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Global environmental assessments (GEAs) provide authoritative expert knowledge on environmental issues for an international audience. Demand for GEAs is growing rapidly: their number is increasing, and their thematic scope continually expands. At the same time, the environmental, social, and political context in which GEAs operate has changed dramatically over their 50-year history. Anthropogenic environmental problems have worsened significantly, while calls for just and equitable transformations are intensifying. In response, GEAs have begun to shift from primarily diagnosing problems to offering solutions and influencing policy, and more recently, towards supporting sustainability transformations. Assessment bodies increasingly recognize that meeting these novel ambitions requires deeper engagement from social sciences and humanities (SSH). However, efforts to include these disciplines have encountered considerable challenges. In this paper, we argue that for GEAs to effectively engage SSH, they must move beyond the prevailing paradigm of environmental assessment based on objectivity, singularity, and linearity, and instead experiment with the plurality and reflexivity of a broader range of knowledges. Such an approach is essential for advancing transformative societal changes. Achieving this requires fundamental reforms to GEA structures and processes. We propose five critical steps for making GEAs more responsive to emerging challenges and more reflexive about their responsibilities within global governance regimes.

For many large carnivores, minimizing the financial burden they impose on local people is critical to their conservation. Incentive-based programs that provide people with financial benefits for taking pro-conservation actions or achieving conservation goals are a promising tool for promoting human?carnivore coexistence. Although the number of incentive-based programs aimed at conserving large carnivores is growing, there has been little published research on the use of this approach. We reviewed the design, implementation, and results of a novel lion conservation incentive payment (CIP) program piloted in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Under the program, developed in collaboration with local stakeholders, villages earned direct payments based on the number of lions observed on their land each month. During the program's 3-year pilot period, villages earned more than double the value of livestock injured or killed by lions and used their earnings primarily to support education-related projects. A household survey conducted at the conclusion of the pilot indicated widespread awareness of and support for the CIP program. Lessons from this experience that may be valuable for the development of similar incentive-based conservation schemes in Tanzania and beyond include the importance of developing a practical and dynamic earnings framework, evaluating and adaptively managing program communications, supporting participating stakeholders to effectively deploy their CIP earnings, and identifying potential sources of sustainable funding.

Highlights:

• Compares two wildlife disease interventions in rural Norway: CWD in reindeer and Gyrodactylus salaris in salmon.
• Shows how biosecurity governance disrupts local stewardship institutions and practices.
• Introduces a comparative framework based on governance scale, risk framing, and institutional resilience.
• Demonstrates how local actors develop alternative, adaptive responses when empowered.
• Argues for integrating biosecurity and stewardship through shared authority and recognition of local knowledge.

Vi uppmanar regeringen att kraftfullt stärka en grön omställning grundad i demokratiskt deltagande, tillit och långsiktighet. I stället för att se kritik och gnissel som hinder måste regeringen stärka processer för att lyfta fram perifera områdens perspektiv och redan i planeringsstadiet överbrygga orättvisor mellan olika platser och samhällsgrupper regionalt, nationellt och internationellt, skriver ett stort antal forskare.

Disseminating research in wildlife management is challenging. This study explores how framing four information texts influenced Swedish crop farmers’ (n = 1,182) perceived ability to cope with wild geese, and their behavioral intentions to implement goose damage prevention strategies. A digital survey, based on a before–after randomized controlled trial, evaluated the impact of message framing with content representing varying psychological distance at a social (farmer vs. management authorities) and spatial (farmer’s field vs. landscape) dimension. Introducing management authorities as active partners increased farmers´ intentions to undertake adaptation measures and scaring tactics among farmers with less experience with geese. Meanwhile, farmers with higher levels of experience showed a greater willingness to undertake hunting interventions. The findings suggested that social support is important to increase farmers’ ability to cope. Future evaluations should explore collaborative communication strategies between researchers and wildlife management.

Human impacts on the planet degrade natural habitats, often restricting wildlife to protected areas. If connectivity between such areas is lost, wildlife populations may lose genetic diversity, thereby increasing extinction risk. For large carnivores, connecting populations separated by human-occupied habitats requires dedicated effort to foster human–wildlife coexistence. Using lion observation data from 1962 to 2023 and movement data from GPS collars, we evaluated how inclusive conservation actions (i.e., directly involving local communities) in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Tanzania, are affecting the ability of lions to use and traverse human-occupied habitats. Efforts to promote human–lion coexistence were positively associated with the number of lions moving across human-occupied habitats and the ability of lions to settle in human-occupied areas, suggesting that conservation activities are having the desired impact on connectivity. However, despite a reduction in negative human–lion interactions from 2016 to 2021, the number of retaliatory lion killings and livestock attacks both increased sharply during an extreme drought in 2022, before dropping again in 2023. Thus, although our results highlight the benefits of inclusive conservation for connectivity of large carnivore populations, recent events highlight continued challenges and the need for long-term, nimble approaches to maintain balance where humans and large carnivores coexist.

Addressing the intertwined challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change requires rapid, intentional societal shifts. UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs), established as interdisciplinary learning hubs for sustainable development, offer significant potential to bridge global commitments and local action. However, their effectiveness is hampered by structural, institutional, and perceptional/ideational challenges. This review identifies and categorizes these challenges, highlighting issues such as socioeconomic inequalities, governance constraints, and narrative complexities. Our analysis of 42 recent studies reveals that while BRs could serve as ‘living labs’ for transformative change, their impact is limited by these challenges. There are numerous indications that the development of BRs is at a critical juncture. If the identified challenges are not addressed, there is a risk that the role of BRs will be marginalized in the future, rather than evolving into key arenas that contribute to the transformative change we urgently need.

Adaptive management (AM) is one approach to manage migratory waterbirds, but obstacles to the implementation of AM require adaptive capacities in the management system (rules, institutions, action situations). This study aims to examine the adaptive capacity of participatory goose management in Sweden. Considering the biophysical and institutional context, we analyzed how tangible, individual, and governance assets were associated with technical and social learning. Interviews with informants in the national council for geese, swans, and cranes, and local management groups (LMGs) were conducted, and documentation reviewed. Results revealed evidence of a local preparedness in areas with an LMG. Nevertheless, the study highlighted a need to formalize the evolving system, to consider a more systematic implementation of AM (including regulations allowing for adaptive responses), and to ensure stakeholder acceptance for management tools and visions. The study illustrates the need for a broad set of assets to ensure learning in participatory management.