TY - JOUR
T1 - Reconnecting society with its ecological roots
AU - Everard, Mark
AU - Kass, Gary
AU - Longhurst, James
AU - zu Ermgassen, Sophus
AU - Girardet, Herbert
AU - Stewart-Evans, James
AU - Wentworth, Jonathan
AU - Austin, Kevin
AU - Dwyer, Ciara
AU - Fish, Robert
AU - Johnston, Paul
AU - Mantle, Gary
AU - Staddon, Chad
AU - Tickner, Dave
AU - Spode, Steve
AU - Vale, Jackie
AU - Jarvis, Rhianna
AU - Digby, Mathilda
AU - Wren, Gwilym
AU - Sunderland, Tim
AU - Craig, Amanda
N1 - Funding Information:
This work could not have been completed without the assistances of John Bilyeu, Cy Helms, Paul Rollins, Mark McClelland, and John Delphia of TxDOT, and Lee Gustavus andTom Scullion of the Texas Transportation Institute.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - Recent high-profile analyses of trajectories and prognoses of ecosystem decline around the world have called for a renewed focus on embedding the values of the natural world across all areas of public policy. This paper reports the results of a UK-based deliberative process involving experts from a wide range of policy domains and across societal sectors: government departments, associated agencies, national and international NGOs, professional institutions, academia and independent experts. A symposium, based on a collaborative learning approach, explored instances in which ecosystem values have successfully been embedded into public policy, identified challenges to their more widespread embedding despite commitments to do so over generational timescales, and took a backcasting approach to develop actionable outcomes required to deliver transformation change across state and civil society. Emergent themes were expressed in social, technological, environmental, economic and political terms. Recommendations for interventions in complex social-ecological systems are cross-sectoral in scope and will necessarily entail multiple agents of change, well beyond governmental leadership, within any given sphere of societal activity and interest. We identify strategic challenges for, and between, a spectrum of societal policy areas, many currently overlooking ecosystem dependencies, impacts and potential benefits. Reflections on the collaborative learning approach are also provided.
AB - Recent high-profile analyses of trajectories and prognoses of ecosystem decline around the world have called for a renewed focus on embedding the values of the natural world across all areas of public policy. This paper reports the results of a UK-based deliberative process involving experts from a wide range of policy domains and across societal sectors: government departments, associated agencies, national and international NGOs, professional institutions, academia and independent experts. A symposium, based on a collaborative learning approach, explored instances in which ecosystem values have successfully been embedded into public policy, identified challenges to their more widespread embedding despite commitments to do so over generational timescales, and took a backcasting approach to develop actionable outcomes required to deliver transformation change across state and civil society. Emergent themes were expressed in social, technological, environmental, economic and political terms. Recommendations for interventions in complex social-ecological systems are cross-sectoral in scope and will necessarily entail multiple agents of change, well beyond governmental leadership, within any given sphere of societal activity and interest. We identify strategic challenges for, and between, a spectrum of societal policy areas, many currently overlooking ecosystem dependencies, impacts and potential benefits. Reflections on the collaborative learning approach are also provided.
KW - Deliberation
KW - Ecosystems
KW - Socio-ecological systems
KW - Sustainable development
KW - System change
KW - Transformation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096157174&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.11.002
DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.11.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096157174
SN - 1462-9011
VL - 116
SP - 8
EP - 19
JO - Environmental Science and Policy
JF - Environmental Science and Policy
ER -