Environmental knowledge networks (EKNs) link research collaborators in a common purpose to produce data and knowledge to better understand social-ecological phenomena and address environmental challenges. Over recent years, as scientists have grappled with how to produce data and actionable knowledge for conservation and sustainability, more EKNs have been established. Although each network is founded for its own purposes and maintains its own goals and ways of operating, these networks are generally managed by scientists to produce knowledge to advance science and decision making. In this Insight article, we articulate key qualities and benefits of EKNs and shows how EKNs can address grand challenges that cannot be answered by a single team or institution, create a diverse, vibrant culture of science and community of practice, and provide innovative solutions and knowledge to society. We also discuss challenges of EKN governance, and how challenges may vary with a network’s development. Finally, based on a synthesis of structured discussions about key issues in EKN management, we share recommendations and best practices, emphasizing management practices that are inclusive, reflexive, adaptive, and flexible, so that others may benefit from our experience leading EKNs.

Context

Scholars across holistic, transdisciplinary, place-based fields of research, such as landscape ecology and social ecology, have increasingly called for an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach for transformations toward greater sustainability of social-ecological systems. This Perspective showcases organizational transformation toward sustainability in the context of a research network dedicated to place-based, social-ecological research in Europe.

Objectives

Using the European LTER research infrastructure (eLTER RI) as a case, we analyze recent organizational-level shifts motivated by desires to increase sustainability impact. These shifts include knowledge integration between the natural and social sciences, stakeholder engagement, and a reformulation of administrative guidelines and practices.

Methods

Following a program evaluation, new conversations led to new initiatives in the eLTER RI. As researchers who were involved in the program evaluation and the development of new initiatives, we rely on our professional experience and participant observation to provide insights about this process and its developments.

Results

Recommendations from a recent assessment that critiqued and provided recommendations for the research infrastructure have recently been implemented in the eLTER RI. eLTER has leveraged a unique and timely opportunity—formal recognition and project funding by the EU—to upscale and standardize its infrastructure by creating novel protocols and enacting steps towards implementation.

Conclusions

This Perspective demonstrates how eLTER’s research agenda and related protocols have evolved to better integrate multiple knowledge types, promote stakeholder integration into research, and foster greater equity and reflexivity in doing science, all of which are considered necessary to increase sustainability impact. We conclude by considering current and potential future challenges.

Shared gardens of apartment buildings comprise a large portion of the overall area of ​​neighborhoods and are a significant component of its open space. The importance of these gardens includes ecological, physical-biological, and health considerations. National Outline Plan (TAMA) 38 for strengthening residential buildings against earthquakes has in recent years become one of the means for urban renewal in Israel, and a catalyst for physical changes in residential lots that have become increasingly paved and impermeable to water due to building expansion and addition of associated infrastructures. This study analyzes the physical changes occurring in shared gardens of residential lots in two neighborhoods where many TAMA projects have been implemented: the Carmeliya neighborhood of Haifa and a section of Tel Aviv's Quarter #4. We measured the change in abundance of built space in the lots before and after the implementation of the TAMA - measuring the building footprint, the green (vegetated) space, and the 'grey' space (paved areas). In order to understand how the planning system views these lot-scale green spaces, we also reviewed official guidelines that are directly or indirectly related to urban open spaces in the municipal plans, as well as policy documents related to TAMA implementation in each city. Finally, Prior to the implementation of the TAMA, shared gardens constituted approximately two-thirds of the area of ​​the neighborhoods. With the implementation of TAMA 38, the green area of ​​each individual lot was reduced, by one-third to one half of its original area. A third of the original green area became built or paved area. The remaining green space was highly fragmented, with little connectivity, trees were cut down, and the formerly green facade of the lots were lost. The process of submitting objections did not result in a change in the final result regarding green space. Planning policy regarding shared gardens was not well defined, and despite their large contribution to the neighborhoods' network of green space, they were not considered as part of the green infrastructure in urban plans. Today, urban densification strategies focus on preserving the open spaces surrounding the city. However, the open space within the city is constantly threatened with development, and this requires the planning system to adopt measures to preserve and cultivate these urban green spaces.

There is often pressure on protected area managers to enhance wild landscapes and protect biodiversity while simultaneously promoting goals such as assuring ongoing provision of ecosystem services and providing for tourist and recreational needs. In the current study, we investigate two tools that may provide different types of management-relevant knowledge on recreation ecosystem services to aid management decisions in a protected area (PA), particularly where such tradeoffs must be considered. We constructed a spatial recreational model of the whole Cairngorms National Park, Scotland (ESTIMAP-Recreation), parameterised by hard and soft recreationalists (providing “where and what” types of knowledge). We then conducted 33 interviews with managers, residents, and visitors, asking if and how they considered the resulting maps useful. In parallel, we conducted focused walking interviews in two contrasting park sites, favoured by hard and soft recreationalist to determine if it was possible to gain further insight into other aspects of the recreational ecosystem services (the “why”). These walking interviews were conducted in a woodland adjacent to an urban area (30 interviews) and in a wild landscape mountain area (22 interviews). The complimentary nature of these approaches highlights the diverse sources of knowledge PA managers may exploit to assist in managing the many conflicting objectives imposed upon them.

The development of cultural ecosystem services (CES) concept has progressed beyond the common categories of economic benefits from tourism and recreation, and yet definitions of CES remain vague and often shallow. It is necessary to develop methodologies that can more fully express the depth of meaning of non-material benefits humans receive from nature to both strengthen the conceptual foundation of CES, and to support the evaluation, management, and decision-making processes pertaining to protected areas and other environments. This study demonstrates how embodied interviews, conducted with informants while walking in nature, capture real-time intuitive and grounded perceptions of, and reactions to, four different ecosystem types and their associated services. The results provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of diverse human-nature relationships and reflect two distinct groups of CES values or themes: general (common across research sites) and local (site-specific). The twelve General CES include cognitive and psychological services, among them calmness and newness, heightened imagination and curiosity, increased energy and motivation, and gaining new perspectives. Local themes differed from one ecosystem to another and included more biodiversity- and geodiversity-related values pertaining to local species and geology, as well as more sensory-based experiences.

Assessing the environmental status of Protected Areas (PAs) is a challenging issue. To indicate that status, the identification of a common set of variables that are scientifically sound, and easy to assess and monitor by the PA practitioners, is particularly important. In this study, a set of 27 Essential Variables (EVs) for PA management was selected in a bottom-up process from 67 harmonised variables that describe the status of Ecosystem Functions and Structures, Ecosystem Services, and Threats in PAs. This bottom-up process involved 27 internationally recognised PAs, mostly European, with different level of protection, different extent, and a wide range of human-nature interactions. The EVs were selected by more than 120 practitioners, i.e. PA managers and rangers, as well as scientists, working in terrestrial and aquatic PAs. Across both terrestrial and aquatic PAs, scientists and practitioners largely identified the same variables as important. Data availability for these 27 EVs varied between PAs and av

eraged 67% across all studied PAs. As this set of EVs for PAs is defined through a bottom-up approach considering variables already in use both in management and research, it is more than for previous EVs likely to be adopted, applied and developed to record the status and changes in the ecological and socio-economic conditions of PAs and to forecast future changes. Thereby, the EVs for PAs present a common vocabulary and tool to enhance in a uniform way the (inter)national communication, exchange and comparison of information on the status of PAs between policy makers, scientists and PA managers. The perceived status of the EVs, on an average 3.6 on a scale to a maximum of 5, indicates the surveyed PAs are in a moderate to good environmental condition. Moreover, the EVs for PAs form a cost- and time-efficient tool for PA managers to monitor developments in essential elements of their PAs, including the potential for Societal Goods and Benefits (SG&B), and to (pro-)actively tackle the potential threats that may arise in their area. Likewise, for policy makers EVs for PAs may support decision making on ecosystem management, spatial planning, and predictive modelling on the future status and requirements of PAs in their country or region.

Ecosystem services (ES) assessments have become ubiquitous tools for informing land-use management. Stakeholder integration is crucial for assuring the societal relevance and potential impact of these assessments. While advocating stakeholder integration is prevalent, it is less common in practice and there is uncertainty regarding whether stakeholders perceive ES assessments as effective for addressing land-use management challenges. We use a transdisciplinary approach to integrate stakeholders in an ES assessment conducted in the Mount Carmel Biosphere Reserve (BR) in Israel and explore how stakeholders perceived the utility of the ES knowledge produced. The integration was done at three phases during the assessment: (1) a stakeholder analysis, followed by semi-structured interviews (2) focus group discussions and (3) stakeholder workshops to discuss the results. Thematic analysis of interviews, discussions and workshops revealed that stakeholders perceive ES knowledge as an effective conceptual tool to educate and raise public awareness, strategic tool to advance pre-existing plans/actions/policies, and instrumental tool to influence decision-makers, recruit funding and increase management focus on cultural services. We conclude that the ES assessment may strengthen the standing of stakeholders and assist them in overcoming BR management challenges. Importantly, the assessment process catalyzed partnerships among stakeholders and between scientists and stakeholders, which continued after the assessment concluded. As a boundary object, the ES assessment contributed to reviving a conflicted BR by bringing an ostensibly neutral scientific discourse to the table.

Providing for growing food demand while minimizing environmental degradation is a major contemporary environmental challenge. Agri-environmental schemes (AESs) are often promoted to meet this challenge by providing subsidies to farmers who adopt agri-environmental practices (AEPs). The success of these schemes depends on the ability to engage farmers, thus understanding farmers' perceptions about AEPs is pivotal. Yet, current knowledge is limited as most research explores farmer's attitudes towards existing AESs, often based on subsidies. We explored the attitudes of farmers and their communities towards five different AEPs, and towards a potential AES, in an area of intensive agriculture in Israel, where currently no AES are implemented. We conducted five focus group sessions with 41 farmers, 12 follow-up interviews, and a survey with 296 community members.

Findings indicate that farmers' willingness to implement AEPs was driven by environmental, personal, and social considerations, particularly perceptions of “good farming” practices, such as community cohesiveness and maintaining control of one's field. Farmers' lack of trust in the government, and lack of personal or local experience with specific AEPs, are other major barriers for joining a potential AES. Farmers perceived financial compensation as a safety net, but placed social and cultural values on par with, or above, financial considerations for joining an AES. Farmers' communities demonstrated high support for implementing AEPs, indicating that communities could be an asset for AES development. Therefore, while incentives for many AESs are based primarily on monetary compensation, to achieve their desired long-term results they should also focus on farmer resilience, independence, knowledge creation, and socio-cultural capital development.