This article presents research on contradictory representations of the Arctic and its inhabitants from the point of view of sustainable development. Indigenous peoples are repeatedly presented as connected to nature but outside politics, while business and state stakeholders portray the Arctic as uninhabited and utilizable for extractivism. These depictions diminish the agency of indigenous Sámi in

Although international institutions increasingly recognize the connection that indigenous peoples have to lands and the particular role that indigenous peoples have in maintaining and achieving sustainable development, notable challenges remain in the recognition of indigenous peoples’ own conceptualizations of sustainability. At a time when there is a growing pressure to intensify land use in Sápmi

A distinct formulation of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) is required in order to address the challenges of the ecological crisis as well the various forms of violence and injustices experienced specifically by Indigenous peoples. A distinct IEJ formulation must ground its foundations in Indigenous philosophies, ontologies, and epistemologies in order to reflect Indigenous conceptions of what

Inclusive innovation seeks to understand how technology can provide benefits for the marginalized groups. However, the role technology might play in inclusive innovation of urban agriculture is not well understood. We review and reflect on the term ‘inclusive innovation’ and its role in providing benefits of technology for the marginalized groups in urban agriculture. Through review of journal articles

In the last few decades, the literature on waste has soared and taken two main directions. Considering the assumption that waste is a natural category, which we need to ‘dispose of’, the scholarship on waste management and its sustainability offers mainly problem-solving propositions (e.g., the 3Rs proposal—re-cycling, re-using, and reducing—or ‘circular economy’). The social scientific waste studies

Indigenous music sustainability forms a cohesive concept due to shared sustainability threats globally among different Indigenous peoples historically and contemporaneously, shared aspects of music culture, and current ways of Indigenous pursuing music sustainability. During colonization, forced geographical relocations and cultural assimilations of Indigenous peoples threatened or extinguished their

Throughout the Amazon, notions of ownership and mastership shape the use of natural resources among many Indigenous communities. These ideas are reflected in the figure of game masters (i.e. spiritual beings who own the animals), which are widespread among Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin. In this paper, we explore the diverse biocultural manifestations of this socio-cosmology, focusing on

Climate-smart business models target multiple Sustainable Development Goals by fostering agricultural productivity, supporting farm and farmer livelihood resilience, and encouraging climate mitigation. While many business models (cl)aiming to create climate-smart value already exist both in agricultural development and business practice, little scholarly attention has so far been directed toward their

The imperatives of environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation and social justice (partially codified in the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs) call for ambitious societal transformations. As such, few aspects of actionable knowledge for sustainability are more crucial than those concerning the processes of transformation. This article offers a brief overview of different conceptualisations

Working with indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is vital for inclusive assessments of nature and nature’s linkages with people. Indigenous peoples’ concepts about what constitutes sustainability, for example, differ markedly from dominant sustainability discourses. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES) is promoting dialogue across different knowledge systems

Action on climate change is currently minimal, and woefully inadequate for steering away from its worst trajectories and impacts. Psychological science offers insights into the causes of climate change denial and reluctance to engage with solutions, and identifies avenues for enhancing climate acceptance and engagement. We review psychological processes that underlie denial, and survey promising directions

In this piece we (as one Indigenous anthropologist writing with a non-Indigenous anthropologist) explore research on how land is also connected to the revitalization of Indigenous minority languages and lifeways, suggesting that projects concerning either the sustainability of language and of land should not be considered separately. Under a framework of ‘sustainable relations,’ we explore how Indigenous

Group-based contracts are stimulated by food and agricultural development programs as powerful tools for risk-sharing. In successful groups social capital serves as a catalyst for risk prevention and knowledge sharing. It is however difficult to deal with catastrophic risk. In this paper we ask whether and how group-based contracts have been innovated to include catastrophic risk? The review shows

Given the relevance of producer cooperatives in policy debates around rural development, agricultural sustainability and inclusive business, there is surprisingly little information on whether these cooperatives are inclusive of smallholders. This paper reviews conceptual discussions and empirical evidence on the notion of a producer cooperative as an inclusive business. Three organisational characteristics

The global environmental change research community that engages with Indigenous knowledge holders commonly practice engagement in an extractive way: knowledge is treated as data that can be aggregated and understood in abstract and universal form. This assumes that knowledge and governance are separate and gives knowledge co-production the appearance of playing an informative and facilitative role

Private business is increasingly presented as a leading agent of development in policy, also in the pursuit of developmental goals beyond business, such as food security (SDG2 in particular). It is argued that the private sector is more effective and efficient in raising investment capital and targeting goals than entities of the public sector and civil society. This has spawned inclusive business

The concept of inclusive business has gained a central place in development policy and practice. that the underlying premise is that by making small scale farmers part of their business model, companies can increase their profitability and at the same time contribute to farmers’ livelihoods. Despite a wealth of positive anecdotal evidence, it remains unclear whether and how a company can do this. This

In 2015, the United Nations passed ‘Reforming Our World: An Agenda on Sustainable Development by 2030’ which established 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to supervise global economic, social and environmental sustainable development programs. Soon afterwards, China published ‘A Proposal for Different Countries to Realize Sustainable Development Goals by 2030’ which stipulated detailed strategies

This paper examines the potential for improved environmental performance of smallholder aquaculture production through ‘beyond-farm’ governance. Smallholder aquaculture farmers face a range of systemic environmental risks related to disease and water quality that extend beyond the boundary of their farms. Yet most governance arrangements aimed at mitigating risks, such as certification, finance and

Globalization of food value chains has increased the demand for greater transparency over where food is produced, how, by whom and with what effect on society and the environment. A range of new digital technologies are available to facilitate transparency, with the promise of leading the global food system to an era of ‘hyper-transparency’. Its impact on smallholder farmer inclusion, however, remains

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has emerged as a multi-centric lens for assessing integrated resources management and sustainable development in the past decade. This paper initially reviews the current status of this approach, which has received some critique for being largely conceptual. The call to operationalise the nexus is heralded in many recent publications and a common theme is that ‘nexus

In this review, we explore the potential of green microfinance to contribute to transformations to sustainability. Green microfinance aims for environmental objectives in addition to microfinance’s traditional financial and social goals. We argue that the questions of whether and how these instruments contribute to social-ecological change on the ground have so far remained underexplored. Moreover

Urban agriculture (UA) forms a crucial part of the urban food chain in many cities in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). As urbanization continues, it becomes increasingly important to acknowledge the role of UA within the socioeconomic fabric of the city, and build inclusive business models to empower its practitioners. A crucial constraint for this is that various stakeholders in UA often take conflicting

The challenges of applied climate science and decision making require deeper engagement across communities. The RISA program has sustained regional research to advance climate adaptation for 20+ years. Managed to build and sustain relationships through a network, RISA aims to foster capacity necessary for addressing complex climate and social welfare challenges. Reflecting on the design and evolution

This review aims to unravel how partnering processes relate to processes of inclusion in the context of food provisioning. In food provisioning, inclusion has two key dimensions: the inclusion of (low-income) consumers to increase levels of food security, and the inclusion of smallholder producers to promote inclusive economic growth. This review discusses both dimensions and shows that the tandem

Achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the context of a rapidly changing climate and demographics is one of the major challenges for South Asia. Interventions aimed at achieving the SDGs will be varied and are likely to contain basin-wide trade-offs that need to be understood. In this paper, we synthesize recent global hydrology-crop model developments, with a specific

Nitrogen (N) loss from agriculture threatens water quality and affects human health, especially the nitrate leaching. In China, nitrate concentrations in ground-water frequently exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) quality standard for drinking water of 50 mg L−1. In this paper we explore mitigation measures for reducing N loss to water from agriculture. Firstly, we synthesis the current state

A double intergenerational conundrum abounds in sustainability science as young generations of researchers have relatively little influence on current strategic decisions, but inherit their potential future consequences as professionals as well as human-beings. Collaborating with early career researchers (ECRs) in global sustainability initiatives can help address this conundrum. Guided by a model

Food production is a source of various pollutants in aquatic systems. For example, nutrients are lost from fertilized fields, and pathogens from livestock production. Water pollution may impact society and nature. Large-scale water pollution assessments, however, often focus on single pollutants and not on multiple pollutants simultaneously. This study draws lessons from air pollution control for large-scale

Environmental knowledge is a crucial input for public and private decision-making, yet often useful environmental knowledge appears to be unusable for decision-makers. To better understand how usable knowledge can be produced, we need to build on a better understanding of decision-making processes. We distinguish three different logics of decision-making and discuss their implications for knowledge

Adaptation to changing and new environmental conditions is of fundamental importance to sustainability and requires concerted efforts amongst science, policy, and practice to produce solution-oriented knowledge. Joint knowledge production or co-production of knowledge have become increasingly popular terms to describe the process of scientists, policy makers and actors from the civil society coming

Global population growth, an increasing demand for animal products and scarcity of conventional feed ingredients drive the search for alternative protein sources for animal feed. Extensive research indicates that insects provide good opportunities as a sustainable, high quality and low-cost component of animal feed. Here, we discuss how insect farming can promote inclusive business for smallholder

While food is mainly produced in rural areas, the main drivers of consumption are urban environments. The increasing demand for food in cities leads to an accumulation of phosphorus (P) in urban environments, which affects P flows at multiple scales. This study reviewed recent advances, challenges, and opportunities for sustainable management of P flows in decoupled rural–urban environments. We discussed

The integration of male and female smallholders in high-end value chains (e.g. those for tree crops like cocoa, oil palm, avocado, and mango), has been promoted throughout the global South as a strategy for poverty alleviation, economic growth, employment generation, gender equality, and improved wellbeing. More critical literature, however, questions the inclusiveness of farmers’ value chain engagement

Water scarcity has become a crucial environmental issue worldwide. It has increased substantially in the last decades in many parts of the world, and it is expected to further exacerbate in the future driven by socio-economic and climatic changes. Several solution options could be implemented to address this growing water scarcity, including supply and demand-side management options that span the water

The North China Plain (NCP) is a major food producing region in China. Overexploitation of groundwater for irrigation and overapplication of nitrogen (N) fertilizer have contributed to increased food production but have also resulted in water shortages and groundwater contamination. This paper reviews potential conflicts between strategies that ensure water security, food security, and water pollution

Inclusive agribusiness models aim at benefitting broad layers of the farming population in developing countries, not only farmers in well-structured value chains, but also (remote) subsistence smallholders producing for local markets. Under climate change, inclusive business models also need to be made climate-smart to increase the farmers’ resilience. In this paper we provide a brief review of the

Large scale research programmes and networks are an increasingly prominent feature of global change and sustainability research. They aim to bring together researchers with different topical, disciplinary and geographical backgrounds around common issues of concern. Significant human and financial resources are invested in global research programmes and networks. Nevertheless, we know little about

As global demand for food increases and impacts of climate-related extremes become more severe new governance mechanisms have become relevant. Individual and collective efforts by actors in water-for food governance could all contribute to sustainably managing the locally scarce water resources that are mobilized to meet the world’s demand for food. This review synthesises insights from agricultural

Networks are increasingly important for advancing urban science, policy and practice. The complexity that cities present to stakeholders of all kinds demands systems-based and networked approaches to solving sustainability challenges. This article analyses the contemporary rise of global networks of urban science, policy, and practice. We provide an overview of urban science, policy, and practice networks

The loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in landscapes and seascapes creates complex sustainability challenges in climate, biodiversity and food that span local to global levels. Collaborative networks such as The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) link scales through knowledge frameworks and implementation of solutions in response to challenges and opportunities for

This paper discusses how open science can be interlinked with community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address socio-environmental issues. By reviewing three case studies in Japan, the authors developed a theoretical framework to span these inter-actor boundaries by (1) discovering and sharing goals that actors with different interests could tackle together (the transcend method); (2) considering

Global environmental challenges are increasingly complex and interdependent and the sentiment that sustainability requires new approaches to integrating science and policy is ubiquitous. This is the domain of sustainability science. Yet, major gaps exist in our understanding of the relationships between researchers from different disciplines and between science, policy, and management. While scientific

The food systems upon which humanity depends face multiple interdependent environmental, social and economic threats in the 21st Century. Yet, the governance of these systems, which determines to a large extent the ability to adapt and transform in response to these challenges, is underresearched. This perspective piece synthesises the findings of two recent reviews of food systems governance and transformations

Irrigation systems face unforeseeable changes in climate, technologies, and societal preferences during their lifetime, potentially rendering them obsolete or inadequate. To remain functional, irrigation systems need to be adaptive to changes as the future unfolds. Past approaches to irrigation system design were largely informed by engineering or economic criteria. This is increasingly recognised

Understanding the cross-scale linkages between drought and food security is vital to developing tools to reduce drought impacts and support decision making. This study reviews how drought hazards transfer to food insecurity through changes in physical processes and socio-environmental systems across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. We propose a multi-scale, integrated framework leveraging

Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice collaboration, presents principles and recommendations

The threat of climate change and the Paris agreement to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C has stimulated research on and broad commitment to community energy. We investigate this research. We assess how nine different approaches study community energy over time, which methods they use, which countries and regions they focus on, and where they

The Brazilian Research Network on Global Climate Change (Rede CLIMA) is an interdisciplinary network composed of 16 research groups, which interact in different levels and programs. This work aims at building climate change cause–effect research from a ‘Nexus+’ perspective, considering the added value of flexibility and adaptability of the concept. The article draws on the Nexus literature alongside

Food production for a growing world population relies on application of fertilisers and pesticides on agricultural lands. However, these substances threaten surface water quality and thereby endanger valued ecosystem services such as drinking water supply, food production and recreational water use. Such deleterious effects do not merely arise on the local scale, but also on the regional scale through

Virtual water flows, incorporated in global food trade has increased the last decade. The drivers and consequences are complex. These complex relations between humans and water resources are studied from different perspectives. In this article, an overview of four such perspectives on water in global food production and trade is provided. These four perspectives are: (1) More crop per drop for increasing

Transformation of agribusiness is critical in light of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. FinTech and the integration of FinTech with other (green) technologies as well as with digitized agriculture plays an important role when it comes to, for example, SDG 12, specifically, responsible production, as it can mitigate trade-offs and enhance synergies between environmental and social SDGs, for example

Explanations that account for complex causation, emergence, and social-ecological interdependence are necessary for building theories of social-ecological phenomena. Social-ecological systems (SES) research has accumulated rich empirical understanding of SES; however, integration of this knowledge toward contextualized generalizations, or middle-range theories, remains challenging. We discuss the potential

In the last twenty years, multiple large and small hydroelectric dams have begun to transform the Amazonian region, spawning a growing volume of academic research across diverse disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields. In this article, we offer a critical review of recent research related to hydropower and sustainability with a focus on the Brazilian Amazon. We revisit the sustainability concept

The social sciences have engaged since the late 1980s in international collaborative programmes to study questions of sustainability and global change. This article offers an in-depth analysis of the largest long-standing social-science network in this field: the Earth System Governance Project. Originating as a core project of the former International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental

This article discusses the socio-technical transition literature, particularly the Multi-Level Perspective, which investigates the fundamental changes in (energy, transport, housing, agro-food) systems that are needed to address persistent sustainability problems. The article positions the MLP within the wider academic debate on sustainability transformations, and reviews criticisms and seven recent

Human migration to and from rural areas is so prominent and persistent globally that land system science must understand how the movement of people is integral to land system transitions both at the origin of migration and at its destination. With a focus on Latin America, we review research on how land change affects migration and how migration affects land systems, to demonstrate that the relationship