COUPLED — Operationalising telecouplings for solving sustainability challenges related to land use

Results in brief

Operationalising telecouplings for solving sustainability challenges related to land use

Land use is central to many of the largest sustainability challenges of today, including global food security, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation. Finding pathways for sustainable land use is challenging because of the complex processes of globalization that tie distant places together. The products we consume are often directly or indirectly connected to far away land-use changes such as deforestation in the tropics. These links are embedded in a net of flows of products and raw materials, but also of people, information, discourses, policies, and capital. These flows are difficult to untie and lead in many places to abrupt and unexpected land-use changes. Scholars in the field of land system science have started analyzing such global connections through the concept of telecoupling. COUPLED put the approach of telecoupling into action for contributing to a better understanding of processes and actors that influence land use in an increasingly interconnected world. Specifically, COUPLED strived to understand where and how systematic changes in land use occur, how these changes affect societies and the environment, and how to identify governance tools to steer telecoupled systems onto desired pathways.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Society depends on land for food, feed, fibre and energy, but the detrimental outcomes of unsustainable land practices are becoming increasingly apparent. Ensuring sustainable land use is a key challenge, yet hard to achieve in today’s interconnected world where policies, consumer demands and environmental change in one region may affect far-away places. We face a significant knowledge gap regarding the processes related to land use that link distant places – or telecouplings – and how these processes could be governed towards sustainability. Companies, institutions and policy makers lack the expertise and tools to ensure sustainable land use in a globalised world. COUPLED will educate researchers and entrepreneurs in assessing and governing land use in a systemic way, accounting for the opportunities and threats arising from distal links between Europe and other regions. COUPLED builds on a strong interdisciplinary network to achieve its overall objective of operationalising the novel telecouplings concept in order to support sustainable governance of land systems and related supply chains under global change. COUPLED will deliver on training a new generation of professionals and entrepreneurs, developing rich analytic tools and new understandings to help private and public organisations to identify where and how they can intervene to make sustainable land use decisions, thereby avoiding unwanted outcomes. The consortiums unites scientifically excellent partners across the natural and social sciences to ensure excellence in research, institutional and technological innovation. Working closely with large companies, SMEs, NGOs, international organisations and administrative bodies, the ESRs will learn how to move between science and practice, become highly attractive to employers, and build successful careers in research, consulting, industry or governance. The action will thus contribute to Europe’s leading position for a transformation towards sustainable land use.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

HUMBOLDT-UNIVERSITAET ZU BERLIN · BerlinCoordinatorGermany
BUNDESMINISTERIUM FUR UMWELT KLIMASCHUTZ NATURSCHUTZ UND NUKLEARE SICHERHEIT · BERLINGermany
EARTHWORM FOUNDATION · NYONSwitzerland
EUROPEAN LANDOWNERS ORGANIZATION · Bruxelles / BrusselBelgium
FAIRPHONE BV · AMSTERDAMNetherlands
FAIRTRADE LABELLING ORGANIZATIONS INTERNATIONAL EV · BONNGermany
KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · KOBENHAVNDenmark
LEUPHANA UNIVERSITAT LUNEBURG · LUNEBURGGermany
RSPO SDN BHDUnited Kingdom
STICHTING VU · AmsterdamNetherlands
STIFTELSEN THE STOCKHOLM ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE · STOCKHOLMSweden
THE FOREST TRUST LBG · SouthamptonUnited Kingdom
THE WORLD BANK GROUP · Washington DcUnited States
UNILEVER U.K. CENTRAL RESOURCES LIMITED · LONDONUnited Kingdom
UNIVERSITAET BERN · BernSwitzerland
UNIVERSITAET FUER BODENKULTUR WIEN · WienAustria
UNIVERSITAET KLAGENFURT · Klagenfurt am WörtherseeAustria
UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA · Cerdanyola Del VallesSpain
UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN · LOUVAIN LA NEUVEBelgium
WCMC LBG · CambridgeUnited Kingdom

COUPLED · Operationalising telecouplings for solving sustainability challenges related to land use

Results in brief

Operationalising telecouplings for solving sustainability challenges related to land use

Project objective

Participants

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