AmbioPub Date : 2025-05-16DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02196-8
Ara Joy Pacoma, Leonie Pearson, Surichai Wungaeo
{"title":"An ecosystem-based adaptation and adaptive governance framework for addressing governance challenges in tropical peatland restoration.","authors":"Ara Joy Pacoma, Leonie Pearson, Surichai Wungaeo","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02196-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02196-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Peatland restoration is considered one of the most cost-effective ecosystem-based interventions for climate mitigation and adaptation, but also for sustaining local welfare and livelihoods as well. However, despite its promise, the governance of tropical peatland restoration as an ecosystem-based adaptation strategy poses significant challenges for local actors. This paper presents an analytical framework illustrating how ecosystem-based adaptation, through adaptive governance strategies, can transcend these inherent problems like funding constraints and cross-sectoral governance complexities. Located in Leyte Sab-a Basin Peatland, Philippines, this study highlights that tropical peatland restoration challenges often stem from rigid and inflexible systems, mismatch between funding and ecological priorities, and insufficient understanding of the interconnected social-ecological system. Results demonstrate actionable solutions, such as combining peatland restoration with livelihood initiatives, promoting polycentricity to enhance local ownership, and utilizing both scientific and local ecological knowledge to guide decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144075308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-05-16DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02185-x
Henri Sumelius, Samuli Korpinen, Alf Norkko, Sonja Salovius-Laurén, Markku Viitasalo, Christoffer Boström
{"title":"Marine biodiversity loss in Finnish coastal waters: Evidence and implications for management.","authors":"Henri Sumelius, Samuli Korpinen, Alf Norkko, Sonja Salovius-Laurén, Markku Viitasalo, Christoffer Boström","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02185-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02185-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Marine biodiversity loss poses significant ecological and socio-economic challenges. This paper examines how coastal biodiversity loss is expressed and outlines implications for management. Synthesizing scientific literature on biodiversity change in the well-studied Finnish coastal waters (Baltic Sea) as a case study, we show that biodiversity loss occurs throughout the area in virtually all biotopes and organism groups examined. Biodiversity loss was expressed in 43 different ways. The three most common forms of biodiversity loss-local disappearance of species and decrease in abundance and biomass-covered nearly half of the observations. For these, the most common underlying causes were eutrophication, climate change, and physical disturbance of the seabed. Overall, eutrophication and climate change were the most frequent ones among the 13 loss drivers identified. We emphasize that critical knowledge gaps must be bridged, and monitoring improved, but, importantly, resolute decisions for action are required for the recovery of coastal marine ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144085607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02191-z
Marieke M van Katwijk
{"title":"Grain fields in sea-landscapes.","authors":"Marieke M van Katwijk","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02191-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02191-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sea-level rise will increase salt intrusion and flood risk in low-lying lands. In the long run, these lands will change into seawater-influenced landscapes, as is already happening in several coastal areas around the globe. While conventional agriculture may no longer bear fruit in such sea-landscapes, the seagrass species Zostera marina, \"sea-rice,\" potentially yields 3-7% of global rice production, with the added benefit of zero-carbon emissions. Culture of Z. marina does not require freshwater, fertilizer or pesticides. Development and implementation of seagrass mariculture will open new avenues for collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines such as agronomy, coastal engineering and social sciences. From the start, the domestication, engineering design and landscape planning should aim at the optimal balance between ecosystem goods (grains, straw and seafood) and services (coastal protection, carbon and nitrogen sequestration, filtering of pathogens and pollutants, and biodiversity) of this potential crop, while respecting and restoring the wild meadows.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143954663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02171-3
Tuomo Wallenius, Jarle W Bjerke, Rasmus Erlandsson, Tiina H M Kolari, Aleksi Räsänen, Teemu Tahvanainen, Hans Tømmervik, Emelie Winquist, Tarmo Virtanen
{"title":"Reconstructing the historical decline of lichen cover across the reindeer fence of the Finnish-Norwegian border.","authors":"Tuomo Wallenius, Jarle W Bjerke, Rasmus Erlandsson, Tiina H M Kolari, Aleksi Räsänen, Teemu Tahvanainen, Hans Tømmervik, Emelie Winquist, Tarmo Virtanen","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02171-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02171-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We analysed the history behind the current contrasting lichen covers of two adjacent reindeer herding districts at the Finnish-Norwegian border. We conducted vegetation field inventories across the border fence and reconstructed a lichen cover history from 1959 to 2020 using aerial and satellite images. The oldest images showed only a slight difference in lichen cover between the different sides of the border fence. Since the late 1950s, lichen cover has decreased in both districts. At present, lichen biomass is approximately three times greater in in the Norwegian winter pasture than in the Finnish herding district, which has less strictly defined seasonal pastures. A lichen biomass model indicated that lichen intake by reindeer cannot explain the decline in lichen biomass in either of the districts. We suggest that the lichen decline is mainly due to trampling and foraging-induced loss, while other unknown ecological and climatological factors may also be involved.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143955671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-05-06DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02192-y
Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez, Irene Ring, Rosa Hildebrandt, Uwe Brämick
{"title":"Of ponds and people: Governance to balance biodiversity conservation and carp pond farming in Central Europe.","authors":"Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez, Irene Ring, Rosa Hildebrandt, Uwe Brämick","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02192-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02192-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Due to the loss of many natural water bodies, artificially created ponds often serve as refuge for numerous endangered species. The history of pondscapes in Central Europe is closely tied to the introduction of the common carp. Changing political, social, and climatic conditions, along with the increasing threat from fish-eating species, make the economic viability of pond aquaculture increasingly fragile. However, maintaining these pondscapes is crucial to meet societal demands for landscape and nature conservation. This article addresses the neglect of pondscapes in conservation literature and contributes to the ongoing discussion on the importance of cultural landscapes for biodiversity conservation. Lusatia, one of Europe's largest pondscapes, faces challenges that reflect those encountered in other European pondscapes. In this study, we present these challenges along with the governance approaches implemented in Lusatia, using this analysis to outline potential solutions for conserving European pondscapes more broadly.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143956021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-05-03DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02177-x
Sverker Sörlin, Paul Warde, Isobel Akerman, Jasmin Höglund Hellgren, Sabine Höhler, Erik Isberg, Eric Paglia, Gloria Samosír, Thomas Harbøll Schrøder
{"title":"The great dispersal: The fall and rise of global environmental governance.","authors":"Sverker Sörlin, Paul Warde, Isobel Akerman, Jasmin Höglund Hellgren, Sabine Höhler, Erik Isberg, Eric Paglia, Gloria Samosír, Thomas Harbøll Schrøder","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02177-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02177-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article presents a new way of understanding Global Environmental Governance (GEG), historically and functionally. We outline a revised analytical framing, which connects the post-WWII moment of early globalizing conservation with the intensifying attempts to govern the human-earth relationship through an ever-growing assemblage of governable environmental objects and their quantifiable indicators as proxies. Our argument is as follows: (1) GEG has followed a trajectory of dispersal of actors, institutions, conceptual tools and responsibilities from the micro- and local scales to the planetary. We analyze how these trajectories unfold in three essential domains: Earth System science, sovereignty, and neoliberalization. (2) GEG is performative. The governance itself has created the dynamic environmental objects under governance. (3) In this way, GEG has normalized the environment as a policy object.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143962637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02189-7
Tatiana Rodríguez, Michelle Bonatti, Katharina Löhr, Stefan Sieber
{"title":"Rethinking knowledge systems for agroforestry: Insights from the mental models of cacao farmers in Colombia.","authors":"Tatiana Rodríguez, Michelle Bonatti, Katharina Löhr, Stefan Sieber","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02189-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02189-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Agroforestry is a sustainable land-use strategy that requires better integration of diverse knowledge systems. This paper examines how formal knowledge systems for cacao agroforestry systems in Colombia are structured, and how farmers understand and manage these systems. We interviewed 42 actors involved in knowledge production and dissemination and worked with 18 farmers to create mental maps of their management practices. Our findings show that formal knowledge systems remain predominantly top-down and scientific-based, despite increasing recognition of local knowledge. Farmers' mental models reflect this, showing reliance on external advice and simplified cause-and-effect thinking. When theoretically pooling farmers' perspectives, we observe a more comprehensive understanding of agroforestry, suggesting that social learning can strengthen their independence and adaptive capacity. Moreover, farm management is shaped by context-dependent variables such as climate seasonality and market access, thus highlighting the importance of integrating farmers' experiential knowledge into agroforestry design and dissemination for more sustainable, context-sensitive decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143955206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02183-z
Eduardo S. Brondizio
{"title":"The entangled Indigenous, rural, and urban realities in Amazônia’s governance","authors":"Eduardo S. Brondizio","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02183-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13280-025-02183-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>As Amazônia takes center stage at the UNFCCC COP30 climate summit in November 2025, attention has justifiably turned to the urgency of preventing tipping points in its forest-climate balance. Underlying this scenario is a crisis of environmental degradation, social inequalities, urban precarity, and violence; these intertwined realities, often hidden by simplistic imaginaries, are inseparable from the climate crises. The bold vision that previously established an ambitious system of territorial rights and environmental governance should now inspire strategies to confront the pressures that are eroding these advances. A new social contract must reckon with the complexity of interconnected crises driving the region toward tipping points. These strategies must safeguard Indigenous and traditional communities’ territories while extending environmental governance to urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. Building social capital for collective action among conflicting actors is the region's most significant challenge; polycentric governance approaches can bridge arrangements to ensure the basin’s health.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":"54 6","pages":"923 - 931"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13280-025-02183-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143908738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-04-29DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02165-1
Jeremy T Bruskotter, Neil H Carter, Richard Berl, Joseph Hinton, Jazmin Murphy, L Mark Elbroch, John A Vucetich
{"title":"Bridging social and ecological science to create spatially explicit models of human-caused mortality of carnivores.","authors":"Jeremy T Bruskotter, Neil H Carter, Richard Berl, Joseph Hinton, Jazmin Murphy, L Mark Elbroch, John A Vucetich","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02165-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02165-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research indicates that human-caused mortality (HCM) is a key factor limiting numerous large carnivore populations. However, efforts to represent HCM in spatially explicit models have generally been limited in scope-often relying on proxies, such as road or human density. Yet such efforts fail to distinguish different sources of HCM, which can arise from different antecedent processes. We offer a systems-based conceptual framework for understanding the antecedents of HCMs that is grounded in theory from the social and behavioral sciences. Specifically, we first explain how HCMs are usefully distinguished into four types (e.g., accidental, harvest, illicit, control actions), then discuss how these different types tend to be driven by different sets of psychological and sociopolitical processes. We contend that improvements in understanding the spatial variation in HCMs would rise from more explicit attention to the various antecedent processes that precede each mortality type.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143962714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-04-26DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02187-9
Roman Isaac, Graeme S Cumming, María R Felipe-Lucia, Berta Martín-López
{"title":"The forest beyond the trees: A network perspective on governing co-production of nature's contributions to people.","authors":"Roman Isaac, Graeme S Cumming, María R Felipe-Lucia, Berta Martín-López","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02187-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02187-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nature's contributions to people (NCP) provided by forests are co-produced by an interplay of natural and anthropogenic capitals, including human, social, physical, and financial capital, which are influenced by various actors across multiple levels. Here, we assessed the co-production of four forest NCP (timber, habitat creation and maintenance, climate regulation, non-material NCP). We conducted social network analyses based on interviews with local forest actors to (i) understand which actors are most relevant for managing different anthropogenic capitals in NCP co-production and (ii) identify patterns of governing co-produced forest NCP via actor relationships. Our findings revealed three patterns: (1) governance of timber production via financial flows; (2) governance of knowledge and labour for climate regulation; and (3) governance for habitat management. Making actor-capital relationships tangible provides evidence to inform decision-making by tracing how specific actors favour certain capitals potentially influencing the sustainability of NCP co-production.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143960478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}