ID57: Science-based pathways to sustainability in mountains
Details
Full Title
Towards a community of practice for science-based transformations to sustainability in mountain regions
Scheduled
Tuesday, 2022-09-13
16:00 - 17:30
Convener
Co-Conveners
Carolina Adler, Davnah Urbach and Sandrine Paillard
Assigned to Synthesis Workshop
–
Keywords
sustainable development, pathways, transformations, global change, networks, mountains
Description
Knowledge on pathways towards sustainability is growing, and also in mountain contexts. Likewise, the literature on sustainable mountain development (SMD), as well as the number of sustainability-oriented initiatives in mountain regions, are proliferating. However, evidence on if and how these initiatives contribute to changes in the fabric of legal, political, economic, and social-ecological systems in mountains, as advocated to achieve transformative change, remains elusive and difficult to systematically account for at the relevant scales. Based on examples of sustainability initiatives, this session aims to engage with researchers in a process of joint learning on science-based pathways for SMD, initiate a reflection on the concepts and theories of change adopted in formulating science-based pathways, and substantiate how systemic and transformative change could be supported in mountains. We seek to encourage engagement with and contributions to efforts within the Future Earth “Science-based pathways for sustainability” initiative, with experiences in mountain contexts.
Registered Abstracts
Abstract ID 230 | Date: 2022-09-13 16:00 – 16:11 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2 |
Cortner, Owen Garrett (1); Chen, Shijuan (2); Olofsson, Pontus (2); Gollnow, Florian (2); Torchinava, Paata (3); Garrett, Rachael Devorah (1)
1: ETH Zürich, Switzerland
2: Boston University
3: c Department of Biodiversity and Forestry, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia
Keywords: Forest Degradation, Institutions, Post-Soviet, Land Cover And Land Use Change, Caucasus
The Caucasus Mountains harbor high concentrations of endemic species and provide an abundance of ecosystem services, yet are significantly understudied compared to other ecosystems in Eurasia. In the country of Georgia, at the heart of the Caucasus region, forest degradation has been the largest land change process over the last thirty years. The prevailing narrative is that poor, rural Georgians are primarily responsible for this process, largely via legal and illegal cutting of trees for fuelwood. Yet, since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the country and the Caucasus mountains, which define the country’s geography as well as that of neighboring countries, has undergone rapid socioeconomic and institutional changes which have not been explored as drivers of forest change. We combine newly available land cover change estimates, Georgian statistical data, and historical institutional change data to examine socioeconomic drivers of forest degradation. Our analysis controls for concurrent changes in climate that would affect degradation and examines variation at the regional (state) level from 2011-2019, as well as at the national level from 1987-2019. We find that higher earnings and road access are associated with higher degradation at the regional scale, whereas major institutional changes and drought events explain higher forest degradation at the national level. We find that the Rose Revolution of 2003 (representing the end of Soviet-era leadership and a new orientation towards Europe and the U.S.) is associated with a significant increase in forest degradation. Natural gas access, the major energy alternative to fuelwood, had no significant association with degradation. Our results challenge the narrative that poverty and a lack of alternative energy infrastructure drive forest degradation and suggest that government policies banning household fuelwood cutting, including the new Forest Code of 2020, will be unlikely to reduce forest degradation. This evidence is directly applicable to pathways for sustainable mountain development in, both in the Caucasus and in other mountain regions. Given these results, more research on the commercial drivers of degradation and their links to economic and political shifts is urgently needed to better inform forest policy in this mountain region, especially given ongoing risks from climate change.
Abstract ID 919 | Date: 2022-09-13 16:11 – 16:22 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2 |
Anicama Diaz, Jahir (1,2); Uson, Tomas (4); Muñoz Asmat, Randy (2,3)
1: Centro Latinoamericano de Excelencia en Salud y Cambio Climático (CLIMA), Universidad Peruano Cayetano Heredia
2: PEGASUS project: PEGASUS: Producing EnerGy and preventing hAzards from SUrface water Storage in Peru
3: University of Zurich
4: Humboldt University of Berlin
Keywords: Participatory Scenario Planning, Mountain Ecosystems, Systematic Review
The aim of the systematic review was to categorize and analyze the evaluation methods and the necessary conditions for the application of planning based on participatory scenarios in mountain ecosystems. The design of this review is divided into three central stages: search for articles in specialized scientific databases and on the Internet in the case of gray literature, selection of relevant articles for the study, and analysis of the selected articles. First, the study focuses on articles and reports that have worked with future planning methodologies, which includes works related to scenarios, modeling, forecasting, planning, and adaptation that seek to articulate visions of the future at a descriptive, evaluative and/or normative level. Second, the study focuses exclusively on methodologies that have considered participatory work approaches at their different levels and involvement, which can include consultative participation to the involvement of different actors that range from the definition of objectives and methodologies to the analysis and validation of results. Finally, the study contemplates only works that have been developed in mountain areas. For the definition of such zones, the K2 characterization is taken as a basis (Sayre et al. 2018), for this part we used the Global Mountain Explorer. Our results show us the following bullet points:
- The search in the four databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Jstor, and Scielo) yielded a result of 3,416 articles after having removed the duplicates. Of those, 334 were selected through a blind review of titles and abstracts, a figure that was reduced to 59 through content review. In addition to the peer-reviewed scientific articles, 13 reports and gray literature reports (mostly corresponding to the Peruvian case) were selected from an initial database of 167 articles, which were obtained by consulting experts and peers. This led to a total of 72 articles considered for analysis.
- Regarding the areas of study, 35% correspond to work carried out in the American continent, 34% to the European continent, 28% to the Asian continent, and only 3% to the African continent, which would explain why the three The former concentrate the main mountain ranges in the world.
- Almost 80% of the articles make explicit mention of some highly relevant body of water for the study area and that plays a relevant role in the work carried out.
- Most have been coordinated exclusively by researchers from universities (54%), non-academic research centers (12%), and NGOs or foundations (11%, mainly gray literature).
Abstract ID 138 | Date: 2022-09-13 16:22 – 16:33 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2 |
Girard, Sabine
Inrae, France
Keywords: Agroecology, Co-Production Of Knowledge, Transdisciplinarity, Social Learning, Farming Support
The agroecological transition involves a paradigm shift both in terms of the production and transmission of knowledge and the support professions: it is no longer a question of advising, but of supporting farmers who design and manage their own systems. Thus, new forms of cooperation between farmers and other actors are emerging, in order to exchange and co-produce knowledge in agroecology. They are characterized by: the diversity of partners (farmers, researchers, etc.); labile forms of commitment; new visions of knowledge (systemic approaches, non-linear thinking, knowledge produced in and through practice); the importance of reflection and learning processes; and their place-based dimension. They develop multiple activities: meetings between peers, practical exercises, farm experiments, etc.
How do these new forms of knowledge co-production contribute to the agroecological transition? What transformations do they allow at the level of individuals, groups and local agri-food systems? How can these forms of co-production be accompanied and supported?
To answer these questions, we mobilize the conceptual frameworks of social learning to better understand what is learned, by whom and how and of the transformative potential of social innovations to explore the effects of knowledge co-production processes.
We compare 3 cases of co-production of agroecological knowledge in the Drôme (France) : (1) on goat and sheep phyto-aromatherapy, (2) on animal health in outdoor pig farming, (3) on simplified working techniques soil and plant cover. They bring together breeders and farmers, rural development agents, researchers in biotechnology and social sciences, veterinarians and pharmacists.
After having characterized these new forms of cooperation and their activities, we highlight four learning mechanisms: by vertical or horizontal transmission of knowledge; through pragmatic inquiries (experiments and experiences); through deliberative processes (on normative orientations); through reflexive and critical processes (conditions of production and application of knowledge).
We then highlight four support tools used, which can be symbolized by: a toolbox (provision of knowledge and means); a compass (creating and guaranteeing “meaning” between individual and collective projects); a mirror (stimulating reflexivity); a hub (putting people in touch with each other).
Finally, we discuss some processual and contextual conditions that favour the transformative capacities of these initiatives: the quality of the dialogue between a diversity of actors; the explanation and sharing of values and normative objectives, the ability to address internal and external political issues; and the capacity for territorial anchoring and networking over time.
Abstract ID 500 | Date: 2022-09-13 16:33 – 16:44 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2 |
Lutz, Arthur (1); Smolenaars, Wouter (2); Dhaubanjar, Sanita (1,3); Jamil, Khalid (2,4); Biemans, Hester (2); Ludwig, Fulco (2); Immerzeel, Walter (1)
1: Utrecht University, The Netherlands
2: Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands
3: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nepal
4: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Pakistan
Keywords: Sustainability, Water-Energy-Food Nexus, Indus, Sdgs, Mountain-Dependent River Basins
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a powerful concept to drive action towards a more sustainable future. However, the SDGs are formulated in a qualitative and generic way whereas specific and quantitative definitions of targets are required to steer policy and practice.
The Indus river basin is the most mountain water dependent river basin on Earth, and is a global hotspot for future climate change and socioeconomic development. The basin has the largest continuous irrigation scheme in the world, and hydropower is developing rapidly with a large hydropower potential still untapped. Therefore, water, food and energy are strongly interlinked in the basin’s water-food-energy nexus. The basin already faces insecurity of water, food and energy in the present situation, and with strong projected climate and socioeconomic change, achieving the SDGs for these three resources in the basin will be challenging.
Here we present a novel approach to translate the global SDGs for water, food and energy (SDGs 2, 6 and 7) to quantitative targets specified for the Indus river basin. Our approach is based on a resource accounting framework operating at sub-basin scale and monthly time step, combining spatially distributed models for cryosphere-hydrology in the upstream and crop-hydrology in the downstream. The approach uses ensembles of downscaled projections for three climate change scenarios driving water availability and three sets of downscaled projections of socioeconomic drivers, including population and GDP, as main drivers for the demand for water, food and energy. The accounting framework considers dependencies between the three resources and represents scenario-specific exchange of resources between sub-basins in this transboundary river basin. The approach results in scenario-specific quantitative targets for water, food and energy to be realized to achieve the three related SDGs at the river basin scale.
Abstract ID 874 | Date: 2022-09-13 16:44 – 16:55 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2 |
Rey, Pierre-Louis (1); Vittoz, Pascal (1); Petitpierre, Blaise (1); Adde, Antoine (1); Guisan, Antoine (1,2)
1: Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
2: Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Keywords: Relationship, Biodiversity, Ncp, Species Distribution Modelling, Conservation
While conservation ecology was highlighted by the creation of the IUCN redlist in the 1960s, it was in the 1990s that conservationists and economists decided to integrate the services provided by nature to humans to increase motivations to conserve our environment, later renamed Nature’s contributions to people (NCP). Yet, conservation planning has been largely focused so far on landscape units (e.g. landuse, landcover, specific habitats) for their valuations rather than looking at the species composing them. Here, we wanted to fill this gap by assessing how much we could highlight the relationship between Biodiversity – here species – and NCPs. With this prospect, we used literature and expert knowledge to build an innovative contingency table between more of two thousand species (1818 tracheophytes’ species and 250 vertebrates observed into our study area Rechalp) and up to 17 NCPs (17 NCPs for tracheophytes and 9 NCPs for vertebrates’ species), this way offering a key tool to express direct and indirect linkages between species and NCPs. Based on that, we can predict and map NCPs from species and this way fuel conservation planning with crucially missing ecological information.