Publications

Lam, D., Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Guerrero Lara, L., Sellberg, M., Norström, A., Moore, M., Peterson, G., Olsson, P. 2022. Amplifying actions for food system transformation: insights from the Stockholm region. Sustainability Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01154-7

Food is essential to people and is one of the main ways in which people are connected to the world’s ecosystems. However, food systems often cause ecosystem degradation and produce ill-health, which has generated increasing calls to transform food systems to be more sustainable. The Swedish food system is currently undergoing substantial change. A varied set of local actors have created alternative sustainability initiatives t...

Palomo, I., Locatelli, B., Otero, I., Colloff, M., Crouzat, E., Cuni-Sanchez, A., Gomez-Baggethun, E., Gonzalez-Garcia, A., Gret-Regamey, A., Jimenez-Aceituno, A., Martin-Lopez, B., Pascual, U., Zafra-Calvo, N., Bruley, E., Fischborn, M., Metz, R. & Lavorel, S. 2021. Assessing nature-based solutions for transformative change. One Earth 4(5), 730–741.

Global sustainability targets demand transformative changes. Nature-based solutions (NbS) are gaining traction in science and policy, but their potential for transformative change remains unexplored. We provide a framework to evaluate how NbS contribute to transformative change and apply it to 93 NbS from mountain social-ecological systems (SES). The framework serves to assess what elements may catalyze transformative change, ...

Burgos-Ayala, A., Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Torres-Torres, A.M., Rozas-Vásquez, D. and Lam, D.P., 2020. Indigenous and local knowledge in environmental management for human-nature connectedness: a leverage points perspective. Ecosystems and People, 16(1), pp.290-303.

Indigenous peoples are key actors for environmental management because they hold valuable indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) for the sustainable stewardship of nature. However, the consideration of ILK in environmental management is still limited. We explore how environmental government institutions in Colombia have involved indigenous communities in 2212 environmental management projects between 2004 and 2015. Only 1% of t...

Burgos-Ayala, A., Jiménez-Aceituno, A. and Rozas-Vásquez, D., 2020. Integrating Ecosystem Services in Nature Conservation for Colombia. Environmental Management.

The ecosystem services (ES) approach has been introduced in environmental policies and management to serve as a link between nature and society. Communication, education, and participation actions (CEPA) have the potential to facilitate this link. In this research, we evaluated how CEPA have been implemented in biodiversity conservation projects that consider ES. We used content analysis to review 182 biodiversity conservation...

Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Peterson, G.D., Norström, A.V., Wong, G.Y., Downing, A.S. 2019. Local lens for SDG implementation: lessons from bottom-up approaches in Africa. Sustainability Science

The Anthropocene presents a set of interlinked sustainability challenges for humanity. The United Nations 2030 Agenda has identified 17 specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a way to confront these challenges. However, local initiatives have long been addressing issues connected to these goals in a myriad of diverse and innovative ways. We present a new approach to assess how local initiatives contribute to achievi...

Raudsepp‐Hearne, C., Peterson, G. D., Bennett, E. M., Biggs, R., Norström, A. V.. et.al. 2019. Seeds of good anthropocenes: developing sustainability scenarios for Northern Europe. Sustain Sci (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00714-8

Scenario development helps people think about a broad variety of possible futures; however, the global environmental change community has thus far developed few positive scenarios for the future of the planet and humanity. Those that have been developed tend to focus on the role of a few common, large-scale external drivers, such as technology or environmental policy, even though pathways of positive change are often driven by...

Pereira, L, Sitas, N, Ravera, F, Jimenez-Aceituno, A and Merrie, A. 2019. Building capacities for transformative change towards sustainability: Imagination in Intergovernmental Science-Policy Scenario Processes. Elem Sci Anth, 7: 35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.374

Scenario development has been recognized as a potential method to explore future change and stimulate a reflective process that can contribute to more informed decision-making. The assessment process under IPBES (the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) has however shown that the current predominantly biophysical and economic models and scenario processes for exploring the future of...

Guerrero Lara, L., Pereira, L.M., Ravera, F., Jiménez-Aceituno, A. 2019. Flipping the Tortilla: Social-Ecological Innovations and Traditional Ecological Knowledge for More Sustainable Agri-Food Systems in Spain. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1222.

The conventional dominant global agri-food system is a main driver in the Anthropocene: food production entails profound global environmental changes from greenhouse gas emissions to biodiversity loss, and shifting diets further impact planetary and human health. Innovative approaches are needed to shift towards more sustainable, equitable and healthy agri-food systems. Building on the increasing recognition of the relevance o...

Dickin, S., L. Dagerskog, A. Jimenez, K. Andersson, K. Savadogo. 2018. Understanding sustained use of ecological sanitation in rural Burkina Faso. Science of The Total Environment doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.251.

Access to safe sanitation services is fundamental for healthy and productive lives, but in rural Burkina Faso only around 7% of the population uses improved sanitation. Ecological sanitation (ecosan) systems that allow safe agricultural reuse of nutrients in human waste have been promoted in these areas, as a way to meet sanitation needs while contributing to food security. However, little is known about the success of these i...

Peterson, G. D., Z. V. Harmackova, M. Meacham, C. Queiroz, A. Jiménez Aceituno, J. J. Kuiper, K. Malmborg, N. E. Sitas, and E. M. Bennett. 2018. Welcoming different perspectives in IPBES: “Nature’s contributions to people” and “Ecosystem services”. Ecology and Society 23(1):39.https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10134-23013

A recent paper by Díaz et al. (2018 a ) presented “nature’s contributions to people,” a conceptual framework developed within the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The authors wrote that it could nurture a paradigm shift from the concept of ecosystem services. The paper has sparked quick reactions including a critical editorial response in the journal Ecosystem Services...