Global food systems and multifunctional land & seascapes

Editorial for Special Issue: “Livelihood and Landscape Change in Africa: Future Trajectories for Improved Well-Being under a Changing Climate”

Shackleton, S., Masterson, V., Hebinck, P., Speranza, C., I., Spear, D., Tengö, M.

2019 - Journal / article

Rural people’s livelihoods are intimately linked to the landscapes in which they live and are particularly vulnerable to changes in these landscapes (Suich et al. 2015 [ 1 ]). At the same time changes in livelihood activities may have negative feedbacks on landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide. In much of Africa, rural landscapes are subject to increasing pressures from environmental and socio-economic change. T...

Challenges and opportunities towards improved application of the planetary boundary for land-system change in life cycle assessment of products

Bjørn, A., Sim, S., King, H., Keys, P., Erlandsson, L-W., Cornell, S.E. et.al.

2019 - Journal / article

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to translate the planetary boundaries (PBs) concept to the scale of decisions related to products. Existing PB-LCA methods convert quantified resource use and emissions to changes in the values of PB control variables. However, the control variable for the Land-system change PB, “area of forested land remaining”, is not suitable for use in LCA, since it is expressed at the beginning of a...

Degrees of change toward polycentric transboundary water governance: exploring the Columbia River and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project

Baltutis, W. J., and M.-L. Moore.

2019 - Journal / article

 Complex challenges emerging in transboundary river basins reveal a need to include a range of interests and actors in governance processes. Polycentric governance is one framework that can address this need and inform adaptive and resilient governance processes in transboundary basins as linked social and ecological systems. Here, we explore whether and how nonstate actors might be contributing to a shift in governance toward...

Changes in secondary vegetation dynamics in a context of decreasing deforestation rates in Pará, Brazilian Amazon

Carvalho, R., Adami, M., Amaral, S., Bezerra, F.G., de Aguiar, A.P.D.

2019 - Journal / article

Tropical secondary vegetation is of particular interest as carbon sinks , potential lands for agriculture and livestock expansion, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services . Until mid-2000s estimates of secondary vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon indicated a progressive increase of this cover, however after 2010, only 1197 km 2 of additional secondary vegetation were generated, while 42,040 km 2 were conver...