Identifying gaps between science and practitioners perspectives on land use: the case of managed realignment in the German Baltic coast

Through state-of-the art ecosystem modelling supported by ecological experimental data, the COMTESS Project (funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) investigates potential synergies and trade offs in ecosystem service provision under different land-use scenarios in two German coastal areas till 2100. Overall goal is to explore alternative sustainable land-use strategies to best adapt to climate change. Two science-based land- use scenarios were developed for two study regions on the Baltic and North Sea coasts to contrast a business-as-usual scenario. We focus here on the Baltic Se case region. The underlying premise of these alternatives is managed realignment of current dikes inland for: 1) climate mitigation through wetland re-naturation or 2) multiple land use, including biomass harvesting for energetic purposes (Baltic Sea). Managed realignment is increasingly considered as a valid coastal defence strategy to lower long-term costs of hard coastal defence and restore critical coastal and experiments have been initiated since the 1990s in a number of northwest European countries. Though politically highly controversial and facing much public antagonism, managed realignment is effectively embedded in the current coastal management policy of the state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern on the German Baltic coast. Implementation, nevertheless, faces many obstacles. Project-based scenarios for the Baltic Sea were first evaluated by key regional and local policy, management and land use practitioners, each expert in their field of activity. Their evaluation and recommendations were subsequently used to develop a fourth land-use scenario. Using qualitative empirical social research methods we analyse divergences and convergences between expert views on the projects scenarios. We argue that managed realignment is currently being mainstreamed in science, policy and resource management arenas although representatives of local land users and inhabitants do not endorse this strategy and still foster a hard defence approach to coastal zone management. This is best illustrated in recurrent social mobilisation and resistance to managed realignment proposals. This points at important perception and preference gaps between science, policy and land users / inhabitants, which need to be resolved to formulate and implement sustainable and socially acceptable land use strategies

Governance and Management Systems in Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Biosphere Reserves

Recent studies in UNESCO World Heritage sites and Biosphere Reserves (BRs) identified gaps regarding the effectiveness of planning, governance, and management. The objective of a study carried out is to develop innovative approaches of evidence-based governance in UNESCO-designated marine protected areas in the Mediterranean Basin. Three different types of Biosphere Reserves have been selected for the present chapter: the Tuscan Islands Archipelago in Italy; the Terres de l'Ebre Delta in Spain; and the marine and coastal area of Gouraya in Algeria. Current and future evidence in the BRs differ and require actions related to the local realities and challenges. The Terres de l'Ebre BR is step by step implementing the new strategies and processes. The Tuscan Island BR has already prepared the frameworks and participatory instruments which await implementation. The Gouraya BR through the National Park established conservation and development functions, but for its realization it still seeks an increase of awareness and commitments of the authorities as well as management tools and funds. The "evidence-based governance and management system" is considered an integrated approach adequately involving the three dimensions top-down, bottom-up, and outside-in. It is an instrument to improve effectiveness of management and to involve the local communities and stakeholders in the decision processes in Biosphere Reserves

Communicating climate change and biodiversity loss with local populations: exploring communicative utopias in eight transdisciplinary case studies

Climate change and biodiversity loss trigger policies targeting and impacting local communities worldwide. However, research and policy implementation often fail to sufficiently consider community responses and to involve them. We present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for eight case studies of communications with regard to climate change or biodiversity loss between project teams and local communities. We develop eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, reflecting the scope of Verran’s (2002) concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. We demonstrate that applying our indicators can enhance communication and enable community responses. However, we discover a divergence between timing, complexity and (introspective) effort. Three cases qualify for postcolonial moments, but scrutinising power relations and genuine knowledge co-production remain rare. While we verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science, their sophistication cannot substitute trust building and epistemic/transdisciplinary awareness. Lastly, we consider that reforming inadequate funding policies helps improving the work in and with local communities

Discourses of conflict and collaboration and institutional context in the implementation of forest conservation policies in Soria, Spain

This article examines the emergence of conflict and collaboration in the implementation of forest conservation policies in Soria, Spain. We draw insights from discursive institutionalism and use a comparative case study approach to analyse and compare a situation of social conflict over the Natural Park declaration in the Sierra de Urbión, and a civil society led collaborative process to develop management plans for the “Sierra de Cabrejas” in Soria. The implementation of the EU Habitats Directive generated different outcomes in these two cases, which unfolded in the context of the same nature conservation legislation and national and provincial administrative structures but differed in terms of types of forests involved, property rights arrangements and forest use histories. We critically examine the influence of the institutional context and dominant discourses on the emergence of outcomes: conflict emerged where local institutions and discourses were threatened by the EU directive, while collaboration was possible where local institutions and counter-discourses were weak. We find that the institutional context plays an important part in determining local discourses in the implementation of forest conservation policies. Yet local counter-discourses have limited influence in the implementation and policy processes in the face of contestation by the discourses of regional civil servants conservation activists

Mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics: limitations and recommendations for future progress with particular focus on nutrition research

Mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, because of their sensitivity and selectivity, have become methods of choice to characterize the human metabolome and MS-based metabolomics is increasingly used to characterize the complex metabolic effects of nutrients or foods. However progress is still hampered by many unsolved problems and most notably the lack of well established and standardized methods or procedures, and the difficulties still met in the identification of the metabolites influenced by a given nutritional intervention. The purpose of this paper is to review the main obstacles limiting progress and to make recommendations to overcome them. Propositions are made to improve the mode of collection and preparation of biological samples, the coverage and quality of mass spectrometry analyses, the extraction and exploitation of the raw data, the identification of the metabolites and the biological interpretation of the results