Prioritizing sustainable development goals and linking them to ecosystem services:A global expert’s knowledge evaluation

The implementation of strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)is frequently hindered by potential trade-offs between priorities for either environmental protection or human well-being.However,ecosystem services(ES)-based solutions can offer possible co-benefits for SDGs implementation that are often overlooked or underexploited.In this study,we cover this gap and investigate how experts from different countries value the SDGs and relate them with ES.A total of 66 countries participated to the survey,and answers were grouped into three macro-regions:Asia;Europe,North America,and Oceania(ENO);Latin America,Caribbean and Africa(LA).Results show that the most prioritized SDGs in the three macro-regions are usually those related to essential material needs and environmental conditions,such as SDG2(Zero Hunger),SDG1(No Poverty),and SDG6(Clean Water).At a global scale,the number of prioritized synergies between SDGs and ES largely exceeded trade-offs.The highest amount of synergies was observed for SDG1(No Poverty),mainly with SDG2,SDG3(Good Health),SDG5(Gender Equality),and SDG8(Economic Growth).Other major synergies among SDGs include SDG14-15(Life below water-Life on land),SDG5-10(Gender Equity-Reduced Inequality),and SDG1-2(No poverty-Zero Hunger).At a global scale,SDG15,SDG13,SDG14,and SDG6 were closely related to ES like climate regulation,freshwater,food,water purification,biodiversity,and education.SDG11(Sustainable Cities)and SDG3 were also relevant in Asia and in LA,respectively.Overall,this study shows the potential to couple future policies that can implement SDGs’strategies while adopting ES-based solutions in different regions of the world.

Integrate ecosystem services into socio-economic development to enhance achievement of sustainable development goals in the post-pandemic era

The COVID-19 pandemic has stalled and rolled back progress on Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).Ecosys-tem services(ESs),defined as the contributions of ecosystems to human well-being,underpin the achievement of SDGs.To promote SDG achievement in post-pandemic era,we teased out the links between ESs and SDGs while examining the impact of COVID-19.We found that ESs benefited all SDGs,yet man-made pressures led to degra-dation of ecosystems and their services.There is broad consensus that the virus lurks in degraded ecosystems and generates spillover due to human interference.The pandemic and global lockdown/restriction disrupted the flow of ESs and altered human ESs demand,threatening the efforts for the SDGs.We suggested:1)to study the association and traceability of ESs-SDGs under the pandemic;2)to prioritize pressing issues such as health care,livelihood,and resource security and in the long run,we should promote human-nature harmony to achieve the SDGs;and 3)to enhance ESs and to promote the SDGs through local community efforts,ESs accounting,and ecosystem restoration.This paper provides insights into the importance of ESs to the SDGs and the ways to integrate ESs into socio-economic development to promote the SDG achievement after the pandemic.

Coupling trade-offs and supply-demand of ecosystem services(ES):A new opportunity for ES management

The trade-offs and supply-demand relations of ecosystem services(ES)are at the frontier of geographical and ecological studies.However,previous studies have focused on either trade-offs or the supply-demand aspects,while ES conflicts and supply/demand contradictions have not been comprehensively examined.The relation-ship between ES trade-offs and supply-demand is logically valid and studying the coupling of both can provide approaches for simultaneously alleviating ES conflicts and supply-demand contradictions.This study,based on a review of previous analyses of ES trade-offs and supply-demand dynamics,proposes a new analytic framework to couple them.First,we define two types of trade-offs based on the directions of growth or decline of the two ser-vices.We also define the supply-demand balance area and the supply-demand risk area according to the ES flow characteristics.Second,the mechanisms driving ES trade-offs are clarified,and land-use scenarios are set based on the mechanisms.Third,the supply-demand spatial characteristics of ES are analyzed,and supply-demand risk areas are identified.Finally,scenario iterations are performed to minimize the supply-demand risk area at an acceptable trade-offintensity to identify an optimal land use plan,which simultaneously alleviates ES conflicts and supply-demand contradictions.This analytic framework offers new opportunities for improving sustainable ecosystem management.

Overview of recent land cover changes,forest harvest areas,and soil erosion trends in Nordic countries

Mapping spatiotemporal land cover changes offers opportunities to better understand trends and drivers of envi-ronmental change and helps to identify more sustainable land management strategies.This study investigates the spatiotemporal patterns of changes in land covers,forest harvest areas and soil erosion rates in Nordic countries,namely Norway,Sweden,Finland,and Denmark.This region is highly sensitive to environmental changes,as it is experiencing high levels of human pressure and among the highest rates of global warming.An analysis that uses consistent land cover dataset to quantify and compares the recent spatiotemporal changes in land cover in the Nordic countries is missing.The recent products issued by the European Space Agency and the Copernicus Climate Change Service framework provide the possibility to investigate the historical land cover changes from 1992 to 2018 at 300 m resolution.These maps are then integrated with time series of forest harvest areas be-tween 2004 and 2018 to study if and how forest management is represented in land cover products,and with soil erosion data to explore status and recent trends in agricultural land.Land cover changes typically involved from 4%to 9%of the total area in each country.Wetland showed the strongest reduction(11,003 km^(2),−11%of the wetland area in 1992),followed by forest(8,607 km^(2),−1%)and sparse vegetation(5,695 km^(2),−7%),while agriculture(15,884 km^(2),16%)and settlement(3,582 km^(2),84%)showed net increases.Wetland shrinkage dominated land cover changes in Norway(5,870 km^(2),−18%),followed by forest and grassland with a net gain of 3,441 km^(2)(3%)and 3,435 km^(2)(10%),respectively.In Sweden,forest areas decreased 13,008 km^(2)(−4%),mainly due to agriculture expansion(9,211 km^(2),29%).In Finland,agricultural areas increased by 5,982 km^(2)(24%),and wetland decreased by 6,698 km^(2)(−22%).Settlement had the largest net growth in Denmark(717 km^(2),70%),mainly from conversion of agriculture land.Soil erosion rates in Nordic countries are lower than the global average,but they are exacerbating in several locations(especially western Norway).The integration of the land cover datasets with maps of forest harvest areas shows that the majority of the losses in forest cover due to forestry operations are largely undetected,but a non-negligible share of the forest-to-agriculture(up to 19%)or forest-to-grassland(up to 51%)transitions overlap with the harvested sites.Forestry activity in the study region primarily involves small-scale harvest events that are difficult to be detected at the 300 m resolution of the land cover dataset.An accurate representation of forest management remains a challenge for global datasets of land cover time series,and more interdisciplinary international efforts are needed to address this gap.Overall,this analysis provides a detailed overview of recent changes in land cover and forest management in Nordic countries as represented by state-of-the-art global datasets,and offers insights to future studies aiming to improve these data or apply them in land surface models,climate models,landscape ecology,or other applications.

Comparing the climate change mitigation potentials of alternative land uses:Crops for biofuels or biochar vs.natural regrowth

Using biomass from dedicated crops for energy production and natural vegetation regrowth are key elements in future climate change mitigation scenarios.However,there are still uncertainties about the mitigation potentials that can be achieved by the different land-based systems and how they perform relative to each other.In this study,we use harmonized future land use datasets to identify global land areas dedicated to second generation bioenergy crop production in 2050 under different climate scenarios.We then assess the global climate change mitigation potentials of using biomass for producing bioethanol with(BECCS)or without carbon capture and storage,biochar,or a synthetic fuel(e-methanol).For the latter,the electricity required to produce hydrogen for e-methanol synthesis is sourced from either wind power or the projected average electricity mix in 2050.Mitigation potential from natural regrowth on the identified land is also quantified.For all the cases,we modelled emissions of greenhouse gases from the life-cycle stages and use parameterized models to estimate local biomass growth rates.The identified land areas range from 1.95 to 13.8 million hectares and can provide from 30 to 178 mega ton(Mt)dry biomass annually from dedicated crops.Climate change mitigation potentials range from 11 to 257 MtCO_(2)-eq.yr^(−1),depending on technological option and land availability.The largest mitigation is delivered by BECCS,but e-methanol can achieve similar findings when hydrogen is sourced from wind power.If hydrogen is produced from grid electricity,e-methanol can result in net positive emissions.E-methanol can also deliver more final energy than bioethanol(4.04 vs.1.27 EJ yr^(−1)).Natural vegetation regrowth can generally achieve higher mitigation than bioethanol,but less than biochar.An optimal combination of BECCS and natural vegetation regrowth can achieve a larger mitigation,up to 281 MtCO_(2)-eq.yr^(−1),indicating that integrated solutions can help to achieve successful land management strategies for climate change mitigation.

Comparing trends of crop and pasture in future land-use scenarios for climate change mitigation

Revegetation of former agricultural land is a key option for climate change mitigation and nature conservation.Expansion and abandonment of agricultural land is typically influenced by trends in diets and agricultural inten-sification,which are two key parameters in the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways(SSPs).Datasets mapping future land dynamics under different SSPs and climate change mitigation targets stem from different scenario assump-tions,land data and modelling frameworks.This study aims to determine the role that these three factors play in the estimates of the evolution of cropland and pastureland in future SSPs under different climate scenarios from four main datasets largely used in the climate and land surface studies.The datasets largely agree with the rep-resentation of cropland at present-day conditions,but the identification of pastureland is ambiguous and shows large discrepancies due to the lack of a unique land-use category.Differences occur with future projections,even for the same SSP and climate target.Accounting for CO_(2)sequestration from revegetation of abandoned agri-cultural land and CO_(2)emissions from forest clearance due to agricultural expansion shows a net reduction in vegetation carbon stock for most SSPs considered,except SSP1.However,different datasets give differences in estimates,even when representative of the same scenario.With SSP1,the cumulative increase in carbon stock until 2050 is 3.3 GtC for one dataset,and more than double for another.Our study calls for a common classifica-tion system with improved detection of pastureland to harmonize projections and reduce variability of outcomes in environmental studies.