AmbioPub Date : 2024-08-23DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02063-y
Annegret Kuhn, Christine Merk, Andrea Wunsch
{"title":"Carbon dioxide removal through ecosystem restoration: Public perceptions and political participation.","authors":"Annegret Kuhn, Christine Merk, Andrea Wunsch","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02063-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02063-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We compare public perceptions of restoring different ecosystems to increase CO<sub>2</sub> uptake in Germany, through focus groups and a general population survey. Among focus group participants forests were highly popular, peatlands evoked negative associations, and seagrass was largely unknown. Nevertheless, the restoration of all ecosystems was viewed positively. We contrast these reactions to those of survey respondents who had not received additional information on restoration. They voiced narrower, less diverse opinions centering around afforestation. Further, focus group participants preferred expert-led restoration decisions, citing low trust in politicians' technical competence. Contrary to common policy recommendations, also beyond the German context, participants did not emphasize the need of citizen participation and were not strongly concerned about land use conflicts or compensation of affected user groups. The results imply that the public underestimates the political complexity of negotiation processes in ecosystem governance, which are becoming increasingly relevant in the international policy landscape.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142034827","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 : 2024-08-20DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02067-8
Kevin Vikström, Gesa Weyhenmeyer, Ellinor Jakobsson, Mark Peternell
{"title":"Rapid lake ice structure changes across Swedish lakes puts public ice safety at risk.","authors":"Kevin Vikström, Gesa Weyhenmeyer, Ellinor Jakobsson, Mark Peternell","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02067-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02067-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lakes are rapidly losing ice under global warming, but little is known about ice structure changes. Ice structure is a key regulator of ice stability and thus safety, affecting activities on ice. Here, we analysed spatial and temporal variations in ice structure across 21 Swedish lakes, spanning from 55 to 69 °N, and over five decades. We found regional differences in ice structure, with fastest changes occurring in southern Sweden. The stable clear ice layer was particularly sensitive to warming, showing a rapid decline. The number of days when temperatures exceeded the freezing point during the ice cover period was identified as a strong driver for how ice was structured. Since there is a high risk for increased occurrences of unsafe ice conditions under predicted air temperature changes, we recommend re-establishing ice structure monitoring programmes, informing society on the increased risks of being on ice and including ice structure to safety guidelines.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142003290","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 : 2024-08-13DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02054-z
Sami Ahonen, Aki Koivula, Jukka Sivonen
{"title":"How is political trust associated with economic and environmental policy prioritization? A longitudinal analysis between 2017 and 2022.","authors":"Sami Ahonen, Aki Koivula, Jukka Sivonen","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02054-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02054-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article, we examine the longitudinal development of economy-over-environment policy priorities in Finland during a period marked by several significant adverse societal events. In addition, we explore the influence of political trust on these priorities over time. We utilize a five-round panel dataset comprising 2155 observations (N = 431) to examine both within-individual and between-individual variations from late 2017 to early 2023. Our findings reveal a significant increase in the prioritization of the economy in each observation period following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this trend is not observed among individuals with high levels of political trust. The within-individual analysis indicates that high political trust moderates, rather than causes, higher economy-over-environment prioritization. Our study highlights the significance of political trust as a preventing factor against the deprioritization of environmental policies, particularly when societies confront significant and intersecting adverse events.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141974769","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 : 2024-08-08DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02058-9
Minella Alves Martins, David Collste, Francisco Gilney Silva Bezerra, Marcela Aparecida Campos Neves Miranda, André Rodrigues Gonçalves, Jocilene Dantas Barros, Manoel Ferreira Cardoso, Amanda Sousa Silvino, Taís Sonetti-González, Jean Pierre Henry Balbaud Ometto, Celso von Randow, Javier Tomasella, Ana Paula Dutra de Aguiar
{"title":"Long-term sustainability of the water-agriculture-energy nexus in Brazil’s MATOPIBA region: A case study using system dynamics","authors":"Minella Alves Martins, David Collste, Francisco Gilney Silva Bezerra, Marcela Aparecida Campos Neves Miranda, André Rodrigues Gonçalves, Jocilene Dantas Barros, Manoel Ferreira Cardoso, Amanda Sousa Silvino, Taís Sonetti-González, Jean Pierre Henry Balbaud Ometto, Celso von Randow, Javier Tomasella, Ana Paula Dutra de Aguiar","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02058-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13280-024-02058-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The global demand for agricultural commodities has driven extensive land conversion to agriculture in Brazil, especially in the MATOPIBA region. This area encompasses the Rio Grande Basin, a major tributary of the São Francisco Basin that is known for expanding intensive irrigated agriculture and hydropower generation. However, recent data reveal declining precipitation and aquifer recharge, potentially exacerbating ongoing water and land conflicts. This study investigates the long-term sustainability of agricultural expansion amid the worsening water scarcity using a system dynamics model. Findings suggest that rising costs and decreasing profits due to irrigation water shortages may hinder the expansion of irrigated land. By 2040, the irrigation demand may remain partly unmet, while downstream flow and baseflow could decrease. Additionally, agricultural expansion will significantly raise energy demand, posing a developmental challenge. We suggest that ensuring the sustainability of the Rio Grande Basin depends on improved water management and exploring alternative energy sources to address existing constraints.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":"53 12","pages":"1722 - 1736"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141900478","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 : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02051-2
Thomas K. Rudel
{"title":"Combating climate change through sustainable cattle ranching in the global south: The role of societal corporatism","authors":"Thomas K. Rudel","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02051-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13280-024-02051-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The contours of the collective action necessary to limit climate change remain difficult to discern. In this context, societal corporatist political processes, fueled by crisis narratives, have shown some promise as political devices for mobilizing people. Corporatist processes have, historically, brought political competitors like employers and labor unions together to negotiate compacts that have advanced collective goods during times of crisis. In response to the climate crisis in the Global South, affluent donor groups, state officials, some farmers, and indigenous peoples have begun to assemble corporatist-like coalitions to pursue climate stabilization. A comparative case study of efforts to promote sustainable cattle ranching through the spread of silvopastoral landscapes in Colombia and Ecuador illustrates this political dynamic, its shortcomings, and its accomplishments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":"53 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11436578/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141896410","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 : 2024-08-02DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02061-0
Saskia Dröge, Janne Bemelmans, Charline Depoorter, Muhammad Justi Makmun Jusrin, Axel Marx, Bruno Verbist, Lilik Budi Prasetyo, Miet Maertens, Bart Muys
{"title":"From chocolate to palm oil: The future of Indonesia's cocoa plantations.","authors":"Saskia Dröge, Janne Bemelmans, Charline Depoorter, Muhammad Justi Makmun Jusrin, Axel Marx, Bruno Verbist, Lilik Budi Prasetyo, Miet Maertens, Bart Muys","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02061-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02061-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Indonesia is the world's third largest cocoa producer, but production is decreasing since 2011. We revisited cocoa farmers for an environmental assessment in Luwu Timur, Sulawesi, 7 months after a socio-economic survey on cocoa certification outcomes and observed many cocoa plantations being converted into oil palm and maize. Including our field data as well as secondary data on commodity prices and yields, we outline reasons for cocoa conversion, potential consequences for biodiversity, and assess the future outlook for the Indonesian cocoa sector. Low cocoa productivity, volatile cocoa prices and higher revenue for oil palm, among others, drive land-use change. If shade trees are cut during cocoa conversion, it may have negative implications for biodiversity. Solutions to low soil fertility, omnipresent pests and diseases, and stable producer prices are needed to increase profitability of cocoa and prevent conversion of cocoa agroforests to oil palm monocultures.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141873797","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 : 2024-08-02DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02056-x
Maria Brück, Felipe Benra, Dula Wakassa Duguma, Joern Fischer, Tolera Senbeto Jiren, Elizabeth A. Law, Manuel Pacheco-Romero, Jannik Schultner, David J. Abson
{"title":"A social-ecological approach to support equitable land use decision-making","authors":"Maria Brück, Felipe Benra, Dula Wakassa Duguma, Joern Fischer, Tolera Senbeto Jiren, Elizabeth A. Law, Manuel Pacheco-Romero, Jannik Schultner, David J. Abson","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02056-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13280-024-02056-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Human-driven land use change can result in unequitable outcomes in the provision and appropriation of ecosystem services (ES). To better address equity-related effects of land use change in decision-making, analyses of land use and ES changes under different land use management alternatives should incorporate ecological and social information and take a disaggregated approach to ES analysis. Because such approaches are still scarce in the literature, we present a generalized social-ecological approach to support equitable land use decision-making (in terms of process and outcomes) and an example of its application to a case study in southwestern Ethiopia. We propose a six-step approach that combines scenario planning with equity-focused, disaggregated analyses of ES. Its application in our study area made equity-related effects of land use change explicit through the recognition of different beneficiary groups, value types, and spatial locations. We recommend the application of our approach in other contexts, especially in the Global South.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":"53 12","pages":"1752 - 1767"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13280-024-02056-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141873796","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 : 2024-07-30DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02052-1
João Corgo, Sara Santos Cruz, Paulo Conceição
{"title":"Nature-based solutions in spatial planning and policies for climate change adaptation: A literature review","authors":"João Corgo, Sara Santos Cruz, Paulo Conceição","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02052-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13280-024-02052-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Nature-based solutions (NbSs) are recognised as relevant to spatial planning in addressing societal challenges, although their uptake is limited and fragmented to some case studies, and difficulties emerge from their implementation and operationalisation. The research developed a literature review to investigate how NbS has been considered for its implementation and operationalisation in spatial planning and how NbS has been included across different policy instruments and used to address climate change adaptation (CCA). The results highlighted: Firstly, the review contributed to bridge the gap in NbS implementation and operationalisation by proposing a novel three-dimensional categorisation system to guide the selection of suitable NbS principles to address societal challenges; secondly, this study still revealed gaps in some policy areas, despite the effort to extensively apply NbS across diverse policy instruments to CCA. Overall, the review further emphasises the need for future research focused on monitoring and evaluating NbS's effectiveness to CCA.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":"53 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11436602/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141854359","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}
{"title":"Visiting mine reclamation: How field experience shapes perceptions of mining.","authors":"Kamila Svobodova, Vojtěch Barták, Markéta Hendrychová","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02055-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02055-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recognizing the prevailing negative public opinion on mining, it is important to understand how firsthand encounters with mining activities might influence these perceptions. This study investigates how field trips to open pit coal mines and their reclamation sites in the Czech Republic affected the attitudes of 148 university students toward mining and mine reclamation. Using pre and post trip questionnaires, we observed significant changes: Students became less neutral about mining, saw it as a temporary disruptive activity, expressed reduced concern for social conflicts in mining areas, and showed increased support for the ecological restoration of post mining sites. These findings underscore the transformative impact of direct engagement with mine reclamation activities on shaping attitudes. Understanding these effects offers promise for positively shifting public perceptions of mining practices, emphasizing the potential for constructive changes in attitudes through field experiences with reclamation efforts in the Global North.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141786975","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}