Jennifer M. Holzer

• Environmental Studies
• PostDoc Position at Brock University

This poster presents the results of stakeholder mapping and the creation of a socio-ecological conceptual model to aid in addressing soil erosion issues in the Negev Highlands.

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 h...

Ecosystem services (ES) are an important part of global and national environmental policies. In this context, there is a call for the monitoring of ES to support their management. However, the proliferation of terms used within ES science is a barrier to standardised monitoring. Monitoring ES requires knowing exactly what variables to measure and h...

Effective social‐ecological fit is considered essential for properly managing social‐ecological systems. Despite this importance, the concept of social‐ecological fit lacks the following: clarity in scope and definition, a practical quantitative method to assess effectiveness, and methods capable of equally assessing the social and ecological facto...

The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has greatly evolved since it was first proposed and, as it gained popularity, has been used in diverse applications. Today, ES are an important part of global and national environmental policies. In this context, there is a call for the monitoring of ES to support their management. The proliferation of terms u...

Notwithstanding actions taken to date through policy, programmes and practices, the planet remains on an unsustainable pathway. System level and individual actions are needed to address the challenges that confront us. Finding approaches to encourage individual pro‐environmental behaviours are important for shifting an individual's actions, and the...

A book review of Protecting the Prairies: Lorne Scott and the politics of conservation by Andrea Olive

Human connections to nature are critical to the sustainability of life on earth. Nature connections are often linked with pro-environmental behaviors.Therefore, a better understanding of the nuances of human-nature connections can help inform policies and practices to advance sustainability. Connections to nature research has rarely investigated nu...

Education for sustainability has become a main thrust of environmental education since the early 1990s. In this context, the development of ecological and environmental literacy has been favored as a key tool for cultivating environmental concern and responsible human behavior towards ecosystems. In recent years, the concept of sense of place (SoP)...

Power dynamics are widely recognized as key contributors to poor outcomes of environmental governance broadly and specifically for adaptive water governance. Water governance processes are shifting, with increased emphasis on collaboration and learning. Understanding how power dynamics impact these processes in adaptive governance is hence critical...

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...

As a group of social scientists supporting a large, national, multi-site project dedicated to studying ecosystem services in natural resource production landscapes, we were tasked with co-hosting kick-off workshops at multiple locations. When, due to project design and the Covid-19 pandemic, we were forced to reshape our plans for these workshops a...

We invite you, Environmental scholars, professionals, and activists, to submit an Abstract to the the 3rd Annual International Conference on Environmental Conflict and Cooperation (CECC), June 1-2 ,2023, at UC Berkeley. --- The conference will be divided into two days, with possible additional activities and excursions, depending on in-person par...

Call for Abstracts for the 3rd Conference of Environmental Conflict and Cooperation, UC Berkeley and online, June 1-2, 2023. To submit an abstract go to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-JpZB3Vo_nJC8SHT6lJ9VmKu4bCIQOdB8RDBkI1VgIh8s2g/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0

Into

Background While the concept of ecosystem services has been widely adopted by scholars and increasingly used in policy and practice, there has been criticism of its usefulness to decision-makers. This systematic map will collect and analyse literature that frames ES as a collaboration tool, rather than as an ecosystem assessment tool, to answer the...

Processes of change towards sustainability are urgently needed to ensure that humans continue to live within safe biophysical limits. Governance and politics are inherently implicated in any effort to foster successful change processes. Pluralism has been argued as a key ingredient for increasing the likelihood of robust and viable processes of cha...

Reconnecting to nature is imperative for the sustainability of humans on Earth, offering a leverage point for system change. Connections to nature have been conceptualized as a typology of five types as follows: material; experiential; cognitive; emotional; and, philosophical, ranging from relatively shallow to deeper connections, respectively. Edu...

Place-based social-ecological research is often designed to improve local environmental governance, but it can also inform decisions at larger scales or in other places. However, the focus on local perspectives in such research creates challenges for transferring insights to other locations, and for aggregating understanding to larger scales. In th...

This paper explores the degree to which the ecosystem services (ES) concept and related tools have been integrated and implemented within the Canadian government context at both the provincial/territorial and federal levels. The research goals of the study were to qualitatively assess the extent to which ES assessment is being integrated at differe...

We synthesize key concepts in ecosystem services governance in the context of enhancing participatory governance of Canadian working landscapes. The ultimate aim is to identify and apply pressure on deep leverage points for transformation.

Researchers in multiple, related fields that address complex social and environmental challenges, have shown ongoing enthusiasm for applying transdisciplinary social-ecological systems (SES) research to promote sustainability. However, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of SES approach, assessed its achievements, and identified challenges...

The Best Practices Manual for Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platforms is the product of a four-year audit of existing European LTSER Platforms within the framework of the Horizon 2020 (INFRAIA 2014-2015) sponsored research infrastructure project “Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem & Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure (eLTER...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of how ecological considerations can be integrated into campus strategic and statutory spatial planning. A process of developing ecological objectives and guidelines for inclusion in campus strategic and statutory spatial plans is presented. Design/methodology/approach This case study...

Communities often lack a framework to guide research and action by which to mitigate complex socio-ecological challenges in the face of conflicting interests and poorly understood ecological and socio-political mechanisms. In an effort to provide such a framework, this article offers an approach for the systematic analysis of societal interactions...

Over the past decade, Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) has been established to better integrate social science research and societal concerns into the goals and objectives of the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, an established global network of long-term ecological monitoring sites. The Horizon 2020 eLTER proj...

With an overarching goal of addressing global and regional sustainability challenges, Long TermSocio-Ecological Research Platforms (LTSER) aim to conduct place-based research, to collect and synthesize both environmental and socio-economic data, and to involve a broader stakeholder pool to set the research agenda. To date there have been few studie...

Socio-ecological research, as conducted within the Long Term Ecological Research network in Europe (eLTER), is a relatively young field that studies coupled ecological and social systems to advance solutions for contemporary challenges in human-nature interactions. While many research and applied projects have been launched using a socio-ecological...

Development of the term ’transdisciplinarity,’ applying it to the assessment of socio-ecological research, and an example of socio-ecological research within the Long Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) network.

Applies lessons from literature on transdisciplinary team science to building an assessment framework for socio-ecological research across Europe, highlighting several Israeli cases.

This paper advocates using environmental data as a basis for cross-border entities to work toward integrated watershed management and discusses lessons learned through involving stakeholders in this process. Based on our experience with water and wastewater issues in the Middle East, we have adapted an integrated watershed management approach in re...