Showing papers in "Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability in 2015"

TL;DR: The first public product of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is its Conceptual Framework as discussed by the authors, which will underpin all IPBES functions and provide structure and comparability to the syntheses that will produce at different spatial scales, on different themes, and in different regions.

TL;DR: The ecoSERVICES project as discussed by the authors is a platform to foster global coordination of multidisciplinary sustainability science through the lens of ecosystem services, focusing on three key questions that will improve incorporation of ecosystem service research into decision-making for the sustainable use of natural resources to improve human well-being.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the results of an analysis of benefits of ecosystem services in urban areas and show that investing in ecological infrastructure in cities, and the ecological restoration and rehabilitation of ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, and woodlands occurring in urban area, may not only be ecologically and socially desirable, but also quite often, economically advantageous, even based on the most traditional economic approaches.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identified four streams of emerging transformative, transgressive learning research and praxis in the sustainability sciences that appear generative of a higher education pedagogy that appears more responsive to the key challenges of our time: reflexive social learning and capabilities theory, critical phenomenology, socio-cultural and cultural historical activity theory, and new social movement, postcolonial and decolonisation theory.

TL;DR: The concept of social-ecological systems is useful for understanding the interlinked dynamics of environmental and societal change as discussed by the authors, which has helped facilitate increased recognition of the dependence of humanity on ecosystems; improved collaboration across disciplines, and between science and society; increased methodological pluralism leading to improved systems understanding; and major policy frameworks considering socialecological interactions.

TL;DR: Soil carbon (C) sequestration implies transferring of atmospheric CO2 into soil of a land unit through its plants as mentioned in this paper, which is influenced by land use, soil management and farming systems.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors synthesize recent empirical evidence and assess what consideration of cultural ecosystem services adds to landscape management and planning, and show that cultural ecosystems services can either encourage the maintenance of valuable landscapes or act as barriers to necessary innovation and transformation.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the recent literature on the fit between institutions and social-ecological systems to identify three general types of fit: namely, ecological fit, social fit and socialecological system fit.

TL;DR: The University Living Lab initiative at the University of Manchester as mentioned in this paper aims to provide a framework for students and academics to engage with the opportunities to work with Estates staff and their environmental consultants on applied sustainability challenges.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors review recent studies on the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) and discuss their potential for adaptation in light of experiences with TMN-driven mitigation programs.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a social-ecological framework for service-based management of agro-ecosystems, specified through an explicit and symmetric representation of the ecosystem and the social system, and the dynamic links between them.

TL;DR: In this paper, the importance, benefits and limitations of incorporating collaboration into conservation and specifically into systematic conservation planning, providing a general framework for considering collaboration in conservation planning and the feasibility of collaboration, its likely effects and associated tradeoffs.

TL;DR: In this article, a review of academic literature that examines the effectiveness and equity-related performance of PES initiatives targeting biodiversity conservation in tropical and sub-tropical countries is presented.

TL;DR: In this article, a review of the different demands required for collaborative partnerships based on cooperation and coordination is presented, and the typical levels at which partnerships operate, including those focused on actions, organizations and policies.

TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the recent literature on agri-environmental collaboration in Europe and compiles benefits, limitations and ways to encourage collaboration is presented, with a focus on the benefits of increasing social capital and the sustainable management of the wider landscape.

TL;DR: A review of the scientific literature on biodiversity offsets, published between 1999 and 2014, can be found in this article, where the authors found that biodiversity offset studies have increased through time and that the majority of studies have been carried out in the USA.

TL;DR: In this article, the role of informal/shadow systems and spaces in local government climate governance has been considered, and the significant inner social workings that constitute what they call the invisible aspects of municipal institutions for learning and decision-making processes.

TL;DR: This article reviewed business-NGO partnerships in global value chains and identified three main debates surrounding the potential of partnerships to bring about sustainable change are identified: the ability for participation and inclusive arrangements, the contribution of market-based approaches to the problems targeted, and the impact of partnerships.

TL;DR: This paper reviewed several theoretical approaches for studying complex institutional systems, and discussed how collaborative partnerships would be viewed from these perspectives, including Neo-institutional economics, polycentric governance, complex adaptive systems and evolutionary models of institutional change.

TL;DR: In this article, a review examines what drives the production of usable knowledge and how it intersects with emerging integrated and adaptive governance frameworks to respond to complex environmental change, especially climate change.

TL;DR: The Malmo Innovation Platform as discussed by the authors provides diverse real-time learning environments in a local context, by combining physical and virtual spaces, allowing students to experience that moving towards urban sustainability is an iterative process and there are few straightforward solutions.

TL;DR: A critical overview of the emergent field of urban climate justice which focuses on the complex links between environmental sustainability, human vulnerability and biodiversity loss in the natural environment is provided in this article.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors make a distinction between personal values and collective cultural values, and make an overview of recent advances in the literature on values, making a distinction from personal values to cultural values.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on experiences from SOSL courses in Phoenix, as part of the SOSL program in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, as well as offer constructive lessons to other universities on how to start or enhance sustainability courses and programs.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied the dynamics of differentiated, relational spaces of smallholder intensification/disintensification at region and landscape scales that include a polarization trend, gendered livelihood strategies across spatially differentiated landscapes influenced by smallholder migration and expanded gendering of land and agri-food systems, and complex interactions of agrobiodiversity and agroecosystems mediated by small-holder and gendered knowledge systems across periurban to remote rural landscapes.

TL;DR: In this paper, a holistic approach to water governance to face institutional fragmentation in water management practices is presented, where the connective capacity with domains, levels, scales, organizations and actors is emphasized.

TL;DR: In this paper, a critical assessment of climate adaptation and transformation challenges, agendas and actions across Africa draws on the principal findings and analyses of the papers in this special issue of COSUST.

TL;DR: A range of recent studies have tested the various elements of ecosystem accounting, and an initial guideline for ecosystem accounting has been prepared under auspices of the UN as discussed by the authors, which summarizes the current knowledge of key aspects and analyses its niche in the overall system for environmental-economic accounting and provides three examples of how ecosystem accounting can support sustainable development.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline challenges to processes of collaboration between scientists and non-scientists and distinguish these concerns from others that may arise from the data or other products resulting from citizen science projects.