How can integrated valuation of ecosystem services help understanding and steering agroecological transitions?

Agroecology has been proposed as a promising concept to foster the resilience and sustainability of agroecosystems and rural territories. Agroecological practices are based on optimizing ecosystem services (ES) at the landscape, farm, and parcel scales. Recent progress in research on designing agroecological transitions highlights the necessity for coconstructed processes that draw on various sources of knowledge based on shared concepts. But despite the sense of urgency linked to agroecological transitions, feedbacks from real-world implementation remain patchy. The ability of integrated and participatory ES assessments to support this transition remains largely underexplored, although their potential to enhance learning processes and to build a shared territorial perspective is widely recognized. The overarching question that will be asked in this paper is thus: what is the potential of the ES framework to support the understanding and steering of agroecological transitions? We argue that conducting collaborative and integrated assessments of ES bundles can (i) increase our understanding of the ecological and social drivers that support a transition toward agroecological systems, and (ii) help design agroecological systems based on ES delivery and effectively accompany transition management based on shared knowledge, codesigned future objectives, and actual on-the-ground implementation. In this paper, we discuss this question and propose a four-step integrated ES assessment framework specifically targeted at understanding and steering agricultural transitions that is generic enough to be applied in different contexts

How Certain is Good Enough? Managing Data Quality and Uncertainty in Ordinal Citizen Science Data Sets for Evidence-Based Policies on Fresh Water

This study investigates surface water quality in Luxembourg with the help of citizen scientists. The fundamental question explored relates to uncertainty and judgements on what constitutes adequate data sets, comparing official data and citizen science. The case study evaluates how gaps and uncertainties in official data for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 (UN SDG 6), Indicator 6.3.2 on water quality, and the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), can be served with citizen science. In two Water Blitz sampling events organised in collaboration with the NGO Earthwatch, participants sampled water bodies at locations of their choice, using field kits to estimate nitrate (NO3--N) and phosphate (PO43–-P) concentrations. Samples were collected (428 in total) over two weekend events, providing snapshots in time with a good geographic coverage of the water bodies across the country: 35% of nitrate and 29% of phosphate values were found to exceed thresholds used by the European Environment Agency to classify the nutrient content in water as good. Our study puts forward recommendations on how citizen science data can complement official monitoring by national agencies with a focus on how such data can be represented to serve the understanding and discussion of uncertainties associated with such ordinal data sets. The main challenge addressed is high levels of natural variation in nutrient levels with both natural and anthropogenic multi-factorial causes. In discussing the merits and limitations of citizen science data sets, the results of this study demonstrate that a particular strength of citizen science is the identification of pollution hotspots in small water bodies, which despite being critical for ecosystem wellbeing are often overlooked in official monitoring. In addition, citizen science increases public awareness and experiential learning about factors affecting surface water quality and policies concerning it

How Certain is Good Enough? Managing Data Quality and Uncertainty in Ordinal Citizen Science Data Sets for Evidence-Based Policies on Fresh Water

This study investigates surface water quality in Luxembourg with the help of citizen scientists. The fundamental question explored relates to uncertainty and judgements on what constitutes adequate data sets, comparing official data and citizen science. The case study evaluates how gaps and uncertainties in official data for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 (UN SDG 6), Indicator 6.3.2 on water quality, and the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), can be served with citizen science. In two Water Blitz sampling events organised in collaboration with the NGO Earthwatch, participants sampled water bodies at locations of their choice, using field kits to estimate nitrate and phosphate concentrations. Samples were collected (428 in total) over two weekend events, providing snapshots in time with a good geographic coverage of the water bodies across the country: 35% of nitrate and 29% of phosphate values were found to exceed thresholds used by the European Environment Agency to classify the nutrient content in water as good. Our study puts forward recommendations on how citizen science data can complement official monitoring by national agencies with a focus on how such data can be represented to serve the understanding and discussion of uncertainties associated with such ordinal data sets. The main challenge addressed is high levels of natural variation in nutrient levels with both natural and anthropogenic multi-factorial causes. In discussing the merits and limitations of citizen science data sets, the results of this study demonstrate that a particular strength of citizen science is the identification of pollution hotspots in small water bodies, which despite being critical for ecosystem wellbeing are often overlooked in official monitoring. In addition, citizen science increases public awareness and experiential learning about factors affecting surface water quality and policies concerning it

The views of key stakeholders on an evolving food risk governance framework: Results from a Delphi study

Evidence of a decline in public trust associated with food risk governance over recent years has called into question the appropriateness of the current dominant risk analysis framework. Within the EU-funded SAFE FOODS project a novel risk analysis framework has been developed that attempts to address potential shortcomings by increasing stakeholder (including consumer) input, improving transparency, and formally incorporating benefit and non-health aspects into the analysis. To assess the viability of this novel framework, the views of food risk experts from the EU and beyond were sought using a distributed online questionnaire process called Delphi. In this paper the main results of this survey are described, revealing varying levels of support for the key innovations of the novel framework. Implications of our results for the new and old frameworks, for the future of risk analysis, and for the policy community more widely, are discussed

Observatoire de la Politique Climatique - Rapport annuel 2022

The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.(very high confidence

Les collections muséales d’art « non-occidental » : constitution et restitution aujourd’hui

Dans l’histoire des objets, le passage d’un lieu d’usage actif au musée, intrinsèquement lié à la conservation et à la recomposition des identités et des nations, a souvent constitué une rupture violente, d’autant plus lorsque ce passage a été imposé de l’extérieur et lorsqu’il coïncide avec un transfert au loin, dans un contexte de domination qu’il soit politique, militaire ou économique. Pour ce qui concerne l’Afrique, Ezio Bassani a montré le peu d’objets, identifiés comme venant d’Afrique..