This entry is only available in Deutsch.

This entry is only available in Deutsch.

This entry is only available in Deutsch.

Food is a fundamental necessity of life. It is also one of the consumption areas with the greatest environmental impacts. The debates over sustainable food production and consumption, both in academia and politics, have spurred over the last decade. Growth policies in the food and agriculture sector pay attention to increasing productivity and providing enough food for an increasing population in a globalized world. Nevertheless, progress has been uneven and growth has been unsustainable in some regions, leading to escalating pressures on ecosystems.

In the course of the EU project RESPONDER, our partners in Portugal are organizing a high profile workshop on 25-27 January in Lisbon. RESPONDER promotes sustainable consumption by exploring novel ways of knowledge brokerage that help to improve the management of potential political, social and economic contradictions with economic growth.

To get more information and to apply for participation please click here.

The One Planet Economy Network EU project (OPEN:EU) has just launched a unique new tool for mapping ecological carbon and water footprint data across all the 27 EU member states.

Over the past 2 years the project, in which SERI was one of 8 partners, has carried out evidence gathering, software tool design and network dialogue activities to explore how policy makers can achieve a clear understanding of the effects of policies (or the lack of policy) on the environment, so they can make responsible decisions at national and EU government level.

One of the main outcomes of the project, the EUREAPA tool (EU Resource and Energy Analysis Programme Application), a decision making support tool, is now available for free online, aimed at EU and national government policy makers, NGOs and academics. It is based on the integration of the Footprint Family of indicators with an economic model so that the impact of the EU’s trade on the environment can be demonstrated.

The tool can be used to help inform policy making across several of the policy areas identified as key components of the framework for delivering the Flagship Initiative for a Resource-efficient Europe under the Europe 2020 Strategy, such as agriculture, climate and energy, sustainable consumption and production, transport and water.

The EUREAPA tool can be accessed at www.eureapa.net.

SERI´s research group “Quality of Life and Integrated Strategies” investigates how we can achieve a good life for ourselves and future generations. This implies that we have to take care of the ecosystems we depend on and use their resources in a sustainable way.

This highlight aims to show how we – as human beings with individual knowledge, skills, networks and relationships– make decisions on how to benefit from ecosystems.

We will introduce the theoretical concepts Ecosystem Goods and Services and Human Well-Being and explain how we link them in order to provide a framework for their application in our research projects EcoChange, KlimaNetz (CapitalAdapt) and Climsave.

1. Linking Ecosystem Goods and Services to Human Well-Being

We are an integral part of ecosystems, which means that our well-being is highly dependent on our environment and the benefits we gain from it.

By well-being we mean a combination of several objective and subjective factors including resources (income, material, infrastructure) for a good life, health, security, good social relations, happiness and freedom of choice and action.

We define the benefits that we obtain from ecosystems by using the concept of Ecosystem Goods and Services (EGS). EGS include a variety of services and functions of ecosystems, such as the provisioning of goods (e.g. food and freshwater), cultural benefits (e.g. aesthetic landscapes, recreational areas), regulating services (e.g. flood regulation, water purification) or processes, which other services are based upon (e.g. soil formation, nutrient cycling).

The links between the different components of our well-being and the EGS are manifold. Generally speaking, provisioning services are crucial to satisfy our needs for basic material for good life and health, for example by providing us with sufficient nutritious food. Regulating services link strongly to our health and security, e.g. by preventing floods and hereby securing us from disasters. Cultural services affect especially our subjective well-being, e.g. by offering space for recreational activities, which improve our life satisfaction and happiness.

The relationship between humans and ecosystems is – of course – not static. Changing human activities drive, both indirectly and directly, changes in ecosystems, which in turn has an impact on human well-being, because it affects the quantity and quality of the benefits we obtain from EGS. (see figure below).

For example, the way we produce our food has strong effects on the nutrients that get through the soil into our groundwater. Intensive practices with high amounts of fertilizers might lead to contamination, which in turn affects the quality of the water we can extract. Thus, it would need increasing efforts for us to purify the water if we want to prevent negative effects on our health.

2. How is SERI approaching the linkage between EGS and well-being?

The research group „Quality of Life and Integrated Strategies“ is involved in several projects, which address the relationship between EGS and well-being (see EcoChange, KlimaNetz (CapitalAdapt), Climsave). In the following, two possibilities to approach this relationship are described.

a. Human and Social Capital

Conducting research on societies´ impacts on EGS requires taking a closer look at the people that interact in this society and at their relationships with each other. SERI therefore explores the human and social capital which exists in communities.

Human capital describes the education, experience, acquired skills, and health of individuals. Social capital is used to apply human capital in the individuals´ social context. Moreover, it describes relationships, norms and trust that developed in certain networks and between those networks. These relations can be on micro-scale (family and close friends), on meso-scale (friends, organizations) and on macro-scale (broader governance structure).

The projects Climsave and KlimaNetz (CapitalAdapt) focus on the importance of human and social capital when dealing with natural impacts. Climate change, for example, challenges human societies and their dependence on ecosystem services. Due to increasing drought periods, farmers might have to adapt their managements (e.g. by changing crops or irrigation strategies). This requires different knowledge, which needs to be spread among farming communities, and which will ultimately affect the quantity and quality of food that can be provided.

b. Decision-making of relevant actors

What affects the way we make use of our capitals? The EcoChange project takes a closer look at the land use decisions farmers make in response to factors such as market (crop prices), policies (subsidies), climate change (vegetation cover) and new technologies. In case study regions in Belgium and Switzerland, socio-economic scenarios were developed, which either followed a business-as-might-be-usual scenario, a neoliberal growth approach or a sustainable pathway. Scenarios develop differently according to the above mentioned factors and the types of agents (e.g. conservative or innovative farmers) that exist on this land. This in turn has an impact on the ability of ecosystems to provide certain EGS for our well-being. For example, farmers in the neoliberal scenario might prefer to grow crops in monoculture due to higher yields, whereas farmers in the sustainability scenario might grow different organic cultures in crop rotation. The first approach results in high provision of limited kinds of food, whereas the latter might have lower yields, but higher diversity and more positive side-effects like cultural qualities (e.g. high aesthetics). Hence, different elements of our well-being are satisfied to different degrees by different farming strategies.

3. How does SERI communicate the linkage between EGS and well-being to stakeholders?

SERI applies the above mentioned approaches in several stakeholder processes using a variety of participatory methods. We aim at making stakeholders aware of the linkages between their individual behaviour and the provision of EGS in order to create strategies for them to foster their well-being.

Hereby, the underlying hypothesis of our work is that a high level of human well-being for us and future generations has to be achieved in relation with a sustainable use of natures´ resources.
Therefore, we emphasise the necessity to develop sustainable strategies to deal with the challenges arising in the respective case study areas.

EcoChange – challenges for farmers on regional scale
In the EcoChange project an Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) is conducted to analyse the impacts of social, economic and environmental changes on EGS. An ISA is an iterative process, which includes several workshops with stakeholders in the case study regions. These workshops aim at identifying the strengths, weaknesses and challenges in the region, at exploring possible pathways for future developments, and at analysing the underlying mechanisms and drivers for these developments. The discussions and analysis of our project should help the region to develop policies which steer the areas´ development towards the desired directions.

KlimaNetz (CapitalAdapt) – adaptation to climate change in Austrian communities
Recent small-scale climate scenarios have shown the impacts of climate change on Austrian communities (see reclip :century project), which reveals the necessity to adapt to changing conditions.

An important first step towards adaptation is to communicate scenarios in an easy-to-understand way (well chosen language and visualisation) for the affected people. Rather than communicating an increase in temperature, it has to be explained what such developments mean for especially vulnerable people, e.g. elderly inhabitants who have to cope with heat. Then, it becomes crucial to look both at the ecosystems´ possibilities to provide beneficial services (e.g. increase green spaces and the amount of trees to cool the micro-climate) as well as on human and social capital that is needed for adaptation measures (e.g. knowledge of spatial planners to create green spaces or increase in voluntary and professional care personnel for elderly people). The adaptation measures will be developed within a participatory process, which takes place in two communities in Austria, Klosterneuburg and Virgen. We conducted interviews with members of the communities to scope the main challenges they perceive as well as the existing human and social capital in the region. In two workshops following the interviews, the most vulnerable areas in the communities are identified and opportunities for action are discussed.

Climsave – online learning tools for adaptation measures in European regions
The linkages between ecological and social conditions are highly complex. In combination with the high uncertainty about future developments, it becomes increasingly hard for decision makers to judge which measures are sensible and useful and which might lead to (unexpected) negative outcomes. Climsave aims at providing a learning tool that allows decision makers to explore the possibilities and effects of adaptation measures. Factors influencing the decisions are the pressures that are exerted on the respective region (e.g. certain climatic pressures) and the resources (e.g. human and social capital) that are available to implement certain adaptation measures to deal with those particular pressures. The online tool should help decision makers to learn about complex interactions and the impacts their decisions might have on ecosystems and human well-being.

4. SERI publications

Journals

Omann, I., Stocker, A., Jaeger, J. (2009). Climate change as a threat to biodiversity: An application of the DPSIR approach. In: Ecological Economics. 69(1), pp: 24-31.

Briefing Sheets and Newsletters

KlimaNetz Framework (in german)

KlimaNetz Projekt (in german)

Integrated Sustainability Assessment

Climsave Newsletter No. 2

EcoChange Newsletters

5. Further links and publications

Beckley, T., D. Martz, S. Nadeau, E. Wall, and B. Reimer. 2002. Multiple capacities, multiple outcomes: Delving deeper into the meaning of community capacity. Journal of Rural and Community Development 3:56-75.

McLeman, R. 2010. Impacts of population change on vulnerability and the capacity to adapt to climate change and variability: a typology based on lessons from “a hard country”. Population & Environment 31:286-316.

Porritt, J. 2007. Capitalism as if the World Matters. Earthscan/James & James.

www.maweb.org „The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment assessed the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. From 2001 to 2005, the MA involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide. Their findings provide a state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide, as well as the scientific basis for action to conserve and use them sustainably.“

www.teebweb.org „The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward.“

www.ecochange-project.eu

www.climsave.eu

www.klimanetz.at

Finkenstein am Faaker See will serve as a pilot project community for the European research project InContext.

SERI will conduct one of the three pilot projects in the community of Finkenstein (Carinthia, Austria). The other two will take place in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and in Wolfshagen (Germany). In the pilot projects, leading European research institutions in the fields of transition, behavioural science and sustainable development collaborate to identify the framework conditions enabling a societal transition towards an ecologically sound, economically successful and culturally diverse future. At the core of the project lies an examination of the interplay between structural conditions and internal factors in building the context for individual behaviour.

Within the scope of the Austrian pilot project we will work with local citizens, conjointly develop a vision of a “good life” in the community, and organize specific acitivities in Finkenstein in this regard.

Regarding the thematic focus, the Finkenstein pilot project will focus on the interplay and linkages between tourism, industry, and residential population (longtime residents, new residents). A first kick-off event in Finkenstein will take place in January 2012. Participatory workshops for envisioning a good future for the community will be held throughout the year 2012.

Jäger, J., Bohunovsky, L. and Binder, J. (2008)

In response to the challenge of unsustainability, the MATISSE project was designed to propose procedures, methods and tools for better integrating sustainability into policy development processes and institutions. It did so by developing, testing and refining a conceptual framework for Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA).

ISA is a pro-active, strategic and potentially transformative process, defined as: a cyclical, participatory process of scoping, envisioning, experimenting, and learning through which a shared interpretation of sustainability for a specific context is developed and applied in an integrated manner in order to explore solutions to persistent problems of unsustainable development.

The project proceeded by: exploring the potential role of ISA as a complement to existing policy assessment processes in the EU; testing ISA in a number of case studies of unsustainability; extending and linking existing modelling tools in support of ISA, and developing new ones.

The models and scenarios developed within the project were used in a series of case studies which:

• examined sustainability issues within the agriculture, forestry and land use sector;
• explored options to decouple overall levels of resource use from economic growth;
• scrutinised the role that ISA could play in triggering transitions in the water domain using the example of the Ebro River Basin;
• examined the role that environmental technology could play in sustainability transitions in Europe using the examples of transportation and the Czech Republic.

This work was accompanied by extensive capacity building, outreach and stakeholder engagement activities.

MATISSE’s analysis of how policy assessments are currently being used in the EU showed that they are often limited in scope, focusing mainly on the economic impacts of new policy proposals. Furthermore, there are significant political and institutional barriers which prevent assessments from directly influencing new policies. Given the systemic nature of unsustainable development, sustainable development is likely to require broad structural changes (transitions), which depend on revising the institutional setting in which assessments take place, as well as the forms of assessment used.

The MATISSE project showed that while it is important to use conventional policy assessment processes to ensure that sectoral objectives are consistent with one another and with sustainable development, it is also necessary to use ISA to develop more comprehensive policy strategies that embed sustainable development. ISA (operating at the strategic level of policy making) and the more formal processes of policy assessment (covering the more routine levels) are therefore complementary.

The MATISSE case studies provided a real-world context for testing and further developing the ISA methodology and tools. They have shown that using ISA can change how persistent problems are perceived and open up new opportunities for finding and implementing possible solutions. Given that the European Union is increasingly embracing the goal of sustainable development, MATISSE provides a valuable contribution to the evolution of decision making and institutional design in the Union.

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The project CapitalAdapt investigates the role of human and social capital in coping with and adapting to climate change. Thus, it focuses on human and social aspects of the climate change discussion such as knowledge, education, health, relationships and involvement in the community. On October 7th and 14th the first project-workshops started in the two case studies Virgen and Klosterneuburg.

At the workshops the current state of research was presented. Then workshop participants discussed challenges of future climate change impacts and possible consequences for the specific case study. Moreover, areas which could possibly be most affected (vulnerability hotspots) were identified.
A second series of workshops which will focus on elaborating concrete measures related to climate change adaptation will be held in spring 2012.

Barker, A., Bohunovsky, L.,Jäger, J., Kovanda, J.,van de Sand,I., (2008)

This paper summarises the analysis undertaken within the MATISSE project on the role that environmental tax reform (ETR) could play in future sustainable development in the EU and the Czech Republic in particular, and points debated in discussions with key Czech stakeholders.

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This entry is only available in Deutsch.

This entry is only available in Deutsch.

Frühmann, J. and Jäger, J. (2010)
In: Environment, Forced Migration and Social Vulnerability (2010): 247-262

This chapter discusses how to develop scenarios of environmental change to estimate future migration flows that are forced by environmental degradation. The methodology as well as the examples presented here was developed in the EU-funded project EACH-FOR ( www.each-for.eu ). In the next section, the chapter discusses environmental degradation and gives an overview of the ‘hot spots’ in the case studies. This section is followed by an introduction to scenarios in general and the scenario narratives of the fourth Global Environmental Outlook (GEO 4; UNEP and United Nations Environment Programme, 2007) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which were used in the EACH-FOR project. The fourth section gives a detailed description of the EACH-FOR approach – including two case study examples from Egypt and Mozambique. The chapter finishes with conclusions that sum up the first results of the work with scenarios in the case studies and reflect on the approach taken in the EACH-FOR project.

Spangenberg, J., Omann, I. (2006)
In: International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development 2006 – Vol. 1, No.4 pp. 318 – 348

Abstract

Social sustainability is a qualitative criterion, which has to be applied to different domains, i.e., the economy, society and the population. It is challenged by current political and economic developments. Based on a German study comprising discourse-derived narratives and extensive modelling, this paper demonstrates how the social sustainability of strategies for sustainable development can be evaluated. For this objective, a simplified form of ‘horizontal’, i.e., non-hierarchical, explorative Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) is applied. First, the social quality criteria developed by the project are used for the assessment, and secondly, criteria from the literature are applied to the same scenario. The MCA demonstrates that strategies exist, which combine economic and environmental success with social sustainability. The paper illustrates how policy impact can be assessed ex ante and subsequently be monitored. It furthermore demonstrates that – despite their rather divergent phrasing – the existing social sustainability criteria have enough in common to allow for a robust assessment.

This entry is only available in Deutsch.