From Source to Sea to Sustainability: Integrated Cycles in Wastewater and Nutrient Management

This Curriculum Sourcebook is intended to act as a guide for students, teachers, professionals, and lifelong learners to address the problems caused by two of the most pernicious water pollution sources of our time. It also aims to teach them how they can begin to meet the challenges faced when establishing effective wastewater and nutrient management. This Sourcebook is a companion to the UNEP/Concordia University Massive Open Online Course of the same title

Wicked Problems, Dynamic Solutions: The Ecosystem Approach and Systems Thinking

This sourcebook accompanies the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the Ecosystem Approach and Systems Thinking (EAST) developed by the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre at Concordia University, Montreal, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. The sourcebook is written for both teacher and student, though it is assumed that most of its readers will be teachers who are applying the MOOC to a hybrid class (blended learning) or are offering the MOOC to students and/or professionals in various branches of public administration, civil society, or the private sector. Each module is described in terms of the main learning objectives, a short introduction to the topic, a summary of prevalent policy initiatives and interventions, a list of suggested “discussion points” that can guide classroom or online discussions/debates, an annotated bibliography of some key sources that have been suggested by our subject experts, and a list of exciting websites, TED talks, and other Internet material that students can easily access for more information. A premium is put on brevity in this sourcebook: each module is dealt with in under fifteen pages. The actual MOOC contains far more material, including visual aids to the concepts and case study material. Each module is designed to take roughly four hours to complete for students in the MOOC; reading each module’s section in the sourcebook should take considerably less time. We have also refrained from including images, graphs, and other infographics in the sourcebook, since they are prominent features in the MOOC itself

Framing Bioinvasion: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Security, Trade, and Global Governance

This article introduces the complexities of framing the policy debate over invasive alien species or, more generally, bioinvasion. It suggests that there are six principal framing conceptualizations that have emerged or are gaining steam and credence: biodiversity and conservation; climate change and globalization; human security; “natural national security”; market failure; and the commons and global governance. Although the biodiversity approach dominates the international discourse at present, it presents a partial and hence distorting picture. Over time, as the problem of bioinvasion compounds, the inadequacy of the biodiversity frame will become generally apparent and so the other framings will gain in currency. Ultimately, bioinvasion must be viewed as a policy challenge for global environmental governance and justice. The author concludes by raising the limited possibility of developing an International Convention on Invasive Alien Species

Counter-bioinvasion: Conceptual and governance challenges

This article begins by defining the problem of invasive alien species, then moves to a discussion of some of the conceptual implications of treating bioinvasion as a serious topic in both environmental and global ecopolitics, such as the encouragement of parochial thinking and the reliance on an outdated ecological paradigm that assumes the desirability of natural equilibrium. Both these problems are overcome by the human security imperative of protecting civilians from the most harmful effects of bioinvasion, but they should indeed temper the zeal with which prevention/eradication campaigns are adopted. The third section explicitly visits some of the more concrete governance problems raised at the international but, arguably, all levels of governance. These include the division of labour and authority, the question of blame and compensation, the need for sustained public attention on the issue and the integration of the natural and social/policy sciences, and the omnipresent uncertainties associated with climate change

Invasive alien species and planetary and global health policy

Comment article. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment, released in 2019, identified invasive alien species, those introduced by humans into regions beyond their natural distributions, as one of the five top direct drivers of biodiversity loss. Although many cases exist of positive adaptations to the introduction of invasive alien species, they are generally regarded as a severe threat to local ecosystems, wildlife, and human health and overall wellbeing. Once established, efforts to eradicate invasive alien species can raise both public health and ethical concerns because of the unintended effects that control measures can have on the environment and human livelihoods (eg, chemical control and biocontrol agents)

IPBES Invasive Alien Species Assessment: Summary for Policymakers

Summary for Policymakers of the Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

The neglected importance of managing biological invasions for sustainable development

1. Biological invasions have substantial and rising social-ecological impacts threatening human livelihoods and communities and hampering progress towards a just and equitable world. 2. Currently, biological invasions are not adequately recognised and included in the UN Agenda 2030. 3. Using a literature review conducted in Web of Science, we highlight the bias in available literature of biological invasions related to the UN Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals. We find abundant scientific literature towards environmental and biodiversity related sustainability targets while other especially provisioning targets are less well represented. 4. Subsequently, we discuss the risks of neglecting biological invasions within sustainable development and how invasive alien species can have changing and adverse effects through time counteracting the intended benefits at the time of introduction. 5. Finally, we provide key recommendations for action at the international scale to ensure that biological invasions are adequately considered in sustainable development. Those recommendations include (1) acknowledgement of biological invasions as a key threat to sustainable development, (2) a call for stronger multilateral exchange under the umbrella of an adequately financed coordinating body and (3) appropriate implementation and resource provisioning for international monitoring, data infrastructure, data exchange and use of adequate indicators of biological invasions to streamline decision making based on a solid evidence base

IPBES Invasive Alien Species Assessment: Chapter 1. Introducing biological invasions and the IPBES thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control

Chapter 1: Introducing biological invasions and the IPBES thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control of the Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services