Identifying future research directions for biodiversity,ecosystem services and sustainability: perspectives from early-career researchers

We aimed to identify priority research questions in the field of biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainability (BESS), based on a workshop held during the NRG BESS Conference for Early Career Researchers on BESS, and to compare these to existing horizon scanning exercises. This work highlights the need for improved data availability through collaboration and knowledge exchange, which, in turn, can support the integrated valuation and sustainable management of ecosystems in response to global change. In addition, clear connectivity among different research themes in this field further emphasizes the need to consider a wider range of topics simultaneously to ensure the sustainable management of ecosystems for human wellbeing. In contrast to other horizon scanning exercises, our focus was more interdisciplinary and more concerned with the limits of sustainability and dynamic relationships between social and ecological systems. The identified questions could provide a framework for researchers, policy makers, funding agencies and the private sector to advance knowledge in biodiversity and ES research and to develop and implement policies to enable sustainable future development.     

Analysing the incorporation of sustainability themes into the university curricula: a case study of a Spanish public university

From an international view, several papers have analysed how sustainability themes are integrated into the university curricula. In Spain, few studies to date have examined the extent to which universities are incorporating sustainability themes into their curricula. In view of such considerations, this article examines the extent to which sustainability themes are being incorporated into the curricula of a Spanish public university strongly committed to signing sustainability policies and declarations. In addition, this study analyses the main barriers to the incorporation of sustainability themes into the curricula of this university. To accomplish this task, this article uses different methodological instruments over three phases through a case study approach. The findings of this study suggest how the university examined has many difficulties in incorporating, holistically or separately, sustainability themes in its formal courses despite having so many policies, regulations and a commitment to sustainability.     

From disaster to sustainable civil society: the Kobe experience

Nine years after the Kobe earthquake in Japan, social issues are still prominent, and the rehabilitation process is still ongoing. The earthquake caused two major changes in Japanese society: an increase in voluntary and non-government activities, and the enhancement of cooperation between local government and the residents' association. People's participation in the decision-making process was a significant achievement. To sustain the efforts generated after the earthquake, the Kobe Action Plan was formulated and tested in different disaster scenarios. The current study suggests that civil societies in urban areas are sustainable if, first, the activities related to daily services are provided by the resident's associations; and second, these are linked to economic incentives. Leadership plays a crucial role in collective decision-making. Creation of the support system is essential for long-term sustainability of civil-society activities. These observations are exemplified in the case study in Nishi Suma, one of the worst-affected areas in the Kobe city.     

The Fat of the Land: Linking American Food Overconsumption, Obesity, and Biodiversity Loss

Americans’ excessive consumption of food harms their health and quality of life and also causes direct and indirect environmental degradation, through habitat loss and increased pollution from agricultural fertilizers and pesticides. We show here that reducing food consumption (and eating less meat) could improve Americans’ health and well-being while facilitating environmental benefits ranging from establishing new national parks and protected areas to allowing more earth-friendly farming and ranching techniques. We conclude by considering various public policy initiatives to lower per capita caloric intake and excessive meat consumption, and to translate this temperate behavior into substantial environmental protection.     

TURBULENCE IN MIRAMICHI BAY: THE BURNT CHURCH CONFLICT OVER NATIVE FISHING RIGHTS1

Abstract: A systematic technique is proposed for assisting in the design and implementation of policy and addressing the need to minimize or resolve disputes that may arise in the enforcement of regulations. The Graph Model for Conflict Resolution is a methodology that facilitates the modeling and analysis of interactive multiple participant-multiple objective decision problems. In the problems considered here, decision makers and policy planners engaged in capacity building typically have different viewpoints over appropriate ways of developing options and enforcing policy choices. Incompatible understandings of resource potentials and limits, and disparities in utilization of these resources, exasperate stakeholders and make the capacity building process counterproductive and even conducive to conflict. A systematic conflict resolution technique is invaluable to policy makers and practitioners in defusing confrontations and reaching out for consensus among participants. In support of current approaches to policy planning and regulation, the Graph Model provides accurate predictions and strategic insights into shortand long-term opportunities in multiple participant-multiple objective decision situations. A conflict among the government of Canada, the Mi'kmaq First Nation, and commercial fishermen over the sharing of a natural resource in New Brunswick, Canada, is used to illustrate the advantages of this technique in practical problems.     

Land Resource Sustainability for Urban Development: Spatial Decision Support System Prototype

Land resource sustainability for urban development characterizes the problem of decision-making with multiplicity and uncertainty. A decision support system prototype aids in the assessment of incremental land development plan proposals put forth within the long-term community priority of a sustainable growth. Facilitating this assessment is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multicriteria evaluation and decision support system. The decision support system incorporates multiple sustainability criteria, weighted strategically responsive to local public policy priorities and community–specific situations and values, while gauging and directing desirable future courses of development. Furthermore, the decision support system uses a GIS, which facilitates an assessment of urban form with multiple indicators of sustainability as spatial criteria thematically. The resultant land-use sustainability scores indicate, on the ratio-scale of AHP, whether or not a desirable urban form is likely in the long run, and if so, to what degree. The two alternative modes of synthesis in AHP—ideal and distributive—provide assessments of a land development plan incrementally (short-term) and city-wide pattern comprehensively (long-term), respectively. Thus, the spatial decision support system facilitates proactive and collective public policy determination of land resource for future sustainable urban development.     

Sustainable Agriculture is Humane,Humane Agriculture is Sustainable

Procedures that increase the sustainability of agriculture often result in animals being treated more humanely:both livestock in animal and mixed farming and wildlife in arable farming. Equally, procedures ensuring humane treatment of farm animals often increase sustainability, for example in disease control and manure management. This overlap between sustainability and humaneness is not coincidental. Both approaches can be said to be animal centered, to be based on the fact that animal production is primarily a biological process. Proponents of both will gain from recognition of commonality and development of cooperation. A collaborative approach to humane sustainable agriculture will benefit animals, people, and the environment.     

Debates on Sustainable Development: Towards a Holistic View of Reality

The paper analyzes the concept of sustainable development in the light of the different interpretations existing on the issue since its appearance and establishment as an ideal to lead humanity’s line of progress. Within these interpretations, a characteristic generation of diverse debates can be appreciated, arising from different perspectives, academic as well as ideological, aiming at describing, clarifying and determining their conceptual reach. Based on these facts a model of categorization for these debates has developed, a model in which interpretations generated on the concept of sustainable development were catalogued into four realms: conceptual, contextual, academic and geopolitical. The configuration of these four areas of debate, as well as the recognition of the diversity of interpretations existing on sustainable development, is a reflection of the intrinsic complexity of the phenomena, which affect the natural and social world, both at the local and global level. The analysis of this complexity is based on the subjectivity, which is inherent to the interpretation of these phenomena, with permanent reference to the cultural context from which the diverse discourses were structured. This global perspective on the state-of-the-art controversy concerning the idea of sustainable development as an articulatory axis reveals the necessity of building epistemological models, which can give a new direction to scientific research. From these new models, based on the analysis of the holistic character of reality, the subjective and the objective must be integrated in the generation of knowledge, which contributes usefully to the unceasing reconstruction of our world-(view). Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Urbanisation Without Development: Environmental and Health Implications in African Cities

Sustainable development advocates for a balance between socio-economic development and the environment in the pursuit of human advancement. In Africa, high population growth and inadequate infrastructure in urban areas exert pressure on the environment and this threatens the health and wellbeing of urban residents. The population of the African continent until the 1960s was predominantly rural. This scenario has taken a swift turn and some of the major shifts in the global urbanisation process are taking place on the continent. Factors including natural increase in the population, rural–urban migration, strife and hunger leading to the internal displacement of populations have exacerbated the urbanisation process in Africa. The situation has been worsened by the imposition of Western development policies, including structural adjustment programmes on African nations, which has eroded the subsistence base of rural agricultural communities and further ignited rural urban migration. The failure of industry to absorb the increasing labour force has created massive unemployment and deepening poverty crisis in urban centres. Inadequate provision of infrastructure and services to meet the growth in urban populations has resulted in inefficient spatial development of urban centres, the proliferation of squatter settlements, inadequate basic amenities including potable water, sanitation and waste disposal. Poor environmental sanitation has resulted in the upsurge of infectious diseases and deteriorating urban health. Urban populations in Africa are also the worst affected by newly emerging diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS. The poor bear a disproportionately large share of the problems due to their particular vulnerability to environmental and health risks. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.