Luca Eufemia

WWF · Mediterranean Marine Initiative

Although social learning (SL) conceptualization and implementation are flourishing in sustainability sciences, and its non-rigid conceptual fluidity is regarded as an advantage, research must advance the understanding of SL phenomenon patterns based on empirical data, thus contributing to the identification of its forms and triggering mechanisms, p...

Wildfires annually burn extensive areas in the Amazonia. Still, more is needed to know about the complex combination of triggering socioeconomic factors and environmental policies that motivate and explain the growing wildfire activity and forest losses. This study assessed wildfire occurrence, exposure, and transmission to natural forests in prote...

In conflict studies, environmental peacebuilding (EPB) has become an established concept to explain how environmental cooperation among opposing parties provides a platform for peacebuilding. EPB literature has been shaped predominantly by political science perspectives, initially with a focus on interstate conflicts, and ecological dynamics have r...

In this article, we propose an agenda promoting the development of a new integrated assessment toolkit (theory-based toolkit) of environmental governance in overlooked ecosystems of grasslands and savannahs in the Global South. To explore the complexity of social-ecological and governance systems, a growing number of systems-thinking approaches pro...

Protected areas are a fundamental element for the protection of ecological integrity and, in some cases, the livelihood of local communities worldwide. They are also embedded in socio-ecological systems, and their management is subject to various political, economic, and social influences. Good governance of protected areas is recognized as a decis...

Sustainable landscape management of protected areas in UNESCO-biosphere reserves (BR) has become an increasingly important topic for academics and environmental practitioners, yet it remains unclear how this can be operationalized in actual regional circumstances. To achieve positive and measurable sustainability impacts, effective BR management on...

This study investigates the impacts of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on smallholder farmers and their coping strategies in three contrasting Low-and Middle-Income Countries. The case studies include Brazil (South region), Madagascar (Atsimo Atsinanana region), and Tanzania (Morogoro/Eastern Tanzania). These countries were chosen because i...

This policy brief explain how Social learning can facilitate designing and scaling out sustainable land-use systems in conflict-affected areas.

Este documento proporciona una guía científicamente sólida para que los tomadores de decisiones ayuden a promover el aprendizaje social en los instrumentos de políticas, fomenten las sinergias y encuentren equilibrios entre los múltiples objetivos de SSUT (Sistemas Sostenibles de Uso de la Tierra). Este resumen de políticas es una continuación de l...

In neglected communities, waste and organic residues are not only a vector of several problems , like diseases and water pollution, but also a contributor to increasing forms of vulnerability and marginalization. At the same time, these communities also have presented innovative local initiatives and transformative learning about natural resources...

Motivation The combination of institutional weaknesses, climate change, and overexploitation is increasingly recognized as endangering the Amazon forest. These three factors made 2020 the worst year for forest fires recorded in the previous 60 years. We analyse environmental policies across the nine countries of the Amazon Basin to develop national...

Esta nota de orientación sobre políticas proporciona una guía científicamente sólida para que los tomadores de decisiones ayuden a integrar las estrategias SSUT (sistemas de uso sostenible del suelo) en los instrumentos de política, con el fin de promover sinergias y encontrar equilibrios entre los múltiples objetivos como son: la consolidación de...

Local and environmental governance is crucial for contending with the complex problems of land-use systems and socio-ecological conflicts that bedevil progress toward sustainable development. The community-based governance (CBG) framework is a practical instrument designed to identify collective problems, source the appropriate institutions and art...

The anthropocentric perception of the world-which operates on the basis of monetizing any living being-brought this issue to a critical point. The narrative of intersubjective reality, a determinism romanticized by the idea of a binary dialectic of "human" and "nature", is now challenged by the coronavirus crisis (COVID-19).

Silvopastoral systems (SPS)—production systems integrating trees, forages, and livestock within the same land area—are recognized as critical for reducing tropical deforestation and improving livelihoods, ecosystem services, and carbon sinks. Yet, research on how scaling SPS influences forest cover changes at large geographical scales is scant. Our...

This Policy Brief provides scientifically sound guidance for decision makers to help integrate SLUS strategies into policy instruments, in order to promote synergies and address trade-offs between multiple objectives related to climate change mitigation, sustainable agriculture and peacebuilding.

Organic Farming (OF) is a response to challenges caused by conventional or intensive agriculture. Successful organic production depends on farmers choosing to grow organic products. The main goal of this study is to analyze and identify factors affecting farmers’ willingness to implement OF in southwest Iran. For this, we borrowed the health belief...

As wild areas disappear and agricultural lands expand, understanding how people and wildlife can coexist becomes increasingly important. Human–wildlife conflicts (HWCs) are obstacles to coexistence and negatively affect both wildlife populations and the livelihood of people. To facilitate coexistence, a number of frameworks have been developed to b...

A major challenge in the field of environmental peacebuilding is showing the impact of its initiatives. Questions emerge, such as what kind of postwar peacebuilding dimensions are more likely to be affected by natural resource management projects? Although quantitative studies assess the relation between natural resource management programmes and c...

National and international cooperation and development projects (CDP) are fundamental for peacebuilding. However, unforeseen global crises, like COVID-19, can endanger such projects, requiring rapid adaption. In Colombia, the coron-avirus outbreak threatens to slow the implementation of peace-related projects, while simultaneously violence over con...

Die folgenden Arbeiten folgen einem vergleichenden Ansatz zweier ausgewählter Gebiete Südamerikas, um die Komplexität der Governance-Prozesse zu strukturieren. Sie konzentriert sich auf das kolumbianische Llanos- und das paraguayische Pantanal-Gebiet und korreliert die räumliche Beziehung der von natürlichen Ressourcen abhängigen Gemeinden mit sozi...

The global community recognizes that silvopastoral systems (SPS), which are considered a form of sustainable land use, could reduce forest loss. Studies indicate that SPS can improve livelihoods, provide ecosystem services and act as carbon sinks. What has been missing from the literature, however, is how scaling SPS influences forest cover. Our re...

Weak governance is a major threat to sustainable development, especially in rural contexts and within ecosystems of great social and economic value. To understand and compare its arrangement in the grasslands and wetlands of the Colombian Llanos and the Paraguayan Pantanal, we build upon the Institutional and Development Framework (IAD) as we explo...

Grasslands and savannahs are suffering heavy losses from degradation and conversion. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration offers important opportunities to address these losses through a range of restoration techniques. However, if poorly planned, the Decade could undermine some remaining natural and semi‐natural grassland and savannah ecosystems...

The 2016 peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP created institutional space for an effective implementation of needed rural reforms. However, the change of power structures also contains risks, like the deterioration of natural resources and the strengthening of other armed groups. By addressing collective perceptions re...

La GUÍA PARA EL FORTALECIMIENTO DE LA GOBERNANZA COMUNITARIA EN EL PANTANAL PARAGUAYO es el resultado tangible del Taller Inclusivo Sobre Gobernanza Comunitaria en el Pantanal Paraguayo, realizado el día 8 de mayo de 2019, en el Distrito de Bahía Negra (Alto Paraguay).

Open data are important for adding legitimacy and transparency to public sciences. These data have also a potential to be used as a first approach for scientific investigation, such as spatial evaluation of ecosystem services. This paper presents a methodological approach to evaluate the trade-offs between agriculture and supporting ecosystem servi...

The megadiverse biome of the Paraguayan Pantanal is in danger due to the expansion of cattle ranching and agricultural frontiers that threaten not only the fragile equilibrium of natural resources, but also that of local governance and cultural identities. As a consequence, weak governance stresses the relations between natural resource-dependent c...

Increasingly, the developmental model of anthropic and extractive interventions is a global concern. Its impacts are challenging not only the precarious equilibrium of natural resources but also the one of local communities and identities. The case of the Colombian Llanos shows how the local culture of the Cultura Llanera (CL) is deep-rooted with n...

In Colombia, the problem of conflict, illicit crops and land tenure are heavily intertwined, generating much interest for many years. The situation is multidimensional, involving several actors and factors. In last years the country’s situation got even more complex because since the peace agreement got signed, increased deforestation took place, a...

Despite some honorable advances, a huge quantity of public, private, and civil climate adaptation initiatives have failed to work in the Santa Catarina State (SC), Southern Brazil. Consequently, the state continues to face climate impacts; sometimes resulting in human fatalities. The main objective of this paper is to present a case study (Tapera d...

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6439/444.2

The Paraguayan Pantanal offers a valuable case of research regarding natural resource management in tropical wetlands. It is one of the world´s largest wetland of globally important ecological and cultural value that is threatened from environmental exploitations. Paradoxically, this area is rarely scientifically investigated. Therefore, in this pa...

A resolution signed in June to allow agricultural development on 35% (40 million hectares) of Colombia’s land could risk compromising the government’s 2016 Peace Agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces (see also Nature 558, 169–170; 2018). The agreement places strict controls on the transformation of national lands and environmentally importa...