Conservation organizations face budget constraints and must prioritize land acquisitionscarefully.Market responses to conservation actions can shift land prices and relocate development.We examinehow variations in local land markets affect decisions about where to protect land. Using a protected area prioritization framework, we evaluated how spatial differences in market feedback influence the conservation return-on-investment (ROI) of acquisitions and the optimal distribution of acquisition budgets. Using simulations and parameters for southern Appalachian forests, we find that areas with elastic demand and inelastic supply yield higher conservation ROI. Our results indicate that failing to account for local market feedback can reduce conservation effectiveness, incurring opportunity costs of 7%. Only 49% of the optimal budget allocation matched when local feedback was considered versus not. These findings stress the importance of incorporating spatial market data into protected area planning to maximize ecological returns.

Harvesting naturally dynamic forests causes losses of habitat quality and functional connectivity. Focusing on Sweden as a case study of high-yield rotation forestry, we provide analyses supporting spatial prioritisation of protection, management and restoration of representative functional forest habitat networks. Habitat suitability index modelling of focal birdspecies was used to analyse how forest naturalness, habitat patch size and functional connectivity affect representative forest habitat networks in Sweden's five ecoregions. Habitat modelling for the least demanding bird species showed that of the mountain ecoregion 57-77% was functional, but in the other three boreal ecoregions only 8-9% were functional. For nemoral forests, the proportions of functional habitat networks were < 3%. More demanding species have even less functional habitat. We highlight the importance of the mountain ecoregion for forest biodiversity conservation, and the urgent need for landscape planning of protection, conservation management and nature restoration in Sweden.

Communities across the world need resilience to adapt to changing circumstances. In this paper, we blend focus group work and network analysis to assess adaptive capacities and potential resilience, in a peri-urban community in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. We used focus groups to gather information about core social and environmental features of the community and then constructed group mental models (a diagrammatic representation of how the community works). We asked participants to identify drivers (presses and pulses) of change, and to use the mental models to show how externally imposed changes might impact core features. To complement this qualitative data, network analysis was used to quantitatively identify core features, based on centrality, and to test for redundancies-assessing the likelihood of the system remaining resilient if a core feature were removed. The empirical results highlight the significance of networks' contributions to local resilience and provide new pathways for conceptualizing change in social-ecological systems. Future research based on this case study could be scaled up and applied in many situations to improve our understanding of ways to maintain resilience at multiple geographic scales.

Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) are crucial yet complex mechanisms for forest conservation, particularly in highly biodiverse regions. This study investigates the rapid expansion of carbon forestry projects (CFPs) across 26 million hectares in Colombia, with 92% overlapping indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant, and local communities (IPALC) territories. Using spatial and qualitative analyses, a novel IPALC participation ladder framework and Colombia's first publicly available CFP geodatabase, we assess IPALC engagement dynamics, including market share, distribution, conflicts, and participation barriers. Findings show VCMs, despite significant conservation finance, often yield moderate IPALC participation, exacerbate governance deficits, and inequitable benefit sharing, compromising integrity, social legitimacy, and the potential for durable, community-driven conservation outcomes. Effective VCM climate action demands robust, community-driven governance, and inclusive policy reform. Lessons from Colombia offer critical insights for global VCM evolution toward more just, sustainable outcomes.

This study explores human-moor macaque (Macaca maura) coexistence in Sulawesi, Indonesia, using resilience thinking to assess temporal patterns of coadaptation amidst stressors such as provisioning and road construction. Comparing data from 2016-2017 to 2023-2025, we examine changes in provisioning patterns, macaque roadside use, and people's perceptions of macaques to evaluate factors that may test the system's resilience. Our results show that although provisioning frequency has remained stable, hand-feeding is increasingly common and macaques have increased their use of roadside habitat. Additionally, people's perceptions have shifted from excitement and novelty to fear and normalization. Decreasing tolerance, coupled with increased risks associated with roadside behavior, highlights the system's potential to transition to a state incompatible with coexistence. Our results can be leveraged to promote resilient coexistence, e.g., interventions that enable safer roadside crossing for the macaques and community outreach programs that make use of people's empathy for the macaques' welfare.

Effective decarbonisation must be socially equitable and attentive to the capacities of households to adopt and apply new social practices at home and in mobility spaces in-between. Understanding attitudinal landscapes and the dynamics of social recognition and interaction surrounding decarbonisation helps advance technical solutions and reduce consumption. This paper approaches decarbonisation as a "social dramaturgy" of climate-friendly practices and conceptualises the modalities and performances of climate action in public and private spaces, following Erving Goffman's notions of "front- and backstages". Analysing a geocoded Finnish survey from 2022 (n = 1446), we compare visible technological solutions with more latent, self-reported energy- and resource-saving practices. By examining how attitudes toward climate change shape beliefs in various solutions, we find that backstage decarbonisation practices align more with climate change concerns, while frontstage practices diffuse more easily. This novel sociospatial approach contributes to debates on the legitimacy of climate action and efforts to curb segregation concurrently.

Wild foods (WFs) are an important component of rural diets worldwide. We conducted research in the deforestation frontier of the Argentine Dry Chaco to assess local Criollo people's (LCP) perceptions of changes in WFs consumption over the past decade, and the main drivers of these changes. We interviewed 116 people across multiple settlements. Our results show a marked decline in both the number of wildlife species consumed and the average biomass consumed per family. Currently, families consume 62kg of wild meat and collect 119kg of wild fruits and 19kg of forest honey per year. Although WFs remain in the diet, they are increasingly replaced by livestock meat and purchased foods. Drivers include socioeconomic pressures, reduced WFs availability, restricted access to harvesting areas, and cultural shifts. The results contribute an increased understanding of the value of WFs and of the factors associated with their declining consumption by LCP.

Senior Aboriginal leaders have stated that all decent Australians should be encouraged to take on the responsibility of caring for Country. There is much to be learned from caring for Country, particularly about the form of sustainability that it encompasses, but this requires deeper understanding of what exactly is done to care for Country. This study reports on the results of a systematic review of activities that the literature states are undertaken when caring for Country. Using PRISMA, 467 articles were identified, and data were extracted from 266. Thirty-seven highly inter-related activities were identified in the articles and are presented in a cloud diagram. Caring for Country goes well beyond land (or sea) management: cultural activities are integral, as are contemporary expressions that address globally-established sustainability issues. The data provide a benchmark for exploring whether non-indigenous land managers are caring for Country and what more might be done for sustainability.

Scientific models are increasingly expected to support decision making in complex governance environments. However, the institutional embedding of model outputs often encounters structural mismatches between the modeling and governance domains. This study explored how model-derived knowledge can be translated into actionable governance practices by integrating two theoretical perspectives: the Socialization-Externalization-Combination-Internalization (SECI) model of knowledge conversion and science-policy interface theory. Drawing on empirical evidence from the Eastern Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, we constructed a comparative framework to analyze alignment and misalignment across four key dimensions: semantic representation, logical structure, procedural compatibility, and institutional integration. Our findings revealed that successful model uptake depended not only on the technical quality of models but also on the compatibility of their outputs with policy language, decision routines, and organizational mechanisms. This work provided theoretical and practical insights into improving the usability and impact of scientific models within policy processes.

This study examines Egypt's blue economy, focusing on fisheries and aquaculture, through a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis to enhance food security. Egypt holds significant potential with its water resources. Aquaculture became Egypt's leading source of fish production since 2003, surpassing fisheries, and contributing 77.9% of the total fish production in 2022. Aquaculture and fisheries peaked at 16.2% of the country's agricultural net income in 2019. Egypt's fish self-sufficiency stands at 86.1%, which supplies 21.2% of the average animal protein intake. Unsustainable fishing, pollution, and climate change (e.g., risks from sea-level rise) impacting coastal farms present challenges. Opportunities in sustainable technologies, market development, and governance can boost Egypt's fisheries and aquaculture, thereby enhancing food security and ensuring long-term environmental and economic sustainability through effective management. This study underscores the crucial role of these sectors and the necessity for cohesive strategies to realize their full potential for Egypt's future.