioeconomy, climate change mitigation measures and nature protection strategies.

With the rapid expansion of forest plantations worldwide, communities, NGOs and researchers are increasingly expressing their concerns about the outcomes of plantations’ activities for local households. This study investigates the perceptions of local households about forest plantations’ investments in social services and local infrastructure in rural Tanzania. We consider households living in villages adjacent to private, FSC certified forest plantations and households in villages adjacent to a state-owned, non-certified plantation. We use survey data from 338 households to analyze perceived changes in school enrolment, quality of education, and the number and quality of health centers, roads and bridges associated with investments by plantations. We use a mixed method approach and complement the results from a logistic regression model with observations of the size and quality of social services and infrastructure in the villages and with findings from focus group discussions. The results show that households in the villages adjacent to both the private, FSC certified and state-owned, non-certified forest plantations associate the plantations with improved social services and local infrastructure in the study villages. Moreover, we find that the private, FSC certified forest plantations are viewed more favorably than the state-owned, non-certified plantation in terms of their contributions to social services and local infrastructure in the study areas. Richer households tend to perceive the investments of the plantations more favorably than poorer households in the study villages.

Much has been written about the increasing contributions of non-governmental actors, such as environmental NGOs (ENGOs), to sustainable development, particularly in forest and environmental governance. However, little empirical evidence exists concerning the role and impact of these new actors in policy decisions where pluralist politics are lacking. By presenting the case of forest policy-making in Ethiopia, this paper illustrates the strategies of ENGOs, and how and to what extent they have impacted policy decisions, in a ‘semi-authoritarian’ context, where public policies are typically the exclusive mandate of governmental actors. We applied the policy arrangement approach (PAA), enriched with an ENGO classification, to analyze and explain the dynamics and nuances of policy processes. Our study finds that ENGOs do have an influence on policy-making under ‘semi-authoritarianism’, even without being formally invited to do so. However, influencing policy under such circumstances requires a circumspect approach and follows more complex pathways than the conventional policy-making steps in a democratic context. When the formal avenue for their participation in the policy-making process is restricted, these actors employ indirect strategies of catalyzing policy processes, such as demonstrating innovative policy approaches by implementing pilot projects, documenting and communicating field evidence and best practices, forming strong networks with like-minded actors, forging alliances with key decision makers, and investing sufficient human and financial resources to push the adoption of a new policy. The findings and the conclusions drawn in this paper are consistent with the conceptual framework employed. The PAA has proved to be a suitable analytical tool to understand and explain policy processes in various polities, from pluralist democracies to (semi-)authoritarianism.

The traceability of products has become an ever more important topic in global value chains because governments, producers and consumers wish to have in-depth information on the origin, quality, safety and sustainability of the products they regulate, trade or buy. However, traceability systems come with criticisms and challenges. This article describes how timber traceability is being realized in Ghana in the context of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between Ghana and the EU, which is part of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative. Building on practice theory, this article conceptualizes traceability systems as ensembles of procedures, interpretations and activities. Empirically, it presents an analysis of the Ghanaian Legality Assurance System (LAS) and Wood Tracking System (WTS). Results show that the LAS/WTS moved from a ‘digitalized regulatory track-and-trace system’ on the design table towards a more hybrid one in practice, integrating elements of a communication governance mode and of a mass-balance model too, and keeping alive a parallel paper-based infrastructure. While particularly governmental officials are satisfied with the LAS/WTS, it is also important to recognize that stakeholders interpret aspects of the system quite differently, and deal with implementation issues on the ground quite differently, implying that ‘legality-on-paper’ and ‘legality-in-practice’ are not necessarily the same.

The promise of co-production to address complex sustainability challenges is compelling. Yet, co-production, the collaborative weaving of research and practice, encompasses diverse aims, terminologies and practices, with poor clarity over their implications. To explore this diversity, we systematically mapped differences in how 32 initiatives from 6 continents co-produce diverse outcomes for the sustainable development of ecosystems at local to global scales. We found variation in their purpose for utilizing co-production, understanding of power, approach to politics and pathways to impact. A cluster analysis identified six modes of co-production: (1) researching solutions; (2) empowering voices; (3) brokering power; (4) reframing power; (5) navigating differences and (6) reframing agency. No mode is ideal; each holds unique potential to achieve particular outcomes, but also poses unique challenges and risks. Our analysis provides a heuristic tool for researchers and societal actors to critically explore this diversity and effectively navigate trade-offs when co-producing sustainability. Co-production includes diverse aims, terminologies and practices. This study explores such diversity by mapping differences in how 32 initiatives from 6 continents co-produce diverse outcomes for the sustainable development of ecosystems at local to global scales.

With high global demand, economically valuable mineral resources in remote often forested areas, such as the Congo Basin, are more likely to become developed. New infrastructure corridors, associated with mineral exploitation and related hydropower needs, facilitate access to previously inaccessible tropical forest areas and accelerate development and forest clearing in developing regions. Deforestation and degradation of tropical forests contribute an estimated 14 to 21 percent of global emissions (ISU, 2015). Mitigation of impacts on forests and reduction of related emissions is the main aim of policies on Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and improving carbon stocks (REDD +). Even though most mineral rich countries that are presently developing their REDD+ strategies have identified the extractive sector as a driver of deforestation, it is often not considered in related policies and actions. This paper explores options for extractives industries to contribute to REDD+ objectives, using insights gained from developing REDD+ Standards for extractives in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As mining is more prevalent in forest areas than oil and gas extraction, this paper focuses mainly on mining with the understanding that the underlying principles apply to the entire on-shore extractives industries. The objective of the paper is to provide insights into existing options for involving the mining sector in achieving REDD+ objectives, by mitigating emissions related to deforestation and forest degradation and promoting development for populations in forest-rich developing countries. It details the case of developing REDD+ Standards for the extractive sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (World Bank, 2016) and how, and under what conditions, these Standards benefit stakeholders. The study was guided by the following questions: 1. What options exist for oil, gas and mineral development projects to achieve REDD+ objectives? 2. Why were REDD+ Standards for extractive industries proposed in DRC and how were these developed? 3. How can the REDD+ Standards for extractive industries benefit different stakeholders and what are the conditions for implementation and positive outcomes?

International audience; The term bioeconomy has been generated as a new discourse in the environmental policy arena. This paper raises three questions: (i) are environmentalconcerns integrated in the political discourses of bioeconomy and, if so, to what extent?, (ii) in which way is the environment framedin the political discourses of bioeconomy?, and (iii) are environmental concerns considered in the political discourses on forest-basedbioeconomy? The theoretical framework of this paper builds on the cognitive approach of policy integration and on frame analysis. Theempirical research design is a comparative qualitative analysis of five different political bioeconomy discourses in the EU and four different EUmember states – Germany, Finland, France and the Netherlands – in general and in the forestry sector specifically. Results show a weak andmainly rhetorical integration of environmental concerns in political bioeconomy discourses. Three major environmental frames are identified:(i) The dominant frame of ‘Environment benefitting from economic growth’, (ii) the ‘Environment as a challenge’ and (iii) the less visible‘Environment as a standard’ frame. In general, these frames address the environment mainly as a challenge or something that needs to be safeguardedwith the help of the bioeconomy. With the exception of Finland, amongst the countries studied, forests plays only a minor role inbioeconomy discourses while environmental concerns in this strand of discussion are mainly focused on sustainability arguments in general.

A responsive curriculum addresses the changing needs of students, bridging the gap between universal knowledge and theories on one hand and contextual, continuously changing realities of everyday life and the world of work, on the other. Though several higher education institutions appreciate the value of making curriculum responsive, how to do this remains a challenge. This paper first identified unique attributes of responsive curriculum development based on literature and assessed their manifestation in the creation of a new Masters curriculum in natural resource and environmental governance in Ghana. The role of actors within and outside academia and its implications, were also investigated. The study was designed as participatory action research. Key process attributes identified include, among others, iteration, built-in learning within the curriculum development process, and the contribution of actors from outside academia to curriculum design and implementation. The study also shows the important role of the so-called champion of the process and the expert facilitators. The paper does not seek to provide a blue-print but rather provides a valuable example for future initiatives at creating curriculum that better responds to current needs of students.

Contains fulltext : 190615.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) The public justification for nature conservation currently rests on two pillars: hedonic (instrumental) values, and moral values. Yet, these representations appear to do little motivational work in practice; biodiversity continues to decline, and biodiversity policies face a wide implementation gap. In seven EU countries, we studied why people act for nature beyond professional obligations. We explore the motivations of 105 committed actors for nature in detail using life-history interviews, and trace these back to their childhood. Results show that the key concept for understanding committed action for nature is meaningfulness. People act for nature because nature is meaningful to them, connected to a life that makes sense and a difference in the world. These eudemonic values (expressing the meaningful life) constitute a crucial third pillar in the justification of nature conservation. Important policy implications are explored, e.g. with respect to public discourse and the encounter with nature in childhood. 16 p.

Scholars observe an increased involvement of citizens in green space governance. This paper focuses on green self-governance, in which citizens play a major role in realizing, protecting and/or managing green space. While existing research on green selfgovernance focuses mostly on specific cases, we aim to contribute towards a large overview via an inventory of 264 green self-governance practices across The Netherlands. With this, we discuss the relevance of green self-governance for nature conservation and its relationship with authorities. In our analysis, we show that green self-governance practices are very diverse: they pursue a wide variety of physical and social objectives; employ a multitude of physical and political activities; involve different actors besides citizens; mobilize different internal and external funding sources; and are active within and outside of protected areas. While green selfgovernance can contribute towards protection and management of green space and towards social values, we highlight that this contribution is mostly of a local relevance. Most practices are small scale and objectives do not always match those of authorities. Although we speak of self-governance, authorities play an important role in many practices, for example, as financial donor, landowner or regulatory authority. In this, self-governance is often not completely ‘self’.

As the international community increases investment in agricultural adaptation to climate change in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is increasing demand to extract generalized knowledge claims about vulnerability from individual studies. If synthesis is to successfully produce sound generalized knowledge claims, relevant evidence must be possible to find and interpret. The format through which research in this field is now normally reported does not adequately support finding relevant evidence nor its interpretation. This opinion piece outlines and assesses three possible pathways for changing reporting practices in vulnerability research – standardization of methods, reporting checklists, and modularised reporting – in order to support the identification and synthesis of evidence. Rather than resolving these issues, this piece intends to open up the conversation about them.

R code and excel tables used to re-assess the data of Le Manach et al (2019)

The complex links and feedbacks between ecosystems and people are now sharply in focus. Our growing understandings of the complex relations between ecosystems and people, the social and ecological drivers of changes in nature, and the different dimensions of a good quality of life, from local to global scales, have made these inter- dependencies ever more visible (IPBES 2019; Díaz et al. 2019). Furthermore, recent studies have revealed how dramatically unsustainable and inequitable the interactions between ecosystems and people are, as a result of a long legacy of consumerism and utilitarianism, patriarchy and colonialism, and the global expansion of production-oriented relationships with nature. Fil: Balvanera, Patricia. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México Fil: Jacobs, Sander. Research Institute for Nature and Forest; Bélgica Fil: Nagendra, Harini. Azim Premji University; India Fil: O'Farrell, Patrick. University of Cape Town; Sudáfrica Fil: Bridgewater, Peter. University of Canberra; Australia. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Crouzat, Emilie. Universite Grenoble Alpes; Francia Fil: Dendoncker, Nicolas. University of Namur; Bélgica Fil: Goodwin, Sean. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Países Bajos Fil: Gustafsson, Karin M.. Örebro University; Suecia Fil: Kadykalo, Andrew N.. Carleton University; Canadá Fil: Krug, Cornelia B.. Universitat Zurich; Suiza Fil: Matuk, Fernanda Ayaviri. University of Agriculture Wageningen; Países Bajos. Federal Institute of Minas Gerais; Brasil Fil: Pandit, Ram. University of Western Australia; Australia. Hokkaido University; Japón Fil: Sala, Juan Emilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco"; Argentina Fil: Schröter, Matthias. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research; Alemania Fil: Washbourne, Carla Leanne. Colegio Universitario de Londres; Reino Unido

The Forest Stewardship Council initiated a Forest Certification for Ecosystem Services (ForCES) project from 2011 to 2017 to improve and promote sustainable forest management addressing a range of ecosystem services. Three sites in Indonesia were included in the pilot. Whilst the development of the certification standard was largely the result of a partnership between the certification standard organization, civil society and research organizations, implementation and monitoring of the impact of this sustainability standard will entail interactions with state regulations. This study examined how voluntary certification, other market-based approaches and state regulations concerning ecosystem services in Indonesia interplay, particularly in the agenda setting and negotiation stage. Using the conceptual lenses of transition theory and state and non-state market-based governance, interrelationships between ecosystem services certification and regulations were found to be complementary and antagonistic. The majority of interrelations were complementary and supporting. However, antagonism exists where regulations do not address multiple land uses and when there are contradictions in how state regulations define ecosystem services. There was limited state involvement in developing the ecosystem services certification standard, with no substitution between the voluntary standard and regulations occurring. To scale and transition this innovatory standard from a niche to a sociotechnical regime level, it is recommended that market-driven governance arrangements at farm, forest concession and landscape level are developed in collaboration with national and local governments. Collaboration can create synergies to incentivize the acceptance, adoption and effectiveness of non-state market driven instruments to positively enhance the conservation of ecosystem services.

Measurement in interdisciplinary research can be difficult due to incompatibility of measures used in the different disciplines. These difficulties arise when measurements from different disciplines need to be combined to quantify an attribute for an object of study. Sustainability is a fuzzy concept measured as an attribute of many different objects. Sustainability measurements are often a composition of environmental, economic and social sustainability measurements, which makes them interdisciplinary composite measurements. The present study aims to advance interdisciplinary sustainability research by a systematic review of the interdisciplinary measurement of the attribute sustainability using the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework and to investigate whether measurement issues differ between the environmental, economic and social dimension. A systematic literature review was done based on a query, on Web of Science, that reflected the interdisciplinarity of sustainability science and the TBL framework. Abstracts were scanned for relevance and papers that passed the scan were downloaded and scrutinized for their measurement characteristics such as measurement level, aggregation of scores into composite measurements, and weighting methods. An iterative coding approach (top-down and bottom-up) was used until saturation was reached. The search returned 467 papers, of which 77 contained sufficiently detailed information on the interdisciplinary measurement of sustainability, following the TBL framework. Not all papers in the final set contained sufficiently detailed information on the performed measurements, and if and how the distinct dimensions were combined into one interdisciplinary sustainability measurement. The 86 reported measurement models of sustainability were heterogeneous with respect to measurement levels used, the use of composite scores, weighting schemes and time synchronization between indicators. Two thirds of the measurement models presented composite scores of the attribute sustainability. The weights used in composite scores were in most cases determined using experts’ opinions. Albeit all included papers used the TBL as a framework, their measurement models do not form a coherent set. Fuzzy measurement practices occurred in all three dimensions of sustainability. On closer inspection, and wherever reports were sufficiently specific, interdisciplinary measurement models of sustainability turned out to be near-unique.