Could payments for environmental services improve rangeland management in Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa?:

"Although several institutional and management approaches that address the degradation of the rangelands have been tested in the dry areas of Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA), impact has been limited. Nonetheless, the development of National Action Plans to combat desertification highlights the interest of governments to tackle this issue. Payment for Environmental Services (PES) may be a viable policy option, though, to date, most PES programs have focused on the management of different resources (forests, watersheds). The purpose of this paper is to examine whether PES could be a viable option to promote sustainable rangelands management in the dry rangelands of CWANA. Specifically, it focuses on the scientific gaps and knowledge related to the local and global environmental services produced by rangelands and addresses questions related to the beneficiaries of these services. Institutional conditions necessary for the implementation of such schemes are discussed." Authors' AbstractEnvironmental services, Environmental management, Land management, Rangelands, Collective action, Property rights,

Telecoupling through tomato trade:What consumers do not know about the tomato on their plate

A large share of our food comes from international supply food chains that are difficult to trace. Therefore, consumers are not aware of their environmental and social effects. We analysed the tomato supply system for Germany. Tomatoes consumed in Germany are produced either in The Netherlands by Polish workers and using large amounts of energy, or in Spain by West African workers and depleting the aquifer. The analysis shows the long-distance effects of food consumption that should be considered when designing strategies for a sustainable global food system. Comparable results can be expected for other food products traded around the world

Wild Boar in Flanders, Belgium: (Dis)agreements Between Key Stakeholders on Wild Boar Management Objectives, Actions, and Legal Provisions

Wild boar (Sus scrofa) reappeared in Flanders, Belgium in 2006 after more than half a century of absence. Besides being a native and highly valued game species in Europe, wild boar are also known to be responsible for car collisions, crop damage, disease transmission, and ecological damage at high densities. The management of wild boar therefore seeks to balance these positive and negative impacts. Given the highly fragmented landscape in Flanders and its multifunctional use, coexistence with wild boar is only possible through integrated management involving relevant stakeholder groups. However, to be successful, this requires that the management objectives, the overall wild boar policy of the Flemish authorities, and management actions are supported by the stakeholders. To assess the support for the current management, we conducted a survey among members of the 3 key stakeholder groups: farmers, hunters, and conservationists. Our survey assessed the importance stakeholders attribute to different management objectives, their support for the current legal provisions, and how desirable the different stakeholder groups considered possible management actions. The potential for conflict index was used to analyze the (dis)agreement between and within stakeholder groups. Reducing or preventing crop damage and the risk for car accidents are indicated as being the most important management objectives by all 3 stakeholder groups. Stakeholder groups differ strongly in their support for the current legal provisions. Those stakeholders that have to implement the legal provisions or are mostly affected by these laws are less supportive than others. The desirability of the possible management actions strongly varied according to the different stakeholder groups. Contrary to other studies, the desirability of a possible management action was hardly influenced by the management objective it tried to achieve

Towards sustainable landscapes: Implementing participatory approaches in contract design for biodiversity preservation and ecosystem services in Europe

Agricultural landscapes are the result of the long-term, complex, and intermingled interfaces between nature and culture. Among the stakeholders involved in the production of agri-environmental and climate services, farmers play a crucial role, and their contribution should be duly acknowledged to promote sustainable land management. Therefore, this research aims to contribute to the participatory design of agri-environmental contracts to incentivize landscape and biodiversity practices. To achieve this goal, 13 innovation labs with multi-actor perspective were established across nine different European countries. These groups envisioned a future sustainable landscape characterized by diversity and balance of economic, socio-cultural, and environmental components. Trust-based networks and effective communication channels emerge as vital components for the success of sustainable local production systems. Practitioners emphasize the significance of European-level policies in effecting transformative change and influencing farmers'willingness to contribute to both food production and environmental public goods. They defined concrete contract features such as public funding, hybrid payments, and the presence of intermediaries for the potential of agri-environmental measures. Notably, practitioners perceive a wide range of benefits associated with the implementation of agri-environmental measures, extending beyond economic compensation. Gaining a deeper understanding of practitioners' perceptions of their territories and agri-environmental measures is crucial for policymakers to design tailored and appealing programs that resonate with practitioners'needsEuropean Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme Contracts 2.0 grant agreement No 81819

Key concepts to investigate agri-environmental contracts – shared conceptual framework

The Contracts2.0 project aims to develop novel contract-based approaches to incentivise farmers for the increased provision of environmental public goods alongside private goods. The background to this work is the current imbalance in the provision of private and public goods from agricultural land management. This complex problem can best be addressed by using insights and methods from a range of disciplines. However, for methods and researchers to complement each other and contribute to the project aim, the parts must be brought together as a coherent whole. We developed a conceptual framework which draws on different concepts to explain the issues underlying the delivery of private and public environmental goods from agriculture

Handling a messy world: lessons learned when trying to make the ecosystem services concept operational

The concept of ecosystem services is widely used in the scientific literature and increasingly also in policy and practice. Nevertheless, operationalising the concept, i.e. putting it into practice, is still a challenge. We describe the approach of the EU-project OpenNESS (Operationalisation of Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital), which was created in response to this challenge to critically evaluate the concept when applied to real world problems at different scales and in different policy sectors. General requirements for operationalization, the relevance of conceptual frameworks and lessons learnt from 27 case study applications are synthesized in a set of guiding principles. We also briefly describe some integrative tools as developed in OpenNESS which support the implementation of the principles. The guiding principles are grouped under three major headlines: “Defining the problem and opening up the problem space”, “Considering ethical issues” and “Assessing alternative methods, tools and actions”. Real world problems are often “wicked” problems, which at first are seldom clear-cut and well-defined, but often rather complex and subject to differing interpretations and interests. We take account of that complexity and emphasise that there is not one simple and straightforward way to approach real world problems involving ecosystem services. The principles and tools presented are meant to provide some guidance for tackling this complexity by means of a transdisciplinary methodology that facilitates the operationalisation of the ecosystem services concept

A new valuation school : Integrating diverse values of nature in resource and land use decisions

We are increasingly confronted with severe social and economic impacts of environmental degradation all over the world. From a valuation perspective, environmental problems and conflicts originate from trade-offs between values. The urgency and importance to integrate nature's diverse values in decisions and actions stand out more than ever. Valuation, in its broad sense of 'assigning importance', is inherently part of most decisions on natural resource and land use. Scholars from different traditions -while moving from heuristic interdisciplinary debate to applied transdisciplinary science- now acknowledge the need for combining multiple disciplines and methods to represent the diverse set of values of nature. This growing group of scientists and practitioners share the ambition to explore how combinations of ecological, socio-cultural and economic valuation tools can support real-life resource and land use decision-making. The current sustainability challenges and the ineffectiveness of single-value approaches to offer relief demonstrate that continuing along a single path is no option. We advocate for the adherence of a plural valuation culture and its establishment as a common practice, by contesting and complementing ineffective and discriminatory single-value approaches. In policy and decision contexts with a willingness to improve sustainability, integrated valuation approaches can be blended in existing processes, whereas in contexts of power asymmetries or environmental conflicts, integrated valuation can promote the inclusion of diverse values through action research and support the struggle for social and environmental justice. The special issue and this editorial synthesis paper bring together lessons from pioneer case studies and research papers, synthesizing main challenges and setting out priorities for the years to come for the field of integrated valuation.Peer reviewe