The nature-based solutions (NbS) approach states that achieving the multiple benefits of nature for health and well-being requires wider stakeholder collaboration and integration of nature into the policies. As a holistic and leading concept, NbS has become progressively more diversified and systematic as a starting point in the process of continuously responding to the global demand for sustainable development. Due to the current pressure of rural modernization and industrialization, rural areas are facing social and environmental challenges such as a lack of cultural identity, low democratic participation, and the destruction of landscape ecology, especially in China, a large and representative developing country.
Based on stakeholder participation for NbS project collaboration being increasingly recognized as a promising approach, this study first reviews the current findings and outlines stakeholder participation for NbS from five perspectives: policies, benefits, challenges, methods, and frameworks. Although there is a rich amount of corresponding research results, the various research perspectives are scattered; in particular, there is a lack of research on indigenous participation perspectives, which has not yet developed a systematic way of thinking.
We are in an era of unprecedented ecological and social crises. Human activity has led to the transgression of six of the nine planetary boundaries—including the novel entities boundary, which refers to geological changes that could have large-scale impacts that threaten the integrity of the Earth system processes . This environmental degradation has driven one in five species to extinction.
Further, warming-induced extreme weather events, such as drought, wildfires and flooding, have increased in number and intensity, resulting in widespread suffering and loss of life. Despite political commitments, most governments are failing to take the necessary actions to ensure that the global average temperatures do not surpass 1.5° warming above pre-industrial levels. Alarmingly, global fossil CO2 emissions continued to increase in 2021 and 2022 after dipping by 5.4% in 2020 due to widespread COVID-19 lockdowns. Furthermore, 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest since the instrumental record began in 1850, despite 3 consecutive years of a cooling La Niña.
The window to control global warming is rapidly closing. On the current trajectory, humankind is set to cause an average temperature rise of 2.8° by the end of the century. In this context, the work of sustainability scientists is becoming increasingly important and challenging. In light of this reality, we argue that we must reconsider the core tenants of transdisciplinary sustainability science. To this end, we propose a model for teaching and learning sustainability as an example of how we might adapt our approach to the pressure of the contemporary context. In a novel way, we model transdisciplinarity. This paper is the product of the Education in a Warming World Research Consortium, supported by Worldwide Universities Network. The consortium comprises university academics with broad expertise in education, sociology, climate change, science communication, health, sustainability, and human behaviour. Our group members share a commitment to transdisciplinary work dedicated to understanding the evolving role of education in this era of rapid climatic change and overlapping socio-ecological crises.
The concept of Planetary Health is too human-oriented. The emphasis here is mainly on the consequences for our health through global environmental disturbances. Later definitions are already better, with the focus more on the health of our planet and the realization that human health ultimately depends on the health of the planet. For example, climate change and the decrease in biodiversity are unhealthy for the earth and everything that lives on it, including humans. However, the field of Planetary Health is more than that. It is not only the realization that everything is connected, but also the realization that it is not nearly enough to keep the planet ‘as it is’. Positive, regenerative development must take place to keep the planet and everything on it healthy. This also includes a different way of dealing with our earth, a change of perspective. When we respect our planet, we respect life, we respect ourselves. That is also what I believe Planetary Health stands for. Taking sustainability to the next level!
Read, watch or listen to my inaugural address regarding the Chair Planetary Health below:
Scenarios are often used to depict the possible outcomes of alternative future developments as part of the evaluation of climate and energy policy measures. In Finland, scenarios have become a standard practice in climate-related policy planning. However, scenario planning often results in a single cohesive narrative, which lacks transparency in why certain developments and solutions are included and others left out.
This article focuses on how scenarios created during the planning of Finland’s Medium-term Plan for Climate Change Policy (KAISU) were built, and how the actors involved assessed the characteristics and quality of these scenarios. We interviewed a total of 18 participants from research, administration, and policymaking domains involved in the creation of the plan and the scenarios it contains. Semi-structured interviews provided an insight into the creation and use of scenarios as part of policy formulation, as well as points of further improvement for the process.
The KAISU plan was constructed as a cross-sectoral collaborative effort between policymakers, public officials, and researchers. Despite the variety of actors involved in the process, the resulting scenarios were perceived as well executed by the participants. However, national scenario foresight could be improved in three dimensions: 1) the process where actors collaborate to build scenarios, 2) the scenario methodology, where solutions and developments are included or excluded, and 3) use of the scenarios after their construction.
After being a professor of Sustainable Development for more than 18 years, I am proud to let you know that – as of today – I will hold the chair Planetary Health at Maastricht University.
For me, Planetary Health has always been the foundation of sustainable development. However, the sustainability debate has been hijacked in recent years by industry and governments. Their view regarding sustainable development significantly has been subordinate to the dogma of economic growth with little regard for planetary health. How shortsighted this is, has been illustrated by the various outbreaks of zoonotic diseases (with corona as one of the latest examples), our current climate crises and the global decline of biodiversity. These are just some examples, but it is increasingly clear that our own well-being is closely connected with the health of the planet on which we live.
It is not nearly enough to keep the planet ‘as is’. There has to be a positive, regenerative development in order to make the planet, and everything on it, healthy. If we respect our planet, we respect life, we respect ourselves. That is also what the new chair Planetary Health stands for. Taking sustainability to the next level!
PhD-candidate and post-docClimate change health impacts, vulnerability and opportunities
We are looking for an enthusiastic PhD and post-doc researcher on healthy climate adaptation.
Healthy climate adaptation is a key prerequisite for achieving a natural and vital rural environment. Addressing the physical and mental health impacts of climate change in rural areas requires a system-based approach that accounts for the fact that these impacts are mediated by changes in population, agriculture, nature and biodiversity. Vulnerability is a function of the extent to which individuals/populations are sensitive to direct and indirect climate change impacts and of the capacity of the population, agriculture, nature and biodiversity to adapt in a healthy way to new climate conditions. Human population vulnerability is highly dependent on socio-economic, demographic and technical context, while vulnerability of agriculture, nature and biodiversity are mostly determined by local conditions, such as (extreme) weather conditions, nutrients and water availability.
To date, however, there is relatively little (empirical) knowledge on the vulnerability of human health to climate change and adaptation measures within this broader web of demographic, socio-economic, technical, nature, biodiversity and agricultural developments. Using a system perspective, we will explore how climate impacts and adaptation measures will affect human health and its interrelations with agriculture, nature and biodiversity. In doing so, we will identify the most important challenges for future health and well-being in each of the selected rural regions. For the human population we will explore future climate scenarios, accounting for possible trends in risk factors, and identify at-risk groups within the selected regions in support of rural climate adaptation measures.
The PhD and post-doc will work closely together to:
Develop an integrated health impact assessment protocol for, and gain insight in (health) consequences of climate change for people and their living environment in the three selected rural regions, including a description of vulnerable groups in these regions.
Gain insight in mechanisms of climate adaptation measures and interrelations between different transition tasks related to different sectors (health, agriculture, biodiversity) by developing a theoretical framework between healthy climate adaptation measures and potential impacts.
Develop practical guidelines for incorporation of these health considerations and vulnerabilities in decision making, to be used on a regional rural level.
The post-doc will be co-responsible for project leadership.
Both PhD and post-doc projects are embedded within the larger transdisciplinary NWO funded MANTRA project (CliMate AdaptatioN for HealTy Rural Areas ). MANTRA aims to develop an innovative system approach that integrates rural priorities for climate change with health risks and opportunities for local communities. It will co-create data, assessments, measures and interventions for healthy climate adaptation in 3 rural living labs. The MANTRA projects involves different disciplines (health, climate, ecology, governance) and various actors such as universities, applied science institutes, assessment agencies, organizations for societal issues and citizen participation, health organizations and various regional stakeholders.
The candidates will be based at Maastricht University College, Venlo, The Netherlands. The supervisor-team will be led by Prof. Pim Martens
Who are you?
We are looking for candidates who:
have a master’s degree (or is near completion of a master program) for the PhD position / have a PhD degree (or is near completion of a PhD for the post-doc position) in the field of Public Health, Sustainability or Environmental Sciences, Interdisciplinary Science, or another relevant field;
has affinity with climate adaptation and health issues;
the PhD likes to engage in transdisciplinary research, collaborating with both scientists from across disciplines and societal actors; the post-doc should have experience in participatory research and co-creation processes.
is able to perform tasks independently and in teams, has good organization, communication and writing skills, and is fluent in both English and Dutch (For this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level).
Do you want more information? For more information about this position, please visit Academic Transfer via these links for the PhD-position and postdoc-position.
Climate change presents an unprecedented international and urgent health threat to sustainable development, human health and survival, thus placing human lives at risk. All health professionals have a duty to advocate for action at all levels to mitigate and adapt to climate change and can or should play a critical role in mitigating and reducing risk. However, the global health sector has been slow to recognise the impact of climate change upon health.
Interview findings indicate that South Africa, as a country and people, will be particularly vulnerable to climate change and its consequential health effects, food security and overall impact on livelihoods, particularly affecting the poor. Overall, participants held the view that the predicament in access to healthcare is set to overwhelm present and prospective generations within the South African context.
Responses to climate change, whether by mitigation of its effects or adaptation to them, will require strong and effective intersectoral organisation efforts within government at all levels, along with interdisciplinary research. A proposal to centralise climate change action within the national departments or to form a South African National Department of Climate Change, which reports directly to the president and parliament, has been made. As the aspect of climate change and public health intersects with virtually all other facets of government, such an initiative may go a long way to increase collaboration across borders.
Effects of climate change are being observed at an increasingly alarming rate across the world. Each year we see more severe flooding, droughts, bushfires and heatwaves, and recent studies show that unless we change our current practices these events will continue to worsen. Finding meaningful solutions to sustainability challenges requires companies and other actors to broaden their thinking, go beyond organizational boundaries and engage more with their stakeholders. However, broadening organizational perspectives and collaborating with diverse stakeholders involves inherent political and process-related tensions stemming from a resistance to change, competing motivations, lack of trust, and disciplinary-specific language.
Current research has focused on disciplinary-specific approaches to learning for sustainability. Our review aligns with calls from prior research for cross-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approaches to sustainability. It offers a deepened understanding of the challenges organizations and multi-stakeholder initiatives face when learning for sustainability, including entrenched power relations, and traditional decision-making and value structures. We introduce ‘reflexive complicity’ as a conceptual lens for understanding the slow progress we see in societal responses to sustainability challenges. We argue that in order to overcome these challenges and realize meaningful sustainability outcomes, more critical reflexive learning is needed on what motivates engagement with sustainability from academia and practice. Shifting how we motivate business and management research on learning for sustainability, in a way that prioritizes sustainability outcomes over firm performance, could allow for more engaged and transdisciplinary research collaborations and bring us a step closer to understanding how to embed critical reflexive learning processes into businesses. Similarly, breaking patterns of reflexive complicity from key actors in businesses could also see a shift toward more radical and long-term responses to sustainability in practice.
In recent years, the research on human behaviour in relation to waste management has increased at an exponential rate. At the same time, the expanding academic literature on this topic makes it more difficult to understand the main areas of interest, the leading institutions and authors, the possible interconnections among different disciplines, and the gaps. The paper below maps knowledge domain on recycling behaviour through bibliometric analysis and text mining in order to identify current trends, research networks and hot topics. 2061 articles between 1975 and 2020 from three different databases are examined with an interdisciplinary approach. The findings reveal that 60% of papers have been published between 2015 and 2020, and this topic is of global interest. Leading countries are mainly located in Europe, North America and Commonwealth; however, China and Malaysia are also assuming a driving role.
Bibliometrics and text mining provide the intellectual configuration of the knowledge on recycling behaviour; co-word analysis individuates conceptual sub-domains in food waste, determinants of recycling behaviour, waste management system, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), higher-level education, plastic bags, and local government. Overall, waste management and related human behaviour represent a universal challenge requiring a structured and interdisciplinary approach at all levels (individual, institutions, industry, academia). Lastly, this paper offers some suggestions for future research such as smart city design, sensor network system, consumer responsibilisation, the adoption of a more comprehensive view of the areas of investigation through the holistic analysis of all stakeholders.
Tekst door Maurice Timmerman, gepubliceerd in de Observant
Kun je als wetenschapper tegelijk een activist zijn? Komt je onafhankelijkheid dan niet in het geding? En wat als je met je wetenschappelijke bevindingen andere activisten tegen de haren in strijkt en je inbox volstroomt met haatmails?
Het zijn vragen die afgelopen dinsdag aan bod kwamen tijdens een online UM-symposium, op touw gezet door het Platform voor Onderzoeksethiek en Integriteit en het Platform for Community-Engaged Research.
Recordings of a livestream discussion about the tension between activism and academic research.
Een van de drie panelleden, onderzoeker Astrid Offermans, vindt dat academici bij hun leest moeten blijven. “We moeten betrouwbare kennis leveren, waarbij we ons onafhankelijk opstellen en open staan voor andere perspectieven. Dat doen activisten niet. Het gevaar is dat activistische wetenschappers aandacht belangrijker vinden dan methodologische zuiverheid, dat ze willen overtuigen in plaats van analyseren, een sexy verhaal voor het voetlicht brengen in plaats van de eerlijke, saaie waarheid.
Jane Goodall
De andere twee panelleden zijn het daar niet mee eens. Pim Martens, hoogleraar duurzame ontwikkeling, noemt zichzelf een ‘scientivist’. “Dat is een publieke intellectueel, denk aan Einstein, die het als een morele verplichting ziet om zich als burger in te zetten voor een betere wereld. Of Jane Goodall die haar leven lang chimpansees bestudeerde en het later opnam voor deze dieren, die benadrukte dat ze net als mensen een emotioneel leven hebben, met waardevolle relaties.”
Wetenschappers twijfelen voortdurend, doet Martens dat ook als activist, vraagt spreekstalmeester Teun Dekker, hoogleraar filosofie aan het University College.
Zeker, zegt de duurzaamheidsprof. “Ik vraag me weleens af of ik met een mars moet meelopen, of ik blogs over een onderwerp moet publiceren. De grens tussen wetenschap en activisme is soms delicaat.
Farmaceut
Het derde panellid, Maurice Zeegers, hoogleraar epidemiologie, schaart zich achter Martens. “Ik zou haast willen zeggen: alle activisten zouden wetenschappers moeten zijn. Zoeken naar waarheid, zoals Offermans dat benadrukte, gaat goed samen met engagement, maar ook met onderzoek voor het bedrijfsleven. Ik werk op dit moment samen met een advocatenkantoor dat een zaak aanspant tegen een farmaceut.”
Dekker: “Hoe leg je uit dat je wel hun geld accepteert, maar niet per se zegt wat ze willen horen?”
Zeegers: “De bedrijven waar ik voor werk, willen juist die wetenschappelijke conclusie horen, ook als het ze niet uitkomt. Die integriteit is wat wetenschap waardevol maakt.
Gestalkt
Wat als je als ‘scientivist’ te maken krijgt met groepen die je wetenschappelijke conclusies van tafel vegen, vraagt iemand uit de ‘zaal’? “De nachtmerrie van elke wetenschapper”, zegt Dekker , “dat je tienduizend e-mails op je dak krijgt, die niet allemaal even prettig zijn.”
Toch deelt ook Zeegers zijn resultaten op sociale media. “Het is belangrijk om met je poten in de modder te staan, om te begrijpen wat er speelt in de samenleving. En ja, bevindingen die mensen tegen de haren in strijken, moet je ook plaatsen. Als ze maar wetenschappelijk aan de eisen voldoen.”
Martens: “Je hebt niet alles in de hand. Soms verstuur je een tweet, net iets te snel, en dan blijkt dat die een eigen leven gaat leiden. Maar goed, als je werk je passie is, dan wil je dat ook op sociale media delen. Niemand wordt graag gestalkt, maar dat is niet alleen een angst van wetenschappers, maar ook van politici. Het voordeel is dat je als wetenschapper een betrouwbare bijdrage kunt leveren aan discussies.”
Als epidemioloog krijgt Zeegers in deze tijden van corona vaak vragen over vaccinaties. “Je ziet dat de samenleving steeds meer gebruik maakt van wetenschap. En de studies die in de media passeren, kan ik in perspectief plaatsen. Ik vind dat mijn plicht.”
Vele waarheden
Nieuwe vraag uit de zaal, aldus Dekker. “We hebben de mond vol van objectiviteit, waarheid, onafhankelijkheid. Waarom geven we niet gewoon toe dat dit niet bestaat? Is het in stand houden van de pretentie niet gevaarlijker dan toegeven?”
Offermans: “Ik snap wat hier wordt bedoeld, maar ik denk dat de wetenschappelijke zuiverheid en analyse het verschil maken. Zijn er één of vele waarheden, over die vraag kun je lang debatteren, maar zolang je de werkelijkheid academisch benadert is het prima.”
Zeegers: “Objectiviteit bestaat inderdaad niet, iedereen is bevooroordeeld, dat denk ik ook. Maar dat betekent niet dat we niet meer op onze wetenschappelijke methoden kunnen vertrouwen.”
Wereldvrede
Dat wetenschappers ijveren voor een goede zaak vindt Offermans prima, maar liever niet op hetzelfde terrein waarop ze onderzoek doen. “Ik zou dat scheiden.”
Dat lukt niet altijd, zegt Martens. “In een interview word je toch vaak op beide rollen aangesproken. Maar waarom zou je je intellectuele kracht niet gebruiken als activist? Ieder zijn eigen expertise, en als dat gezag oplevert, waarom niet?”
Einstein is daar een goed voorbeeld van, zegt Dekker. “Een groot natuurkundige, maar wat wist hij nou van de wereldvrede, waar hij zich zo voor inzette?”
Martens: “Wat weet Leonardo DiCaprio van klimaatverandering? Maar toen hij daar een paar jaar geleden een speech over gaf, gebeurde er iets. Hij heeft in ieder geval meer bereikt dan ik en mijn collega’s met al onze vakartikelen. Want de klimaatboodschap, die nu gemeengoed is, probeerden wij dertig jaar geleden al aan de man te brengen. Niemand luisterde toen, heel frustrerend.”
Eerlijk
Volgende vraag: hoe belangrijk is objectiviteit en onafhankelijkheid als ondertussen de planeet in brand staat?
“Het illustreert hoe impopulair mijn stellingname is”, zegt Offermans. “Maar er zijn alternatieven. Je kunt je ook opstellen als een eerlijke beurshandelaar, en alle opties en scenario’s laten zien vanuit wetenschappelijk perspectief. Daar hebben beleidsmakers veel baat bij.”
Maar hoe houd je jezelf op het eerlijke pad, vraagt Dekker.
Martens: “Mijn ervaring is dat zo goed als alle onderzoekers eerlijk zijn.”
Dekker: “Uit een enquête bleek onlangs dat 52 procent van de onderzoekers toegeeft niet altijd volledig integer te zijn. Hoe kan een universiteit eerlijkheid stimuleren?”
Zeegers: “Dan moet je ook naar de cultuur kijken, en daarbij spelen bijvoorbeeld zaken als werkdruk een rol. Maar buitengewoon belangrijk is dat je als onderzoeker een goede mentor bent en het goede voorbeeld geeft aan je promovendi. Er zijn trouwens ook survey’s waaruit blijkt dat 98 procent van de wetenschappers integer is. Onderzoekers zijn, denk ik, goede mensen.”
PIM MARTENS 