Federica Ravera

• PhD
• Researcher at University of Girona

The way climate change is framed and represented matters because it influences the type of actions and strategies promoted by climate-related policies. To understand how policies address climate change in the Spanish context, we performed an analysis of the discourse applying the “What’s the Problem Represented to be” Bacchi’s framework. We apply a...

Although there is a growing interest in transdisciplinary knowledge co-production approaches applied to rangeland political ecology, the research paradigms and methodologies still dominating this field of research leave little room for equitable engagement with research participants and genuine action-oriented research. In this article, we provide...

Values have been recognized as critical leverage points for sustainability transformations. However, there is limited evidence unpacking which types of values are associated with specific types of sustainable and unsustainable futures, as described by future scenarios and other types of futures-related works. This paper builds on a review of 460 fu...

Traditional agroecological knowledge (i.e. TAeK) is gaining recognition for its potential contribution to climate change adaptation in food systems, ecosystems restoration and food insecurity. Despite the existing literature on Traditional Ecological Knowledge and its nexus with food security, how gender critically influences the distribution of su...

Social Ecological System (SES) research highlights the importance of understanding the potential of collective actions, among other factors, when it comes to influencing the transformative (re)configuration of agri-food systems in response to global change. Such a response may result in different desired outcomes for those actors who promote collec...

Pastoral social-ecological systems (SES) provide myriad benefits to humanity and face multiple challenges in the 21st century, including interacting climate and land-use change, political marginalization, and demographic shifts, leading to loss of traditional knowledge and practices associated with sustainable use. Research and policy increasingly...

Rural studies has made considerable theoretical and empirical progress on gender and agriculture, yet almost none of this work focuses specifically on women involved in livestock production in the Global North. To address this gap, we explored the experiences of women involved in extensive livestock farming in Spain, including their motivations, id...

In recent years, a profusion of methods, practices, and experiences has emerged in the interface between arts and sustainability science. Drawing from two strong currents within sustainability science, namely, the emphasis on transdisciplinary approaches and the need to move towards societal transformations, such hybrid approaches seemingly contrib...

CONTEXT The COVID-19 pandemic has become one of the most pressing challenges for humanity. The pandemic is affecting all aspects of human lives and livelihoods, including food. In this context, new research shows the nexus between agri-food systems and the spread of emergent infectious diseases (EID) such as the coronavirus disease while at the sam...

Pastoralists and researchers (and others) are finding new ways of working together worldwide, attempting to sustain pastoral livelihoods and rangelands in the face of rapid and profound changes driven by globalization, growing consumption, land-use change, and climate change. They are doing this partly because of a greater need to address increasin...

Mediterranean cultural landscapes have been recognized as multifunctional landscapes that are currently threatened by two opposing trends: rural abandonment and agricultural intensification. Uncovering people’s perceptions of different landscape configurations, and how inhabitants value the contributions of nature to human wellbeing, is essential t...

Scientists have repeatedly argued that transformative, multiscale global scenarios are needed as tools in the quest to halt the decline of biodiversity and achieve sustainability goals. As a first step towards achieving this, the researchers who participated in the scenarios and models expert group of the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform o...

In this report we investigate the impact of COVID-19 in local agri-food networks in Catalonia and the responses developed by actors in these networks. We show how trust, solidarity and cooperation have made this sector highly resilient to the pandemics.

Targets for human development are increasingly connected with   targets for nature, however, existing scenarios do not explicitly address this relationship. Here, we outline a strategy to generate scenarios centred on our relationship with nature to inform decision-making at multiple scales.

La influencia y legitimidad social del conocimiento científico están decreciendo globalmente. Una de las razones es la falta de interacción y comu-nicación entre los ámbitos de la ciencia, la gestión y las poblaciones locales o la sociedad en su conjunto. En los ámbitos de las políticas de soste-nibilidad y la crisis socioecológica global, esto rep...

Scientists have repeatedly argued that transformative, multiscale global scenarios are needed as tools in the quest to halt the decline of biodiversity and achieve sustainability goals. As a first step towards achieving this, the Expert Group on Scenarios and Models of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Serv...

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 how-ever shown that the current predominantly b...

Social and cultural contexts influence power dynamics and shape gender perceptions, roles, and decisions regarding the management of agrobiodiversity for dealing with and adapting to climate change. Based on a feminist political ecology framework and a mixed method approach, this research performs an empirical analysis of two case studies in the no...

This Special Issue of Sustainability aims at compiling original theoretical, methodological, and empirical research exploring how agroecology approaches can promote the transition towards sustainability, particularly of agri-food social-ecological systems, taking into account the complex relationships established between ecological functions and ec...

A thorough understanding of long-term temporal social-ecological dynamics at the national scale helps to explain the current condition of a country’s ecosystems and to support environmental policies to tackle future sustainability challenges. We aimedcto develop a methodological approach to understand past long-term (1960-2010) social-ecological dy...

A thorough understanding of long-term temporal social-ecological dynamics at the national scale helps to explain the current condition of a country's ecosystems and to support environmental policies to tackle future sustainability challenges. We aimed to develop a methodological approach to understand past long-term (1960-2010) social-ecological dy...

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 heal...

In June 2018, PBL hosted a workshop for the IPBES expert group on Scenarios and Models. An important outcome was an inclusive framework for understanding how people relate to and value nature, and for building diverse positive nature future scenarios at different scales.

The aspiration to establish an effective dialogue between science and society has inspired some ground breaking examples of transdisciplinarity (TD). The core idea of TD is that different academic disciplines work jointly with practitioners to solve common problems. The first step of TD implies a contextualization that requires holistic and systemi...

Extensive range-based livestock production has suffered a sharp decrease in Mediterranean Spain in recent decades due to two opposing trends in land use: progressive abandonment of practices in marginal rural areas and land use intensification in more productive areas. In this study, we explored the visions of key stakeholders on the current and fu...

What is IPBES? IPBES—the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services—was established in 2012 to serve a role linking the science and knowledge about nature and nature’s benefits to people with policy and decision-making. IPBES has many expert groups, including one that focusses on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity of Ecosy...

Assessments of society’s perceptions of rangeland systems offer insights into the motivations, cultural beliefs, and values that can support landscape conservation and the everyday decisions of landowners. Silvo-pastoral landscapes, the grazed oak woodlands known as montado in Portugal and dehesa in Spain, are the main rangelands of southwestern Ib...

Targets for human development are increasingly connected with targets for nature, however, existing scenarios do not explicitly address this relationship. Here, we outline a strategy to generate scenarios centred on our relationship with nature to inform decision-making at multiple scales.

Mediterranean cultural landscapes are currently undergoing intense transformations, resulting in a polarization of land uses across an intensification-abandonment continuum. This transformation is characterized by uncertain and non-linear interactions and impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Our study focuses on a particular multifunc...

In recent years the potential and possible contributions of art-based methods for engaging with social-ecological complexity have been highlighted, in particular in areas related to action research, inquiry-based learning, participatory governance and knowledge integration. Despite repeated calls within the resilience community (Ecology and Society...

Participatory modeling (PM) links science and modeling to stakeholder knowledge and experiences, thus supporting and enabling participatory decision-making when dealing with complex social-ecological problems. Whereas traditional model building emphasizes expert-driven collection of information, PM emphasizes collective deliberation, where learning...

Agri-food systems assessment can be performed following official and alternative framings, each linked to different objects of study, methods of analysis, and policy responses. Alternative frames conceptualize agri-food systems as the integration and interaction of humans and the agro-environment (i.e., as socio-ecological systems). This conceptual...

This paper examines climate change adaptation and gender issues through an application of a feminist intersectional approach. This approach permits the identification of diverse adaptation responses arising from the existence of multiple and fragmented dimensions of identity (including gender) that intersect with power relations to shape situation-...

The main goal of this special issue is to offer a room for interdisciplinary and engaged research in global environmental change (GEC), where gender plays a key role in building resilience and adaptation pathways. In this editorial paper, we explain the background setting, key questions and core approaches of gender and feminist research in vulnera...

This synthesis article joins the authors of the special issue “Gender perspectives in resilience, vulnerability and adaptation to global environmental change” in a common reflective dialogue about the main contributions of their papers. In sum, here we reflect on links between gender and feminist approaches to research in adaptation and resilience...

The importance of the ecosystem services provided by dry tropical forest is better understood when analyzing peoples' perceptions of such services. Particularly south ecuadorian dry forests have been scarcely studied from social sciences, though they are the most populated and threathened forests in the world. Therefore, little is known about facto...

Participatory scenario planning (PSP) is an increasingly popular tool in place-based environmental research for evaluating alternative futures of social-ecological systems. Although a range of guidelines on PSP methods are available in the scientific and grey literature, there is a need to reflect on existing practices and their appropriate applica...

This paper presents an empirical research in a protected area of northern Nicaragua, aimed at: (a) classifying predominant narratives surrounding present and future pathways of the local rural system, drivers of change, features of livelihoods’ vulnerability; (b) understanding current functioning of local metabolic patterns of rural systems by deve...

While rural transformations are nothing new in human history, current pro-cesses of rural change occur under multiple forces at an unprecedented pace, involving profound and unexpected changes in land use and users, and rapid transformations in the metabolic patterns of rural systems. The present special section aims to shed light on current driver...

Interdisciplinary studies have proved the interconnectedness of history and ecology relevant to forest conservation proposals and management policies. Engaging local views and concerns in the evaluation and monitoring process can lead to more robust knowledge in the pursuit of effective conservation. This study aimed to assess the degree to which l...

High in the central Andes, walking breathless at 4,000 meters, where the mountains are like islands in the sky, you never feel alone. Whenever and wherever you look, a human figure is there. The most common image is that of women carrying firewood or bags of goods to be exchanged in barter markets. The remnants of Quenua (Polylepis spp) patches pla...

How do the markets work for these Andean women at the margins? Since development policies encouraged them to produce cash crops and to supply urban markets, Andean farmers have been exposed to oscillations in demand and prices and have themselves helped to increase the fragility of mountain environment they depend on. In response, the local barter...

When the young girl in jeans and white T-shirt comes back from school in the afternoon, she joins the women of the village in carrying heavy baskets of cow dung to return soil fertility to the fields. Sixty-five percent of the mid-high Kumaon hills are forest-covered, and farming is largely done on the rain-fed uplands whose soils are protected fro...

Reality is what we see. What we see depends on how we look. How we look or our perspective makes a difference toward bringing social change. This book Landscaping Actually: Forests to Farms through a Gender Lens is a step towards such social change. The book focuses on gender equity and social inclusion to showcase real stories and photos of how me...

A methodological framework is proposed for participatory scenario development on the basis of evidence from the literature, and is tested and refined through the development of scenarios for the future of UK uplands. The paper uses a review of previous work to justify a framework based around the following steps: i) define context and establish whe...

A methodological framework is proposed for participatory scenario development on the basis of evidence from the literature, and is tested and refined through the development of scenarios for the future of UK uplands. The paper uses a review of previous work to justify a framework based around the following steps: i) define context and establish whe...

This paper contributes to the emerging debate on participatory modelling at the core of adaptive action research. We compare and reflect upon lessons learned from two projects in very different bio-physical and socio-economic contexts, the UK and Nicaragua, and outline a shared theoretical and methodological framework to assist researchers and loca...

The literature on drought, livelihoods, and poverty suggests that dryland residents are especially vulnerable to climate change. However, assessing this vulnerability and sharing lessons between dryland communities on how to reduce vulnerability has proven difficult because of multiple definitions of vulnerability, complexities in quantification, a...

Historically, the semiarid social-ecological systems of the dry Central American corridor have proven resilient to pressures. However, in the last century, these systems have experienced huge environmental and socioeconomic changes that have increased the vulnerability of local livelihoods to shocks. New approaches are needed to capture complex, un...

The literature on drought, livelihoods, and poverty suggests that dryland residents are especially vulnerable to climate change. However, assessing this vulnerability and sharing lessons between dryland communities on how to reduce vulnerability has proven difficult because of multiple definitions of vulnerability, complexities in quantification, a...

Intensive deforestation is reducing dry tropical forest areas worldwide and increasing its fragmentation. Forest remnants can be the basis for the future recovery of this forest type if appropriate management practices are applied. This requires a better knowledge of their conservation status and the assessment of their perceived value by land user...

Los procesos de evaluación integrada y participativa son un buen marco metodológico-operativo para la toma de decisiones frente a cuestiones ambientales complejas que conciernen a socio-agroecosistemas de alto dinamismo e impredecibilidad a cambios y con intereses conflictivos de los actores implicados en su gestión. La finalidad del artículo es mo...

Los procesos de evaluación integrada y participativa son un buen marco metodológico-operativo para la toma de decisiones frente a cuestiones ambientales complejas que conciernen a socio-agroecosistemas de alto dinamismo e impredecibilidad a cambios y con intereses conflictivos de los actores implicados en su gestión. La finalidad del artículo es mo...

Rural areas are undergoing economic, social and political change. At the same time, the inhabitants of those areas normally lack the capacity to deal with the new challenges. To understand the current socio-territorial dynamics and to tackle poverty and food insecurity and uphold the resilience of socio-ecological systems, rural development interve...

The Land Tenure Service of FAO's Rural Development Division is formally adopting the "social pact on land reform" as a way of dealing with new challenges relating to land. There are two elements to this process: first, a land assessment from the comprehensive perspective of all social actors and, second, the negotiating table, at which civil societ...

Estudio realizado a partir de una estancia en el Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas de la Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil, durant entre septiembre y noviembre del 2005. El intercambio con los grupos de trabajo del Programa de Pós-Graduçao Interdisciplinar em Ciências Humanas (UFSCE-Brasil), se ha llevado a cabo con el objetivo de...

La presente publicación es un estudio realizado en los distritos de Huando, Nuevo Occoro, Laria, Palca, Cuenca e Izcuchaca de la zona centro de la provincia de Huancavelica, con la aprobación de la Asociación de Municipalidades de dicha zona. El estudio tuvo como finalidad identificar los problemas y tendencias, las causas de tensión o conflictos,...

Historically, the semiarid social–ecological systems of the dry Central American corridor have proven resilient to pressures. However, in the last century, these systems have experienced huge environmental and socioeconomic changes that have increased the vulnerability of local livelihoods to shocks. New approaches are needed to capture complex, un...