The Simplified Integrated Planning Approach (IPA) decision model for effective management of ecosystem service trade-offs. Broken arrows indicate feedbacks and the broken double line means close and/or open end. 

Contexts in source publication

Context 1

... inevitability of climate change impacts, now conveyed through the media and other scientific communication, conspicuous events such as Hurricane Katrina, as well as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, have helped to "legitimise" adaptation as a necessary complement to mitigation (Figure 1). Nevertheless, realisation of the magnitude of the challenge is still very limited. Early experiences pacts to the "backburners" of ...

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... the Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS) project approaches its synthesis phase (see "THE GECAFS SYNTHESIS", P62 OF THIS MAGAzINE), the interactions between the governance of food and the governance of the earth system have emerged as important research themes. The goal of GECAFS has been to determine strategies to cope with the impacts of global environmental change on food systems and to assess the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of adaptive responses aimed at improving food security (GECAFS 2005). The GECAFS research agenda is specifically targeted to- wards delivering the science necessary to underpin policy formulation for improving food security in the face of global environmental change, where food security is defined as "when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life" (UN FAO 1996). GECAFS has set out to (a) investigate how global environmental change affects food security at regional level; (b) determine the options available for adapting regional food systems to cope with both global environmental change and changing demands for food; (c) assess how potential adapta- tion options will affect the environ- ment, societies and economies; and (d) engage the international global environmental change and develop- ment communities in policy discus- sions to improve food security. One of the main objectives of GECAFS is to show that the relationship between en- vironmental change and food systems is about much more than food produc- tion; it must also address the complex issues of food availability, access, and utilisation, both now and in region- specific future scenarios (ERICKSEN 2008). GECAFS also has a strong focus on food system vulnerabilities, on op- tions for reducing exposure to risk and increasing coping capacity, and on the IHDP Update Issue 3, 2009 major agricultural exporters such as North America and the EU trying to control discussions about trade, and food insecure countries, especially in Africa, positioning themselves to receive assistance and more favourable trading opportunities. Food aid has often been used by powerful coun- tries as both a political tool (to assist their allies) and instrument of war and genocide (to destroy food ...

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... of or limited information on the costs and benefits of alterna- tive policy options is another cause of trade-off. In a study in the Xizhuang Watershed, Yunnan China, JUN & JIANCHU (2009) observed that in the process of implementing policies to return farmlands to natural habitat, several other problems cropped up. One, intensive agriculture had to be practiced, which resulted in the rise of pesticide and pollution levels; two, men in the labour force left in search of alternatives to augment family term, because dramatic decline from which it is difficult to recover may occur as the ecosystem reaches tipping point, that is, the threshold at which rapid change occurs (SCHEFFER ET AL. 2001). Put succinctly, the four major elements in the IPA (Figure 1) include: situation analysis, strategy formula- tion, strategy implementation, and strategy ...

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... project's Science and Implementation Plan (see BIERMANN ET AL. 2009) develops a research framework with five analytical prob- lems and four crosscutting themes that could be studied in-depth, using a set of four flagship activities (see figure 1). At the core of the framework are the five analytical problems of the overall architecture of earth system governance; of agency beyond the state and of the state; of the adaptive- ness of governance mechanisms and processes; of their accountability and legitimacy; and of modes of allocation and access in earth system governance (BIERMANN 2007;BIERMANN ET AL. ...

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... current debate on climate change-induced security risks (WBGU 2008) suggests that climate change, along with the globalisation of the food system, will exacerbate existing conflicts around food, land and water, and may create violent food systems ( EAKIN ET AL. 2010). An extreme posi- tion is that "climate wars" (DYER 2008) may break out, because some countries and some groups will suffer more than others. Violent scenarios are set out: dwindling resources; natural disasters; spreading epidemics; and plummeting agricultural yields, may crash econo- mies, spread political turmoil, and destabilise entire regions (DYER 2008). Violence around food plays a crucial role in these scenarios. At the extreme end, "food wars" (BELLO 2009) are called out as a "global battle for mouths, minds and markets" (LANG & HEASMAN 2004). The global food crisis in 2007/2008 has shown how the hike in global food prices has pushed hun- dreds of millions of people into hunger, deprivation and poverty, and how it has sparked riots and violent protests around the world (Fig. 1, next page). The food crisis has also revealed the fragmented nature of policy responses that have combined food subsidies, price controls, export restrictions, and the distribution of food reserves, in a rather random and ad hoc manner (Fig. 1, next page). The food policy landscape proved to be neither sufficiently linked nor coordinated to cope with the new global challenges that food systems are facing. New adaptive modes of food governance are therefore urgently ...

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... current debate on climate change-induced security risks (WBGU 2008) suggests that climate change, along with the globalisation of the food system, will exacerbate existing conflicts around food, land and water, and may create violent food systems ( EAKIN ET AL. 2010). An extreme posi- tion is that "climate wars" (DYER 2008) may break out, because some countries and some groups will suffer more than others. Violent scenarios are set out: dwindling resources; natural disasters; spreading epidemics; and plummeting agricultural yields, may crash econo- mies, spread political turmoil, and destabilise entire regions (DYER 2008). Violence around food plays a crucial role in these scenarios. At the extreme end, "food wars" (BELLO 2009) are called out as a "global battle for mouths, minds and markets" (LANG & HEASMAN 2004). The global food crisis in 2007/2008 has shown how the hike in global food prices has pushed hun- dreds of millions of people into hunger, deprivation and poverty, and how it has sparked riots and violent protests around the world (Fig. 1, next page). The food crisis has also revealed the fragmented nature of policy responses that have combined food subsidies, price controls, export restrictions, and the distribution of food reserves, in a rather random and ad hoc manner (Fig. 1, next page). The food policy landscape proved to be neither sufficiently linked nor coordinated to cope with the new global challenges that food systems are facing. New adaptive modes of food governance are therefore urgently ...

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... above referenced factors are structural and more resistant to change, thus powerfully constrain- ing authorities' efforts to reduce emissions. For instance, differences in levels of economic development and affluence (as measured by GDP per capita) are the result of long- term processes of complex carbon and climate implications (ROMERO LANKAO 2008, ROMERO LANKAO ET AL. 2008. Because economic growth endogenously reduces environmental stress, the GHG emissions resulting from economic growth increase in the early stages of development, but stabilise and then decline as econo- mies mature (thus depicting a Kuznets curve, Figure 1). Notwithstanding improved efficiencies, total emissions are tracking above the most intense fossil fuel scenario established by the IPCC, A1FI-A1 Fossil Fuel intensive; and moving away from stabilisation scenarios of 450 ppm and 650 ppm (ROMERO LANKAO ET AL. 2008). While the carbon-climate burdens of urban poverty (e.g. land use changes) primar- ily affect the poor living in the imme- diate locality, those of affluence (such as GHG) can affect both rich and poor people around the globe. Urban form and density offer another example of endurance, explaining why authorities can only effectively promote transit for trips towards dense downtown areas (of above 150 people/ha), or in mono- centric cities, where trips' origins are dispersed but destinations are concen- trated (BERTAUD ET AL. 2009). More efficient and alternative modes of individual transportation (e.g. hybrid and electric cars) and microbuses, fit better in polycentric cities, where ori- gin and destinations of trips are both ...

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... new IHDP initiative entitled "knowledge, learning, and societal change in the transition to a sustain- able future" (KLSC) is in its planning phase. The KLSC initiative aims to understand the complex relationships between the production, communica- tion, learning, and using of knowledge, on the one hand, and changes (or lack thereof ) in attitudes and behaviours regarding sustainability on the part of individuals, groups, and societ- ies -especially those changes that are associated with learning and under- standing -on the other. These issues are closely connected to the develop- ment and implementation of and ad- herence to governance processes. We can view the process envis- aged in the programme as a 'double loop' learning process. One loop is the experimental process of creating a nexus between scientists and practitio- ners, and learning from existing cases or conducting field experiments. The other is the reflection upon these les- sons and deepening scientific insights through this reflection (see figure ...