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The dichotomy of conservation vs. sustainable development has generated numerous debates since the introduction of the latter in the late 1980s. In the recent past, many initiatives to address the issue gained ground worldwide, such as ecotourism, a form of tourism that takes place in natural areas, sustains local communities, and involves a learning experience. Even though it might look like the perfect tool to strengthen the link between conservation and sustainable development, ecotourism faces many challenges. Through a case study of Monviso Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, this research aims at understanding local stakeholders' perspectives on the matter. A series of interviews were conducted to explore the possibility for ecotourism to act as a learning tool. Results show that ecotourism had some positive effects, such as the creation of a network for collaboration between various stakeholders. However, negative perceptions still play an inhibiting role. It is discussed that this might be a consequence of one main factor: a lack of proper environmental education. Adjustments in the language and methods used in the educational system and a change of course at higher governmental levels might support ecotourism as a learning tool and a catalyst for sustainable development.

PurposeThis study aims to understand better the student awareness and knowledge on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used in higher education institutions (HEIs) to motivate students' learning on sustainability. It is essential to consider students' understanding of sustainability at the end of their studies to assess whether they feel prepared to apply sustainability in their daily work life.Design/methodology/approachThe study has a quantitative case study design, and the specific method used is an online survey with masters' students using the university student platform EvaSys. The study assesses approaching how students perceive the overall education integrating sustainability into programs and curricula.FindingsThe results showed that work-integrated learning (WIL) projects learning and real-life experiences as part of their studies enhanced the students' understanding of sustainability. Moreover, the study showed that integrating an understanding of the SDGs in teaching offers universities a way to frame students' key competencies in ways that allow them to develop their interpersonal competencies as ambassadors for sustainability in their future work life.Practical implicationsThis study supports the argument that WIL and real-life university experiences enhance students' key competencies critical for sustainability.Originality/valueThe pedagogical approach advanced in this paper addresses how WIL and real-life experiences might develop students' key competencies on sustainability. This approach indicates that working with SDGs in teaching encourages students to promote their interpersonal competencies for sustainability.

Several pressing issues face municipal planners including increased land use and climate change. Managing these issues requires a balance between different actions to accommodate citizen's demands of ecosystem services (ES) and development projects. The implementation of ES as a new tool for assessments needs to be contrasted by research considering existing tools such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). ES has been introduced as a policy tool at the governmental level but implementation at the local and regional scale is still needed; municipalities could benefit from collaboration with the research community for state of the art methods. One obstacle for implementation of ES is that it is not always easy for laymen to understand and additionally, the ES concept may be weakly supported by science. The municipalities realize that a society on its way towards sustainability takes advantage of new knowledge and that interactions with research will put them in the forefront of new scientific questions. The municipalities ask for research that takes a citizen perspective and research that prioritizes questions other than pure environmental considerations. Priorities in municipality planning are based on local conditions and rely on EIA. Many ecological indicators are already covered in EIA and this is reflected in Swedish Comprehensive Plans (SCP) documents, yet need further analysis is needed to be a part of ES. The SCPs present concepts at a policy level and rarely provide a more detailed plan of action compatible with the ES approach. We found that the use of ES concepts in Swedish Comprehensive Plans and in EIA is still not common and in need of further support from research and in practice. The EIA is decisive for comprehensive planning documents in the Swedish municipalities and follows standard format over time and between municipalities. ES is focused on human needs while the EIA describes place based assessments on environmental impact rather than feedback to the society by the intervention. ...

Background: Several pressing issues face municipal planners including increased land use and climate change. Managing these issues requires a balance between different actions to accommodate citizen's demands of ecosystem services (ES) and development projects. The implementation of ES as a new tool for assessments needs to be contrasted by research considering existing tools such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). ES has been introduced as a policy tool at the governmental level but implementation at the local and regional scale is still needed; municipalities could benefit from collaboration with the research community for state of the art methods. One obstacle for implementation of ES is that it is not always easy for laymen to understand and additionally, the ES concept may be weakly supported by science. The municipalities realize that a society on its way towards sustainability takes advantage of new knowledge and that interactions with research will put them in the forefront of new scientific questions. The municipalities ask for research that takes a citizen perspective and research that prioritizes questions other than pure environmental considerations. Priorities in municipality planning are based on local conditions and rely on EIA. Many ecological indicators are already covered in EIA and this is reflected in Swedish Comprehensive Plans (SCP) documents, yet need further analysis is needed to be a part of ES. The SCPs present concepts at a policy level and rarely provide a more detailed plan of action compatible with the ES approach. New information: We found that the use of ES concepts in Swedish Comprehensive Plans and in EIA is still not common and in need of further support from research and in practice. The EIA is decisive for comprehensive planning documents in the Swedish municipalities and follows standard format over time and between municipalities. ES is focused on human needs while the EIA describes place based assessments on environmental impact rather than feedback to the society by the intervention. Municipalities of south Sweden ask for research support in many different areas, for instance how to set up proper organization for implementation of ES and environmental issues, but priorities are based on their local conditions. The results shows that collaboration between stakeholders and researchers is needed which can create incentives, so that the decisions made by individuals, communities, corporations, and governments may be able to promote widely shared values compatible with ES. Researchers and municipalities who work on an operational level face many challenges in promoting greater use of the ES approach, with some of them yet to be defined. We conclude that implementation of ES could draw from lessons learned in the use of EIA. Further, it is presented that ES has the potential for greater public and stakeholder feedback into decisions as compared to EIA. ; ECOSIMP

Transdisciplinary research and collaboration iswidely acknowledged as a critical success factor for solution-oriented approaches that can tackle complex sustainabilitychallenges, such as biodiversity loss, pollution, andclimate-related hazards. In this context, city governments'engagement in transdisciplinarity is generally seen as a keycondition for societal transformation towards sustainability.However, empirical evidence is rare. This paper presentsa self-assessment of a joint research project onecosystem services and climate adaptation planning(ECOSIMP) undertaken by four universities and sevenSwedish municipalities. We apply a set of design principlesand guiding questions for transdisciplinary sustainabilityprojects and, on this basis, identify key aspects for supporting university–municipality collaboration. Weshow that: (1) selecting the number and type of projectstakeholders requires more explicit consideration of thepurpose of societal actors' participation; (2) concrete,interim benefits for participating practitioners and organisationsneed to be continuously discussed; (3) promotingthe 'inter', i.e., interdisciplinary and inter-city learning, cansupport transdisciplinarity and, ultimately, urban sustainabilityand long-term change. In this context, we found thatdesign principles for transdisciplinarity have the potentialto (4) mitigate project shortcomings, even when transdisciplinarityis not an explicit aim, and (5) address differencesand allow new voices to be heard. We proposeadditional guiding questions to address shortcomings andinspire reflexivity in transdisciplinary projects.

Transdisciplinary research and collaboration is widely acknowledged as a critical success factor for solution-oriented approaches that can tackle complex sustainability challenges, such as biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate-related hazards. In this context, city governments' engagement in transdisciplinarity is generally seen as a key condition for societal transformation towards sustainability. However, empirical evidence is rare. This paper presents a self-assessment of a joint research project on ecosystem services and climate adaptation planning (ECOSIMP) undertaken by four universities and seven Swedish municipalities. We apply a set of design principles and guiding questions for transdisciplinary sustainability projects and, on this basis, identify key aspects for supporting university-municipality collaboration. We show that: (1) selecting the number and type of project stakeholders requires more explicit consideration of the purpose of societal actors' participation; (2) concrete, interim benefits for participating practitioners and organisations need to be continuously discussed; (3) promoting the 'inter', i.e., interdisciplinary and inter-city learning, can support transdisciplinarity and, ultimately, urban sustainability and long-term change. In this context, we found that design principles for transdisciplinarity have the potential to (4) mitigate project shortcomings, even when transdisciplinarity is not an explicit aim, and (5) address differences and allow new voices to be heard. We propose additional guiding questions to address shortcomings and inspire reflexivity in transdisciplinary projects.

Current sustainability challenges demand approaches that acknowledge a plurality of human-nature interactions and worldviews, for which biocultural approaches are considered appropriate and timely. This systematic review analyses the application of biocultural approaches to sustainability in scientific journal articles published between 1990 and 2018 through a mixed methods approach combining qualitative content analysis and quantitative multivariate methods. The study identifies seven distinct biocultural lenses, that is, different ways of understanding and applying biocultural approaches, which to different degrees consider the key aspects of sustainability science-inter- and transdisciplinarity, social justice and normativity. The review suggests that biocultural approaches in sustainability science need to move from describing how nature and culture are co-produced to co-producing knowledge for sustainability solutions, and in so doing, better account for questions of power, gender and transformations, which has been largely neglected thus far. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. ; Peer reviewed