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Break / Networking

Research Session

Land and the benefits from it are unequally distributed and trends are anticipated to worsen over the course of the 21st century (Meyfroidt et al, 2022). The wealthiest 10% of rural populations capture approximately 60% of agricultural land value, whereas the poorest 50% capture only 3% (Anseeuw & Baldinelli, 2020). The implications for society and the environment of changing land distributions include food insecurity, climate change, human health, culture and identity, and concentration of resources and power. However, data, insights and understanding of the risks and rewards that come with changing size and distribution of land assets remain limited in several dimensions. First, we need better methods to map and monitor changes in land inequality or consolidation at local scales, and connect those to global drivers. Stemming from this challenge are few studies that map the consequences of land inequality to those who benefit versus those who lose out, or provide policy analyses of interventions that can redress land inequality, equalize benefits, or mitigate risks.Given the prevalence of land consolidation and its importance, this session aims to invoke opportunities for Land System Science to contribute new theory, methods, and praxis on the study of land inequality. This session will bring together emerging scholarships on the topics of land consolidation, its determinants, and consequences. We invite papers that investigate i) methods to uncover various dimensions of land inequality, monitor, or map metrics of land inequality; ii) analyses that characterize drivers of changes in land inequality; iii) investigations on the social or environmental consequences of land consolidation with attention to the distributional dynamics at play and iv) policy analyses that identify pathways to ensure benefits and risks of these transitions are addressed.

Research Session

Organizer(s): Kimberly Carlson, Matthew Hayek, Sonali McDermid, David Kanter, James Gerber, Paul West, Carole Dalin Much is being asked of the world’s land to meet ambitious climate mitigation and adaptation goals. For instance, land is expected to store carbon reliably in soils and biomass while continuing to feed a growing population and support diverse and resilient ecosystems under a warming and more extreme climate. Government climate change policies, as well as voluntary carbon markets, are already shaping land use and management decisions. Specifically, actors are undertaking a diverse suite of land-based “climate actions.” These include clean energy production to replace fossil fuels (e.g., wind, solar, hydro, bioenergy + carbon capture and storage), ecosystem carbon flux alterations in natural systems (e.g., afforestation, reforestation, reduced deforestation, fire management, peatland restoration) and agricultural systems (e.g., optimized N fertilizer application to croplands, reduced cropland tillage, alternate wetting-drying of rice paddies), and forest management to manage fire risk under climate change. A substantial literature is developing around the co-benefits and trade-offs between such climate actions and other sustainable development objectives (e.g., produce enough food to feed a growing population). Yet major gaps in our understanding of interactions between different land-based climate mitigation and adaptation measures remain. Thus, in this session, we welcome research that aims to evaluate how different land-based climate actions interact with (e.g., compete with or complement) each other across space and time. In the process of addressing this aim, we will tackle questions such as: Where is climate action on land currently happening or planned for the future? How will diverse climate actions perform under a changing climate? What are the equity and justice implications of different climate actions? This session is meant to complement the Interactive, Immersive, or Innovative Session named Climate Action on Land: World Café.

Research Session

Tropical forests hold most of the world’s biodiversity and various efforts have been made to curb deforestation and biodiversity loss. These efforts mainly focus on monitoring forest cover and carbon dynamics at local to global scale with the use of fine resolution to coarse resolution satellite data. The UN-Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) initiative, which aims to conserve carbon storage of tropical forests while safeguarding biodiversity also needs real-time information about change in forest cover. With the advancement of geospatial techniques, the quantification of the terrestrial ecosystem and their role in climate change mitigation has been widely studied. Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Different from deforestation, which has established remote sensing data and methods for its monitoring, forest degradation monitoring is still challenging, especially with remote sensing. Recent conservation efforts have seen the result of forest recovery and enhancement, and yet monitoring forest recovery is also challenging on a larger scale. To increase forest cover and counteract climate change effects, forest plantation has been adopted by some countries as a strategy. Comparing with naturally regenerated forest, forest plantation has less biodiversity and limited capacity to provide ecosystem services. To assess the effect of reforestation and forest regeneration in mitigating climate change, multi-spatiotemporal data and improved mapping methods such as machine learning play a major role. It also demonstrates the effects of climate variability on forests and biodiversity and how stable forests respond to climate variability. The goal of this session is to invite papers that are able to (1) explore the role of geospatial techniques to quantify terrestrial ecosystems in climate change mitigation, (2) apply innovative multi-sensor approaches to analyze land use/land cover change, deforestation, and forest degradation, and (3) integrate remote sensing and ground-based observation to improve terrestrial ecosystem monitoring.

Research Session

The growing spatial footprint and role of conservation suggests conservation will be a central component of many land systems, with far-reaching but often weakly understood social-ecological implications. Similarly, conservation increasingly interacts and competes with other land uses, creating opportunities and challenges. In this session we explore the role of conservation in land systems and the opportunities of seeing conservation as a land use (e.g., as a strategy, as a policy, as an activity, as a land-use type) and addressing and studying it through concepts and methodologies of Land System Science. We also discuss the limitations of such a framing. We invite both conceptual or empirical contributions addressing these issues, including changes in the extent and intensity of area-based conservation, cross-scale interactions, feedbacks and trade-offs between conservation and other land uses, and the opportunities and risks of seeing conservation as a land use. As an example, the footprint of area-based conservation has grown rapidly over the last decades and is expected to keep expanding, given the ambitious conservation policy goals and targets formulated under the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. The latter include targets to conserve 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas (i.e., “30x30”, Target 3) and to restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems (Target 2), but also to place all lands under biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning and land management (Target 1). What are the social-ecological impacts of implementing these ambitious goals? How could conservation be mainstreamed to be integral to land management and governance? How will area-based observation feed back on other land uses and the trade-offs among them? We suggest that cross-fertilizing between Land System Science and Conservation Science has considerable potential to better address and answer such questions.

Research Session

We kindly invite researchers and practitioners to submit abstracts that explore alternative and transformative land use futures. These futures may help stakeholders to address regional needs in the face of multiple social-ecological crises.The conception of stakeholders on potential future developments is embedded in systems of power, as they shape what is considered rational and achievable. In this regard, prevailing power systems may constrain transformative processes in social-ecological systems. To overcome this constraint, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary participatory stakeholder engagement is suggested, which expands the space of possible futures rather than constraining it. Grassroots approaches, in particular, can represent embryonic forms of a different society, as they typically challenge the impression that there are no alternatives by prefiguring concrete utopias on a local scale. Furthermore, since their knowledge and visions are rooted in daily experiences, they are aware of the local and regional aspects which may constrain or trigger transformative processes in social-ecological systems and land use systems in particular. Participatory scenario building may enable the modeling and further research on the causal-consequences of those transformative approaches.Therefore, we welcome a diverse range of perspectives and insights that contribute to the exploration of alternative land use futures and the participatory modeling of land use systems.Examples for Research Questions and Topics are:1. Integrated land use modeling: How to develop modelling approaches for strong integration of local stakeholder demands and visions in land use change simulations?2. In which way do power relations shape the futures depicted in land use scenarios and their contributions to imaginations of the future?3. Discuss normative approaches that seek to strengthen specific alternatives and their impact on land use modeling. How can normative approaches enable land use transformations?

Research Session

Organizer(s): Samuel Levy, Leah Samberg Non-forest natural ecosystems, which include grasslands, savannas, shrublands, and wetlands are vital to maintaining biodiversity, terrestrial carbon stocks, and traditional ways of life across the globe. Despite their importance, protections for these ecosystems are far weaker than for forested ecosystems. Non-forest natural ecosystems receive less funding, have lower coverage by protected areas, and are less well mapped than their forested counterparts. Likely as a result, large-scale land use change is increasing in many non-forest ecosystems, in many cases driven by expansion of large-scale agricultural commodity production. Multi-national commodity companies are increasingly expanding their no deforestation commitments to include provisions requiring no conversion of any natural ecosystems to achieve targets regarding emissions reductions and biodiversity conservation. Resultantly, there is an urgent need for better data to enable these corporations to monitor and implement their no conversion commitments. Improved understanding of the drivers and hotspots of non-forest natural ecosystem conversion is critical to assess the state and trajectories of these vitally important land systems and to enable transformative change and protect non-forest ecosystems’ carbon stocks and biodiversity. In this session we aim to bring together novel research into these issues and to foster discussion that can cut across the diversity of non-natural forest ecosystems and the public and private policies that exist to govern them. Potential topics and methodological approaches include but are not limited to: global or regional mapping of non-forest natural ecosystems and their conversion; assessments of the impacts of natural ecosystem conversion, including carbon emissions, biodiversity losses, and livelihood impacts; comparative case studies of land use frontiers dynamics in non-forest natural ecosystems; assessments of the effectiveness of public or private land use policies at reducing non-forest natural ecosystem conversion. We encourage research from tropical and non-tropical regions, as well as research that is qualitative or quantitative in methodology.

Research Session

Organizer(s): Andressa Vianna Mansur, Unai Pascual, Julie G. Zaehringer, Eda Elif Tibet, Lasse Loft, The pervasive impacts of human activities on nature underscores the pressing need for transformative changes, in turn based on deep redefinitions of human-nature relationships. Recognizing and respecting people's diverse values and knowledge systems are pivotal leverage points in driving sustainable and just transformations. Transdisciplinary efforts that prioritize co-producing actionable knowledge and embracing relationality perspectives become imperative in addressing the multifaceted challenges related to land system sustainability. New tools and approaches in knowledge co-production to catalyze transformative change are emerging, ranging from participatory mapping and scenario-building exercises to art-based activities. This session seeks to delve into the evolving landscape of methodological innovations and best practices within the field of transdisciplinary co-production. The focus is on gaining insights from practical applications of methodologies across a diversity of social-ecological contexts, exploring their potential role as catalysts for transformations as well as their challenges. Emphasis will also be placed on presenting and discussing how to navigate and understand the complex power dynamics inherent in transdisciplinary engagements.The session will present learning experiences from a set of case studies both in the Global South (Laos and Brazil) and the Global North (Germany and the Basque Country) associated with the ongoing research project BridgingVALUES. The session is also open to researchers engaged in similar research projects willing to share practical case studies, showcasing insights, lessons learned, and challenges faced while fostering inclusive, collaborative transformations across diverse contexts, ranging from local to regional scales.

Research Session

Organizer(s): James Gerber, Paul West, Kimberly Carlson, Carole Dalin Implementation of climate mitigation solutions with human well-being co-benefits is advancing in multiple sectors, particularly transportation and energy production which comprise 15 and 23% of GHG emissions respectively. At the same time, there is far less progress for solutions in the agriculture and land-use sector which is responsible for 22% of GHG emissions. And yet, many land-used based solutions with co-benefits are already demonstrated to exist, such as silvopasture, forest restoration, conservation agriculture, or reducing food waste. Just as there are multiple barriers to uptake of these land-use sector solutions, there can be multiple pathways to enabling their uptake, ranging from mapping solutions and tradeoffs to better understanding and addressing social factors impeding uptake. Progress in the land use sector will be critical to meeting climate and human well-being goals and will be the next frontier in the transition to a cleaner future. In this session we propose to explore implementation of transformations to the food system that will achieve climate mitigation goals while also providing co-benefits for people and planet. We welcome contributions that present science-based approaches to assessing tradeoffs between competing land uses and their contributions to climate change, economies, ecosystem services, and human well-being. Prospective studies, or analyses of on-going intervention, will be welcome. This session is proposed for joint consideration with sessions "Achieving Sustainable Food Systems" (Main organizer: Carole Dalin) and "Climate Action on Land" (Main organizer: Kim Carlson)

Research Session

Conservation-development interactions are intensifying in Latin America because of environmental and land-use changes (Zimmerer 2011). Historically, agricultural expansion in the region has been poorly regulated, resulting in the loss of high-biodiversity tropical ecosystems (Clark et al., 2012; Estrada-Carmona et al., 2014) alongside an inequitable accruement of economic benefits from deforestation that does little to alleviate poverty (Schatan 2002). In recognition of the current major challenges of increasing agricultural productivity, promoting rural development, and conserving natural resources during climate change, many governments have developed policies to simultaneously combat rural poverty and promote sustainable agriculture (Ayala-Ortíz 2008). In Mexico and other Latin American countries, rural development policy has been based on compensation programs through conditional cash transfers (CCTs) since the 1990s. The basic idea behind CCTs is to provide poor rural households with a minimum income to secure agricultural activities, children's education, and healthcare, among other things. For example, since 2019 the Mexican federal government has introduced "Sembrando Vida" as a flagship program to combat rural poverty and environmental degradation, promote food security, and mitigate climate change through the planting of one million hectares of fruit and timber trees in agroforestry systems. In Sembrando Vida, beneficiaries receive a monthly salary to maintain agroforestry plots, alongside plant provisioning from government -supervised nurseries, extensive extension services, and a structure for community learning.In this session, we aim to a) analyze how Sembrando Vida contributes to rural governance by simultaneously promoting smallholder agriculture and environmental protection; b) compare and contrast sustainable rural development approaches across Latin America; and c) discuss the most common trade-offs that arise from simultaneous support of environmental protection and household consumption and wellbeing.

Lunch

Research Session

By 2050, over two thirds of the global population will live in urban settlements. Such rapid urbanization has the potential to transform rural-urban connections that include the flows of labor, economic development and food systems. Rapid urbanization is often coupled with changing demographic structures as young people migrate to cities in search of employment. Agricultural systems are transforming in response to the growing urban demands for food, fuel, and fiber, intensifying, expanding, and often changing in character. Alongside these dynamics, climate change poses a significant threat to rural agricultural production and urban livelihoods that can threaten economic security, leading to potential societal instability and conflict, especially when coupled with rapid demographic change. To understand and predict how these complex factors may influence socioeconomic development and political stability requires a detailed understanding of this nexus between climate, food, and urbanization (CFU).In this session, we seek to provide an overview of the state of the CFU system, the drivers behind rapid transformation, and identify possible future trajectories. We welcome interdisciplinary submissions from both natural and social scientists across a variety of regional, or global contexts. We encourage contributions that employ integrated human-environment systems approaches to assess elements of the CFU nexus, taking into account urbanization, economic, and demographic processes that drive changes and shape vulnerabilities within the system, as well as work that identifies possible interventions to promote sustainable development, resilient food systems, and stable political landscapes. We also seek submissions presenting new high spatio-temporal resolution datasets that can help analyze the CFU nexus.

Research Session

Organizer(s): Kimberly Carlson, Matthew Hayek, Sonali McDermid, David Kanter, James Gerber, Paul West, Carole Dalin Much is being asked of the world’s land to meet ambitious climate mitigation and adaptation goals. For instance, land is expected to store carbon reliably in soils and biomass while continuing to feed a growing population and support diverse and resilient ecosystems under a warming and more extreme climate. Government climate change policies, as well as voluntary carbon markets, are already shaping land use and management decisions. Specifically, actors are undertaking a diverse suite of land-based “climate actions.” These include clean energy production to replace fossil fuels (e.g., wind, solar, hydro, bioenergy + carbon capture and storage), ecosystem carbon flux alterations in natural systems (e.g., afforestation, reforestation, reduced deforestation, fire management, peatland restoration) and agricultural systems (e.g., optimized N fertilizer application to croplands, reduced cropland tillage, alternate wetting-drying of rice paddies), and forest management to manage fire risk under climate change. A substantial literature is developing around the co-benefits and trade-offs between such climate actions and other sustainable development objectives (e.g., produce enough food to feed a growing population). Yet major gaps in our understanding of interactions between different land-based climate mitigation and adaptation measures remain. Thus, in this session, we welcome research that aims to evaluate how different land-based climate actions interact with (e.g., compete with or complement) each other across space and time. In the process of addressing this aim, we will tackle questions such as: Where is climate action on land currently happening or planned for the future? How will diverse climate actions perform under a changing climate? What are the equity and justice implications of different climate actions? This session is meant to complement the Interactive, Immersive, or Innovative Session named Climate Action on Land: World Café.

Research Session

The growing spatial footprint and role of conservation suggests conservation will be a central component of many land systems, with far-reaching but often weakly understood social-ecological implications. Similarly, conservation increasingly interacts and competes with other land uses, creating opportunities and challenges. In this session we explore the role of conservation in land systems and the opportunities of seeing conservation as a land use (e.g., as a strategy, as a policy, as an activity, as a land-use type) and addressing and studying it through concepts and methodologies of Land System Science. We also discuss the limitations of such a framing. We invite both conceptual or empirical contributions addressing these issues, including changes in the extent and intensity of area-based conservation, cross-scale interactions, feedbacks and trade-offs between conservation and other land uses, and the opportunities and risks of seeing conservation as a land use. As an example, the footprint of area-based conservation has grown rapidly over the last decades and is expected to keep expanding, given the ambitious conservation policy goals and targets formulated under the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. The latter include targets to conserve 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas (i.e., “30x30”, Target 3) and to restore 30% of all degraded ecosystems (Target 2), but also to place all lands under biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning and land management (Target 1). What are the social-ecological impacts of implementing these ambitious goals? How could conservation be mainstreamed to be integral to land management and governance? How will area-based observation feed back on other land uses and the trade-offs among them? We suggest that cross-fertilizing between Land System Science and Conservation Science has considerable potential to better address and answer such questions.

Research Session

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programmes have mushroomed worldwide over the last two decades as key economic instruments for natural resources governance, including forest conservation. This session aims to delve into the diverse global experiences so far and future prospects of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programmes across various countries and settings. Reflecting the meeting's focus on envisioning sustainable land futures, the session will explore the key processes, drivers, and future implications of distinct trajectories of PES implementation. By examining settings where PES have proven to be successful but have otherwise faced implementation challenges over the long-term, we aim to uncover the intricacies of funding limitations, fluctuating political landscapes, and other factors that are hindering continued deployment. We will also explore cases where sustained PES implementation has been achieved, highlighting drivers such as innovative financial strategies and policy frameworks that have ensured continuity and effectiveness. Finally, the session will highlight regions that are just beginning to implement PES, thus providing insights into the early challenges and potential pathways for these nascent initiatives.In line with the meeting's emphasis on forecasting land system futures, this session will discuss how varying PES trajectories influence the transformation of landscapes and communities. We will address critical questions such as: What land system futures are unfolding due to diverse PES practices? What are the driving forces behind these evolving scenarios, and which trajectories are most likely to dominate? Additionally, we will explore how visions for land systems and PES vary among different communities and stakeholders, acknowledging the importance of inclusive and diverse perspectives in shaping sustainable futures. We hope to shed light on the complex dynamics governing PES long-term trajectories, thus enriching the conversation on PES’ scope for achieving significant gains in land management and conservation in an era of unprecedented environmental challenges.

Research Session

Organizer(s): Johanna Coenen, Julie Zähringer, Maria-José Ibarrola, Ceclilie Friis International and transnational policies and agreements are paramount to address the root causes of environmental degradation around the world. Recently, two new governance initiatives have entered the scene: first, the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Targets (GBF), aiming to bend the curve of biodiversity loss, and second, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR). These have a strong potential to deliver positive outcomes for nature, however, trade-offs with social-economic development goals and unintended negative ecological consequences could also be expected. The telecoupling framework could be used to anticipate and report impacts of these governance initiatives on the ground, but also to identify feedback mechanisms and unintended spill-overs to other land- or social-ecological systems. With our session we would like to start a debate and bring these most current international interventions towards sustainable (ecological) development into the spotlight. The novelty of the GBF and the EUDR present a unique opportunity to follow the implementation and potentially positive and negative consequences for just and sustainable land system development in the coming years.The session will bring together 5-6 speakers, who will address the topic from different perspectives.

Research Session

The ability of humankind to change the earth’s biophysical systems from local to global scales while at the same time depending on and taking benefit from a functioning biosphere for its well-being is unprecedented with the onset of the Anthropocene. In turn, societies and individuals are increasingly affected by global environmental change and are trying to adapt to it in multiple ways. These inter-dependencies give rise to non-linear, cross-scale dynamics that pose multifaceted challenges for the sustainability of social-ecological systems (SESs). Studying cross-scale interactions are crucial for identifying possible interventions to overcome the challenges of the Anthropocene, e.g., biodiversity loss, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and sustainably providing food and other resources for a growing human population. Modelling tools can be used for this purpose as they offer the ability to link social and biophysical dynamics within and between the levels of organization at multiple spatial and temporal scales. This allows for testing hypothesis and to examine scenarios that can support environmental management and policy design. For this research presentation session, we are inviting contributions that (i) present new vistas or (ii) recent findings of relevance to the modelling of social-ecological systems across scale, or (iii) present new solutions in how to model and assess such complex systems. Such studies ideally cross at least two spatial scales (e.g., watershed-river basin, farm-landscape, community-municipality, etc.), may put further emphasis on related stakeholder interactions, co-design and feedback processes, and even consider other scales such as organizational or temporal. Invited presentations could further focus on simulating the multi-functionality of landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide to communities and societies in general, present new vistas or solutions in how to (better) represent and simulate SES across-scale by using deforestation-free or tele-coupled value chains and the related land system interactions as cases among others.

Research Session

Organizer(s): María de Jesús Ordóñez Díaz, José Carmen García Flores, Diana Marcela Mendoza Salazar The territory is the space inhabited by a cultural group that creates, defines and transforms the place, where a network of social interrelations and cultural practices linked to the spatial dimension take place, thus involving symbolic meanings that societies develop in intimate connection with nature. Multiple processes of land conversion and land use change occur in this scenario, due to different economic, political and social factors, since each actor makes his or her own decisions about the activities carried out in the space. However, the territorial vision of the local communities allows the use of nature in a rational and harmonious way. The appropriation of territory occurs at different scales ranging from the plot of land, through the community, to the creation of landscapes for the use, management and conservation of natural resources. We believe that imagining possible futures must include the participation of diverse actors such as farmers, academics, politicians and citizens, in addition, carrying out land use planning must consider property rights, the gender approach and local empowerment. The session will address the perception of socio-environmental problems, forest fragmentation, landscape valuation, the multifunctionality of the family garden and the tool of biocultural protocols in environmental management for indigenous peoples. Reflection on the themes will contribute to answering the questions: How do visions of land systems vary among different communities and actors? What future land systems are opening up before our eyes? What futures are most likely to occur? What repercussions would certain policy measures have on the configuration of our planet and our society?

Research Session

Organizer(s): Samuel Levy, Leah Samberg Non-forest natural ecosystems, which include grasslands, savannas, shrublands, and wetlands are vital to maintaining biodiversity, terrestrial carbon stocks, and traditional ways of life across the globe. Despite their importance, protections for these ecosystems are far weaker than for forested ecosystems. Non-forest natural ecosystems receive less funding, have lower coverage by protected areas, and are less well mapped than their forested counterparts. Likely as a result, large-scale land use change is increasing in many non-forest ecosystems, in many cases driven by expansion of large-scale agricultural commodity production. Multi-national commodity companies are increasingly expanding their no deforestation commitments to include provisions requiring no conversion of any natural ecosystems to achieve targets regarding emissions reductions and biodiversity conservation. Resultantly, there is an urgent need for better data to enable these corporations to monitor and implement their no conversion commitments. Improved understanding of the drivers and hotspots of non-forest natural ecosystem conversion is critical to assess the state and trajectories of these vitally important land systems and to enable transformative change and protect non-forest ecosystems’ carbon stocks and biodiversity. In this session we aim to bring together novel research into these issues and to foster discussion that can cut across the diversity of non-natural forest ecosystems and the public and private policies that exist to govern them. Potential topics and methodological approaches include but are not limited to: global or regional mapping of non-forest natural ecosystems and their conversion; assessments of the impacts of natural ecosystem conversion, including carbon emissions, biodiversity losses, and livelihood impacts; comparative case studies of land use frontiers dynamics in non-forest natural ecosystems; assessments of the effectiveness of public or private land use policies at reducing non-forest natural ecosystem conversion. We encourage research from tropical and non-tropical regions, as well as research that is qualitative or quantitative in methodology.

Research Session

Organizer(s): James Gerber, Paul West, Kimberly Carlson, Carole Dalin Implementation of climate mitigation solutions with human well-being co-benefits is advancing in multiple sectors, particularly transportation and energy production which comprise 15 and 23% of GHG emissions respectively. At the same time, there is far less progress for solutions in the agriculture and land-use sector which is responsible for 22% of GHG emissions. And yet, many land-used based solutions with co-benefits are already demonstrated to exist, such as silvopasture, forest restoration, conservation agriculture, or reducing food waste. Just as there are multiple barriers to uptake of these land-use sector solutions, there can be multiple pathways to enabling their uptake, ranging from mapping solutions and tradeoffs to better understanding and addressing social factors impeding uptake. Progress in the land use sector will be critical to meeting climate and human well-being goals and will be the next frontier in the transition to a cleaner future. In this session we propose to explore implementation of transformations to the food system that will achieve climate mitigation goals while also providing co-benefits for people and planet. We welcome contributions that present science-based approaches to assessing tradeoffs between competing land uses and their contributions to climate change, economies, ecosystem services, and human well-being. Prospective studies, or analyses of on-going intervention, will be welcome. This session is proposed for joint consideration with sessions "Achieving Sustainable Food Systems" (Main organizer: Carole Dalin) and "Climate Action on Land" (Main organizer: Kim Carlson)

Research Session

Organizer(s): John Lynch, Aline Soterroni There are considerable and increasing pressures on ecosystems globally. We must maintain and increase the capacity of nature to provide ecosystem services, from food provision and climate regulation to livelihoods and recreation, while minimising our environmental footprint and reversing the decline in biodiversity. Furthermore, there are expectations for transformational land-use change to help meet wider biodiversity and climate goals in tandem. Yet there are also criticisms that current scenario modelling is too narrow. For example, net-zero pathways that solely focus on climate solutions in isolation from their biodiversity impacts or national contexts often lead to significant amounts of land dedicated to monoculture afforestation or bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). These actions are not nature-based solutions and can lead to detrimental environmental or social impacts. In this session, we will explore some of the conceptual and practical tools that can enable more holistic evaluation, addressing multiple sustainability criteria, and highlight case-studies of multi-criteria assessment methods that can contribute to achieving and monitoring genuinely sustainable land-use. We will highlight recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and scenario modelling, including Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), that are improving our ability to anticipate and evaluate the impacts of land use and management across a more comprehensive range of environmental, climate and social concerns. We will also discuss the need for more holistic assessments in policy design. Case-studies will highlight multiple, potentially competing, roles of land-use in national / sub-national policy commitments in different regions. Finally, we also invite studies that can demonstrate how theoretical advances in impact assessment can help address these concerns and aid policy design, from global-level (e.g. meeting international environmental commitments) to smaller scales (e.g. regional governance and project-level assessment).

Research Session

The relevance of gender in environmental and agricultural systems has long been recognized but has received limited research in land system science. In parts of theoretical studies, women are essentialized by portraying them as inherently more intertwined with nature than men, turning them into environmental heroines. On the other hand, they tend to be portrayed as passive victims of the patriarchal system. Such myths have later been relativized by materialist ecofeminist theories. Similar stereotypes can be observed in traditional communities and other minority groups whose livelihoods are directly linked to land resources.There is evidence that economically productive land use decisions are more often made by men. However, the resulting environmental and social impacts, for example, consequences of climate change, disproportionately affect women and minority groups. Women, in turn, tend to play a more central role in decisions that affect the well-being of the family and community and include aspects such as food supply, health, and care work.Moving away from exploitative and unsustainable land use practices is essential to address various climatic, environmental, and social issues. Promoting greater well-being and resilience requires a broader understanding of power imbalances, gender dynamics, and intersectionality and how these drive land dynamics and social outcomes. In this session, we will (i) gather evidence of the influence of gender on land use, (ii) conceptualize that influence, and (iii) elucidate what role it plays in fostering transitions towards more sustainable land systems.In highlighting the role of women in finding long-term and just transformations of land systems, we will open up the discussion for challenges and opportunities regarding gender, minority groups, and sustainability.We plan to allocate half of the time for presentations and the other half to discuss three general questions on research gaps, methods, and links between gender and transformative change.

Innovative and Immersive Session

Organizer(s): Manan Bhan, Pooja Choksi The restoration of degraded ecosystems, while being a ‘triple-win’ nature-based solution, is expected to be one of the biggest land use transitions the world might see. Ambitious international pledges and national commitments, on the one hand, are evidence of its ability to achieve the ‘triple wins’ of fighting climate change, reversing biodiversity loss, and enhancing human wellbeing, and on the other, of its potential to fundamentally transform land use regimes. How might such a land use transition play out at local and regional levels in vulnerable tropical landscapes? What might be its intended and unintended socio-ecological outcomes? For example, increased land conservation through protection could meet the intended objective of conserving biodiversity and sequestering carbon in one location, while also leading to spillover effects in other parts of a region/ world. Understanding why certain restoration programs are successful in meeting their intended outcomes - in the long term - while limiting unintended consequences is key to meeting global targets, and prioritizing the local needs of stakeholders. In this session, we will discuss how and why certain restoration efforts yield positive results locally and globally, while others do not. Our panel discussion will bring together four experts in the field of restoration to discuss crucial social, economic, political, institutional, and behavioral factors that contribute to the success and/or failure of restoration initiatives over the long term. Further, we will discuss the dynamic nature of ecosystem restoration as a driver of land change, given the often ephemeral nature of land use transitions in the context of climate mitigation. In this way, this session would be able to lay the groundwork to advance learnings from the successes as well as failures of restoration initiatives from different parts of the world.

Innovative and Immersive Session

Organizer(s): Santiago Izquierdo-Tort, Meredith Martin, Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza & Laura Maria Arango Saavedra Forest-based carbon offsets (FBCOs) are projects through which companies, governments or individuals voluntarily mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing “carbon offsets” produced through forest management practices. Significant FCBO expansion has been hailed by some as a means to incentivize and provide financial support for forest restoration and conservation. Concerns have been raised, however, over FCBO’s failure to meet purported environmental impacts and adverse social implications. A recent study claimed that 90% of projects in the tropics are not “offsetting” the amounts claimed. Additionally, studies have documented how FBCO implementation can contravent the rights, land use practices, and worldviews of Indigenous Communities, Tribes and First Nations (ICTFNs). Yet, a number of ICTFNs have also initiated or co-developed FBCO projects in their territories with positive impacts, including financial benefits, strengthening of organizational capacity, revitalization of land use practices, and increased access to and control of natural resources. As ICTFNs begin to engage more frequently with FBCO, there is a need to recognize and amplify the innovations generated by ICTFNs, and to provide opportunities for cross-learning and exchange among ICTFNs, researcher communities, and other relevant stakeholders on drivers of success and required safeguards to avoid risks.This session brings together the various stakeholders involved in a recently formed collaboration focused on the co-production of knowledge and practice in FBCO among indigenous communities in Oaxaca. This collaboration includes a multidisciplinary team of researchers and students from three countries -Mexico, the United States, and Canada-, the Integradora de Comunidades Indígenas y Campesinas de Oaxaca (ICICO) -an organisation formed, governed, and represented by twelve Indigenous Communities with long-term experience with FCBO-, and local community members. The roundtable discussion will focus on how the collaboration came into place, its main results to date, and the scope for such collaborations to enable transformative change for sustainability.

Innovative and Immersive Session

Organizer(s): Patrick Meyfroidt Land system and sustainability challenges, related to food security, livelihoods, conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, energy transition, and relational values with land, are embedded within broader societal dynamics. Three contemporary societal dynamics interact and make sustainability challenges even more wicked, while also reflecting the failures of governments, societies, and science to develop just and effective solutions to these challenges. First, the rise of authoritarianism and populism makes it harder to achieve just and inclusive solutions, and to acknowledge and thus manage hard tradeoffs. Second, the crisis of rationality, knowledge and legitimacy of expertise makes it harder to use rationality and scientific knowledge as a part of the inputs needed in these debates, including the scholarly approaches that bridge multiple forms of knowledge. Third, algorithmic social media provides tools for spreading disinformation and anti-democratic discourses that generate "engagement", but also opportunities for social movements and citizens worldwide to exchange and organize around sustainability issues. Mediation by social networks and digital tools also modifies the experiential relation with nature. These dynamics have been analyzed but an explicit connection with land system issues remains lacking. The goal of this session is to open a discussion about interlinkages between these three dynamics and land use and land systems challenges: how they affect land systems, how land systems play a role in these three dynamics, and how to account for these when developing and implementing solutions to sustainability issues involving land systems. The session will feature short introductions (max. 3 x 5'), followed by a World Cafe session organized in two steps, where people will rotate across three tables to discuss first linkages between each individual dynamic and land systems, and then interlinkages between these three dynamics and land systems. The outcomes depend on the engagement and decisions of participants. [Referenced version on demand]

Innovative and Immersive Session

Organizer(s): Van Thi Hai Nguyen, Margaret Owuor, Peter Messerli, Julie Zähringer The call for transformative governance in biodiversity conservation is growing. The shift in global biodiversity governance focuses on scrutinizing and facilitating more involvement of non-traditional actors and interactions between public and private entities in intergovernmental processes from bottom-up, rather than just legal regimes and state practices.This `whole society approach` is being globally adopted as central to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). According to the CBD Action Agenda Pledges for Nature and People, not just state members and international organizations, more and more sub-national authorities, businesses, indigenous people and local communities, and other middle-out actors such as NGOs and researchers are participating in intergovernmental processes and taking actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.The challenges include translating the approach into local practice, dealing with unintended consequences (such as green-washing or cross-sectoral leakages), reorganizing coexisting institutions at different levels, and fostering innovation in governance and policy solutions. We argue that a whole society approach can also be a "nobody" approach. To enable actors to work together, it is necessary to distribute 'governance capacity' among them in three domains: enabling rules of the game, converging discourses, and facilitating essential resources. This will enable actors to work in an environment of polycentricity, accountability, transparency, justice, equity, and sustainability.The session aims to outline the ongoing theoretical debates, conceptual innovation in biodiversity governance, as well as empirical evidence on how this approach is being adopted in different contexts, understanding the role of actors, especially non-state actors, their interaction within their social networks, and their agency in co-designing solutions. We invite experts from various disciplines and sectors to present research, share experiences, discuss policy implications, and discuss moving the GBF forward in practice. This will foster collaboration and knowledge sharing to build a coalition for change.

Innovative and Immersive Session

In an era marked by rapid globalization, environmental transformations, and cultural shifts, there is a critical imperative to (re-)establish positive ways of relating to the environment that celebrate and safeguard territories and landscapes. This session aims to highlight transformative pathways towards this symbiosis of human activity and environment towards that draw on the invaluable contributions of Indigenous and local knowledge systems. Worldwide, Indigenous and local communities’ deep connections with and knowledge about the natural world can play an important role in innovative solutions to today's global challenges. However, these insights often remain neglected due to their narrative form, which differs from the conventional communication of Western science and policy. In this interactive session, we propose to promote storytelling as a powerful tool to convey Indigenous and local knowledge, but also to serve as a bridge between different knowledge systems. We will invite Indigenous and local knowledge holders, researchers, and practitioners to embody the protagonists of tropical forest territories and landscapes from around the world in a role-play exercise. By embracing diverse narrative formats, such as images, drawings, videos, sounds, and songs, we aim to unlock the richness of Indigenous and local knowledge and delve into multifaceted stories of hope, resilience, and transformation. With this session, we ultimately aim to challenge mainstream communication paradigms and foster a space where different knowledge systems are celebrated as complementary drivers for territory and landscape transformation. We propose a storytelling session of maximum 15 minutes per storyteller, with questions and answers. The storytelling session emulates a traditional story with a beginning, a body and an end featuring authentic characters to illustrate a specific theme. We envisage a lively exchange of stories of hope, generating innovative lessons and recommendations for transformation of tropical forests, providing scientific input and practical implications for research, policy, and practice.

Innovative and Immersive Session

Organizer(s): Siyu Qin, Aishwarya Bhattacharjee With global commitments to expand renewable energy and conservation areas, how can we better integrate local voices in regional and national spatial planning? During this interactive session, we invite attendees to discuss best practices, major challenges, and possible ways forward to integrate social values (i.e., cultural, economic, and ecological indicators that represent connections and dependencies between people and the land) and relevant actors into mapping efforts for conservation and development planning. The session will commence with two talks (30 min total) on integrating local knowledge and social considerations into predominately top-down designs of conservation and climate solutions. The session continues into a dynamic "World Café" format (20 min) that focuses on existing practices, spatial planning tools, frameworks that are used to include and integrate into the social dimensions of land-use planning. Participants will break into groups to discuss the challenges in bringing local voices to planning across diverse scales and systems. Specifically, the discussions will be divided into subgroups on: (1) Knowledge and Methods - best practices and critical gaps, (2) Funding and Resources - sources, distribution, and obstacles, (3) Policy and Governance - existing institutional structures and barriers, within the context of integrating local voices into national and regional planning processes. After the discussion, groups will report back (15 min), and then regroup to discuss (20 min) how to connect relevant solutions across the three topics to bring local voices/social values to national planning process such as the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. The outcome of this session will be a document (e.g., perspective, report) of recommended tools, frameworks, datasets, and methods to integrate the social dimension into regional, national, and local planning processes, as well as recommendations of how to coordinate between sustainable development and socioecological conservation priorities within the evolving landscape.

Innovative and Immersive Session

Organizer(s): Erle Ellis, Patrick Meyfroidt & Ariane de Bremond As the unprecedented environmental damage caused by contemporary human societies threatens the future of both people and the rest of life on this planet, debates are heating up about the social changes required to change course toward a better future. This special session brings together known advocates of different sides of these debates with the objective of clarifying their pathways, propositions, differences, and plausibility as strategies for achieving a just and sustainable global land system transition that can move people and planet towards a better future for both. Panelists representing ecomodernist, degrowth, and other transformative change pathways will briefly present followed by a moderated discussion with each other and audience participants. Come join what promises to be a lively and enlivening debate!

Innovative and Immersive Session

Organizer(s): Patricia Balvanera In this session we will share the insights gained by our transdisciplinary collective Cocina Colaboratorio on how to weave different ways of knowing, doing and being towards more just and sustainable food systems. We work in three contrasting sites in Southeastern Mexico; one of them, Santo Domingo Tomaltepec is only 15 Km away from the conference site. Conference participants will sit at the table with some of the members of the communities of practice of Santo Domingo, to experience how we use artistic tools to seed and nurture the collective transformative agency of the diverse collectives. These collectives have been built around the kitchen, the agroecological plot, the living biocultural archive, the territory and the radio by young community chroniclers. We will share ingredients, recipes, and ways of doing to jointly prepare a dish in small diverse teams. We will reflect at each table about the different ways in which we foster transformative change. We will display the design tools, audios, booklets and papers that the collective has produced. The direct experience of person to person caring and reciprocal interactions in these diverse teams mediated by members of the leading team of the collective will highlight the roles that participants in the Global Land Program can potentially play in the transformation of local food systems around the world.

Break / Networking

Plenary Sessions

Break / Networking

Plenary Sessions