Interconnected place-based social–ecological research can inform global sustainability

Patricia Balvanera (1) , Rafael Calderón-Contreras (2) , Antonio J Castro (3, 4) , María R Felipe-Lucia (5) , Ilse R Geijzendorffer (6) , Sander Jacobs , Berta Martin-Lopez (7) , Ugo Arbieu (8) , Chinwe Ifejika Speranza (5) , Bruno Locatelli (9) , Natalia Pérez Harguindeguy (10) , Ilse Ruiz Mercado (11) , Marja J Spierenburg (12) , Améline Vallet (13, 14) , Laura Lynes , Lindsey Gillson

1 Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (IIES)
2 Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Unidad Cuajimalpa
3 Idaho State University
4 UAL - Universidad de Almería
5 UNIBE - Universität Bern / University of Bern
6 Institut de recherche de la Tour du Valat
7 Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
8 BIK-F - Senckenberg biodiversität und klima forschungszentrum
9 UPR BSEF - Biens et services des écosystèmes forestiers tropicaux : l'enjeu du changement global
10 CONICET - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [Buenos Aires]
11 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico
12 Radboud University [Nijmegen]
13 Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement
14 CIRED - centre international de recherche sur l'environnement et le développement

Global sustainability initiatives are gaining momentum and impact, and place-based research can provide complementary insights to strengthen them. Here, we explore the current and potential role of place-based research into informing global sustainability initiatives by assessing the strengths, challenges, and opportunities. We show that place-based research allows for a better understanding of global social–ecological dynamics, and that transformations towards sustainability are often triggered at the local scale through the co-construction of local solutions. We discuss that the very nature of place-based research can hinder its transferability because its global integration faces temporal, spatial and governance scale mismatches, and we identify some of the key challenges of scaling-up its findings. We highlight new opportunities to mainstream place-based research that are emerging from first, long-term networks of place-based research, second, new institutional research settings that contribute with conceptual comprehensive frameworks and capacity building tools, third, a global community of practice, and fourth, the concept of region as a bridge between local and global sustainability initiatives. We believe that the time is ripe to promote the role of place-based social–ecological research as a key contributor to achieve global sustainability goals.

Domaines: Environnement et Société

Patricia Balvanera, Rafael Calderón-Contreras, Antonio J Castro, María R Felipe-Lucia, Ilse R Geijzendorffer, et al.. Interconnected place-based social–ecological research can inform global sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2017, 29, pp.1-7. ⟨10.1016/j.cosust.2017.09.005⟩. ⟨hal-01672041⟩