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MILJØFORSK-Miljøforskning for en grønn samfunnsomstilling

Transsystem, unified approach for global and regional integration of socialecological study toward sust. use of biodiv. and ecosys. services

Alternative title: TSUNAGARI (Japanese word for connectivity, link and relationship)

Awarded: NOK 0.42 mill.

Ecosystems are important assets, providing humans with services, e.g., food, flood protection and culturally relevant landscapes. But biodiversity is rapidly declining, potentially threatening ecosystem services, because an expanding global economy puts pressure on ecosystems through climate change and habitat change. These threats are especially pronounced in Asia. The aim of this two-year project is to support a more sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystems in Asia. A research consortium consisting of economic and ecological modeling experts from Japan, Norway (NTNU), Australia, and China, working with ecologists and land-use experts in Asia, has been assembled for this project. There are four objectives: (1) There is a mismatch between geographical scales at which data is available (fine in ecology, coarser in economy). We need to be able to systematically integrate different levels of spatial detail into one common, broad-scale database. (2) Scales are relevant for effects of human-induced drivers (e.g. deforestation) on biodiversity and ecosystem services. It is crucial to understand what levels of spatial detail are needed to accurately track and forecast how human actions cause ecosystem impacts. This dependency is also relevant for decision-making processes of communities. (3) Many ecosystems are connected with each other and interact in complex ways (e.g. from forests to coastal areas to marine ecosystems). The importance of that connectivity shall be investigated, with regard to the variability and change in biodiversity and ecosystem services. The effect of the connectivity on interactions among local communities and their decision-making shall be examined, too. (4) Development of new indicators and models for scenario analyses helping to achieve increased sustainability for the use of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Both ecological and socio-economic information will be used for this task. We have investigated the suitability of large scale multiregional input-out put models (MRIO) for biodiversity footprints. Our research shows that MRIO can indeed be useful for identifying footprints along the supply chains. We also shown that the identification of consequences of trade flows on biodiversity is possible through a coupling of MRIO and life cycle impact assessment.

TSUNAGARI (meaning connectivity and relationship in Japanese) aims to build an international network of researchers to link knowledge to action for the sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Asia. The project consists of 4 main objectives; (1) Establishing methodologies to integrate fine-resolution spatial information of ecosystems to broad-scale database, (2) Examining and understanding scale-dependency in the effects of multiple human-induced drivers on the variability in biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services, and in the decision-making processes of biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services used by societies at various levels; (3) Evaluating the importance of ecosystem connectivity (from forest to marine ecosystems) on the variability and changes in biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services, and investigating its effects on interactions among local communities at different sites within a watershed, and on their decision-making; (4) Developing new indicators and models for scenario analysis to achieve sustainable biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services use based on feedbacks between ecological and socioeconomic sciences using outputs of above-mentioned objectives. The research group consists of well-balanced teams of scientists from different regions and disciplines. These range from ecologists studying forest, riverine and coastal biodiversity and ecosystems, environmental scientists conducting broad-scale analyses of biodiversity and land/sea use changes,environmental socio-economists studying global impact of human activities on earth environment, and environmental anthropologists studying human relationships and behavior in relation to sustainable social systems. During the project period, we will have three workshops that will achieve our objectives sequentially, alongside which we will establish several model study sites in Japan, China and southeast Asia to share and develop ideas for leveraging research.

Funding scheme:

MILJØFORSK-Miljøforskning for en grønn samfunnsomstilling