As platforms for dialogue, art-science collaborations hold the potential to cross disciplinary boundaries to better understand and engage the public in addressing sustainability challenges. Moving beyond documenting outcomes, this study details how researchers and composers combined science communication and artistic expression to co-produce performances as part of the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab. Drawing on insights from a joint reflection process, we recount our motivations for participation, provide insights on the co-production processes of six researcher-composer pairs, and share our experiences of the performances. We highlight openness to other ways of working, different perspectives and opinions, and emergence as well as collaborative skills, including listening, communication, and problem-solving skills, as key enablers for crossing disciplinary boundaries in art-science collaborations. As answers to the question on how, why, and in what ways platforms for dialogue can turn into platforms for learning, we discuss opportunities for designing safe-enough spaces, working towards a shared goal while embracing the unfolding nature of a process, and engaging in reflection to follow up on and make sense of one’s learning. Through this study, we hope to provide guidance for those who wish to engage in art-science collaborations to co-produce pathways towards sustainable futures together.

Food systems are exceeding planetary boundaries and endanger both human and planetary health. Transforming these systems requires stakeholder engagement and constructive dialogue for acknowledging the diversity of views and values from different actors within the food system. Serious games have proven effective in fostering collaboration and exploring social-ecological dynamics, yet a holistic food system game linking planetary and human health remains absent. This paper presents the CiFoS Game, a serious game designed to explore food system transformation strategies, showing both the individual and collective impacts of diets, production choices and circularity principles on environment and human health. Co-designed with university students, food system experts, and game designers, the game was tested in multiple pilot sessions in different contexts. Throughout its development, multiple dynamics were added in a step-by-step process to enhance complexity, while improving and aligning already existing dynamics along the way. Results highlight its potential to facilitate learning and support discussions, connecting dietary and production choices to food sustainability challenges. By engaging stakeholders in interactive explorations of food system transformations, the CiFoS game can serve as a boundary crossing tool to foster dialogue, create common understanding and support collaboration towards sustainable food futures for human and planetary health.

Global food systems are dependent on nature’s contributions to people (NCP), yet the role of such contributions in international trade is largely underrecognised. Using publicly available data on the configuration of natural and cultural landscapes, we developed a spatially-explicit approach to map, quantify and trace a regulating NCP (wild pollination) and a non-material NCP (supporting identities) underpinning Brazilian coffee and soy supply-chains from producing municipalities to importing countries. Our approach for mapping supporting identities at large scales shows feasibility of using publicly available data for such an analysis. Our results show unequal NCP distributions across producing regions and trade flows. From the agricultural production potentially attributable to wild pollination, 74% was exported in the case of coffee, and 66% in the case of soy. The coffee and soy farm identities mapping indicates that soy producing landscapes are less diverse than coffee ones. For both products, the largest share of imports comes from municipalities with farm identities linked to lower agriculture-natural ecosystem integration. Results suggest that smallholder farmers rely more on wild pollination and therefore are potentially more vulnerable to ecosystem degradation. Our approach provides a framework to assess how NCP underpin food trade at finer spatial resolution and locates where and which supply chain actors can collaborate to support and leverage more sustainable uses of natural and cultural resources.

The human–nature relationship (HNR) has evolved profoundly over the past two centuries, shaped by socio-economic, cultural, and environmental factors. Despite cross-sectional studies identifying key influences, their longitudinal effects remain underexplored. This study models HNR trends from 1810 to 2020 using word frequency data as a proxy for the HNR and seven macro-level factors: natural disasters, scientific advancement, religiosity, industrialisation, humanism, urbanisation, and economic development. These data were analysed using a machine learning approach combining grid search and gradient descent-optimised weighted linear combination model, achieving excellent precision (RMSE = 0.0184). Urbanisation and economics emerged as dominant drivers of a HNR decline of 51.3% since 1850. While industrialisation’s importance diminished over time. The rise of humanism was identified as an increasingly significant influence, whereas science, natural disasters, and religiosity had relatively modest impacts. External validation using a modern dataset of nature connectedness across 52 nations demonstrated robust generalisability and utility across diverse contexts. The cross-validation of temporal consistency suggested utility for exploratory modelling of future scenarios of the HNR to 2050. The on-trend and recovery scenarios and factor weights highlight the importance of nature rich urbanisation and moderating increasingly human-centred values to ensure a closer HNR, thereby informing strategies that target the underlying causes of the environmental crises.

Abstract Symptomatic of the social change brought by late globalization, the dietary patterns of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) worldwide are changing, bringing consequences for people’s health and well-being. In this review we focused on food transition (FT) and the driving forces behind these changes. We aimed to diagnose, analyse, and quantify the key factors influencing FT in IPLC worldwide. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review to analyse scientific discourse and synthesize key insights. We analysed 36 papers published between 1996 and 2022. The key factors leading FT (151) were identified in the papers and clustered by similarity into 21 categories. These categories were then grouped according to their: spatial scale: household, community, regional, national, and global; typology: driver (external to the system), fast and slow variables (internal to the system); and social, economic, and environmental dimensions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first diagnostic-orientated review of the key factors leading FT in IPLC. The categories with the highest number of key factors were those associated with the economic dimension. According to our review, economic key factors are the primary drivers of changes in community dynamics at household level, while social key factors, as a response to economic changes, contribute to transformations in lifestyle and dietary patterns. The environment plays also a central role in FT in IPLCs, determined by the availability of wild natural resources used as food. Drivers acting regionally are among the most frequent triggers of FT. We highlight the importance of identifying and monitoring key factors triggering FT to support and provide insights for further research, as well as propose effective public policies that guarantee food diversity, food security, and life quality for IPLC.

Area-based conservation is a popular strategy to address biodiversity decline. However, despite the identification of enabling conditions, many initiatives still fail at delivering positive outcomes for nature and people. This study examines how enabling conditions are operationalized and their influence on conservation effectiveness using social-ecological approaches. Guided by the central question of whether the way enabling conditions are put into practice affects conservation outcomes, the study pursues three objectives: (1) to document the processes through which enabling conditions are operationalized, (2) to distinguish the different forms of operationalization, and (3) to assess how these processes influence conservation outcomes, in order to extract lessons that may serve as best practices for future initiatives. By comparing the establishment of two coral reef conservation initiatives in the same region, we identified diverse ways in which enabling conditions are put into practice, providing examples for conservation practitioners. Discourse analysis of stakeholders’ perception highlighted that enabling conditions being in place alone does not guarantee success. Instead, the way they are implemented—through specific action-situations, their interactions, and the stakeholders involved—plays a crucial role in delivering conservation outcomes. Operationalization can have both direct and indirect effects, influencing outcomes at one stage of establishment or at later stages. Sequencing and timing also emerged as critical factors affecting perceptions of benefits, compliance with regulations, and the sustainability of conservation measures. These findings offer practical guidance for decision-makers and managers by illustrating how enabling conditions can be operationalized to support more effective and context-sensitive conservation efforts.

Abstract In light of the escalating global polycrisis—a convergence of environmental, social, and mental health crises—this paper explores the potential of mindfulness-based approaches for fostering human and planetary wellbeing and sustainability. We specifically investigate the linkages between Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and sustainability, and how they can be strengthened to support transformative education. Drawing on interviews with key informants and in-depth case studies of innovative courses, we assess historical connections and current developments, as well as the needs, gaps, and opportunities for adapting existing approaches to sustainability contexts. What is the curriculum of the present moment, in a situation where the whole world has become the hospital? Based on our findings, we identify possibilities and principles for modifying, expanding, upscaling, and transforming mindfulness-based practices, interventions, and curricula—offering pathways that other training institutions can draw on. We synthesize our results into a “taxonomy of mindfulness-sustainability integration,” outlining key features and ethical considerations at different levels. Finally, we caution against protocolizing mindfulness and instead emphasize its non-instrumental dimensions—embodiment, emergence, and relationality—for finding a path of hope, joyful engagement, and meaningful transformation towards sustainability that is grounded in the inextricable connection between our inner lives and the living planet.

Abstract Gold mining is widespread in the Colombian Amazon and negatively impacts biodiversity, climate, and social equity. While some claim that sustainable gold mining can address these issues, we have analyzed different narratives of sustainable gold mining, focusing on equity and power dimensions. Our research, conducted through participatory observation and interviews across scales between 2022 and 2023, involved local miners, Indigenous representatives, community members, academic experts, NGOs, and government officials at regional, national, and international levels. We found diverging perspectives on sustainable mining leading to conflicts and occasional violence. While the greening of mining involves a corporate focus on distributive equity, traditional and artisanal miners seek support and recognition of their mining rights. Indigenous and other ethnic minorities aim to emancipate themselves from historical epistemic domination and exclusion. We conclude that resolving the conflicts arising from these differences requires questioning the role of corporate mining, and considering diverse values related to the sustainability of gold mining in decision-making processes.