Design: Simone Kummer (CDE) Language editing: Tina Hirschbuehl, Anu Lannen, and Marlene Thibault ... more Design: Simone Kummer (CDE) Language editing: Tina Hirschbuehl, Anu Lannen, and Marlene Thibault (CDE); Erin Gleeson (Gleeson’s SciencEdit.CH); Amanda A. Morgan (www.aamorgan.com) Proofreading: Stefan Zach (z.a.ch GmbH) Printing: Werner Druck & Medien AG, Basel, Switzerland Credits for photos without caption: CETRAD photo gallery, pp. 19, 77; Albrecht Ehrensperger, cover (bottom) and pp. 21, 47, 49, 105, 121; Simon Gmunder, p. 75; Hans Hurni, cover (top); Andreas Klay, p. 119; Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel, p. 103; Urs Wiesmann, cover (middle)
DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 2015
Since the launch of the World Heritage Convention in 1972, World Heritage sites have become incre... more Since the launch of the World Heritage Convention in 1972, World Heritage sites have become increasingly popular. To date, more than 1000 sites have received World Heritage status, among them 228 natural and mixed sites. Yet too, in the past four decades, protected area paradigms have evolved from rather strict and exclusionary to more integrative approaches. Nevertheless, relatively little is known on how such developments influence World Natural Heritage (WNH) sites. This paper presents the results of a global survey of 128 of 211 WNH sites listed in 2011 and analyses the results by taking the year of inscription as a reference. The article shows that the understanding of WNH status has undergone great changes: from being perceived as an internationally valued instrument to foster conservation, WNH status has now rather become a label of great promotional importance. This can, e.g., be shown by a decreasing influence of WNH status on the status of protection of a site. Conversely,...
Partnerships between Northern and Southern researchers are a powerful tool for studying problems ... more Partnerships between Northern and Southern researchers are a powerful tool for studying problems of global change and for shaping development policies. North–South partnerships enable teams of researchers to focus on specific problems and to strengthen research capacities in developing countries. They also enable Southern researchers to contribute to their home countries as part of an international network. This issue of evidence for policy draws on recent publications from the NCCR North-South to illustrate how partnership benefits science and sustainable development.
Problems in research for sustainable development are often complex, illdefined, dynamic, and inte... more Problems in research for sustainable development are often complex, illdefined, dynamic, and intersectoral, calling for a transdisciplinary approach, that is, an approach that enables researchers to both cross disciplinary boundaries and interact with stakeholders from society. Transdisciplinary research for sustainable development, however, faces specific challenges or ‘traps’, in particular the ‘ideographic trap’ and the ‘theory trap’, which are rooted in the fact that this type of research is necessarily bound to a specific context. We argue that system dynamics complies with the majority of epistemic requirements of transdisciplinarity and, as a consequence, is a valuable instrument for transdisciplinary research. Moreover, the use of system dynamics may offer genuine contributions to overcoming the above-mentioned traps. Indeed, system dynamics has a potential for generalisation, making it possible to overcome the ‘ideographic trap’; and a system dynamics model necessarily embo...
Eight regional workshops and the resulting pre-syntheses for the eight regions worldwide defined ... more Eight regional workshops and the resulting pre-syntheses for the eight regions worldwide defined as “Joint Areas of Case Studies” (JACS) constituted the core of the “Syndrome Pre-Synthesis Project” (SPSP), the aim of which was to provide a transdisciplinary foundation for the proposed NCCR NorthSouth. An approach and a methodology for the regional workshops were designed on the basis of initial conceptual preparation that linked the concepts of “sustainable development” and “syndrome mitigation” and explored their interrelations. The workshop participants represented a broad range of research and development institutions. They formed regional think tanks whose tasks were to critically review and discuss the proposed framework of the NCCR North-South, then address problems of sustainable development in the various syndrome contexts in the region, weight and cluster the problems, and identify the type of research that would help mitigate syndromes and enhance sustainable development i...
This article explores how global and local dynamics and stakes can be brought together when tryin... more This article explores how global and local dynamics and stakes can be brought together when trying to combine conservation and regional development. For this purpose we analyse a series of studies carried out in the area of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site (WHS). The approaches used in these studies to analyse the diversity and development of the region included data collection and evaluation of indicators such as population development, number of working places, occupation rates in various economic sectors and commuter balance, as well as interviews with key informants and assessment of existing planning tools. The major challenge of the newly declared World Heritage Region is that it is neither a political or administrative nor a cultural unit but constitutes a completely new type of space that breaks up and crosses traditional boundaries. The studies revealed an economic tertiarisation process and migration of the population from remote areas to regional centre...
Funds for poverty reduction are limited, so allocating them effectively is important in developme... more Funds for poverty reduction are limited, so allocating them effectively is important in development planning. A common way to do this is to plot the distribution of poor people on maps, and then to target poverty-alleviation efforts at areas with the largest incidences of poverty. But this is a crude approach that risks missing a large share of the poor. This issue of evidence for policy shows how careful analysis of detailed spatial information – in this case in Laos – can reveal patterns that are not immediately obvious. That can lead to better, more precise targeting well beyond a purely geographic focus on poor areas, and to more differentiated and spatially integrated development planning.
In contrast with the other JACS regions, the JACS Alps has a special, subordinate position within... more In contrast with the other JACS regions, the JACS Alps has a special, subordinate position within the conceptual framework of the NCCR North-South. Therefore, a regional workshop and related pre-synthesis for the JACS Alps was not foreseen in the framework of the SPSP project. The present brief contribution is thus not based on a transdisciplinary process, like the presyntheses from the other JACS regions, but attempts instead to address some of the core steps in such a pre-synthesis for comparative reasons, by drawing on literature and expertise. It deals with three sub-contexts within the dominant highland-lowland context: areas of concentration, deserted areas and recreational areas. A preliminary appraisal of core problems related to non-sustainable development in these three sub-contexts showed that the problems were less severe than in the other JACS regions. But the appraisal also hinted at potential syndromes of global change in the Alps. The status of research in the JACS A...
The Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn World Heritage Site (WHS) comprises mainly natural high-mountain... more The Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn World Heritage Site (WHS) comprises mainly natural high-mountain landscapes. The High Alps and impressive natural landscapes are not the only feature making the region so attractive; its uniqueness also lies in the adjoining landscapes shaped by centuries of traditional agricultural use. Given the dramatic changes in the agricultural sector, the risk faced by cultural landscapes in the World Heritage Region is possibly greater than that faced by the natural landscape inside the perimeter of the WHS. Inclusion on the World Heritage List was therefore an opportunity to contribute not only to the preservation of the ‘natural’ WHS: the protected part of the natural landscape is understood as the centrepiece of a strategy to enhance sustainable development in the entire region, including cultural landscapes. Maintaining the right balance between preservation of the WHS and promotion of sustainable regional development constitutes a key challenge for manag...
Access and accessibility are important determinants of people’s ability to utilise natural resour... more Access and accessibility are important determinants of people’s ability to utilise natural resources, and have a strong impact on household welfare. Physical accessibility of natural resources, on the other hand, has generally been regarded as one of the most important drivers of land-use and land-cover changes. Based on two case studies, this article discusses evidence of the impact of access to services and access to natural resources on household poverty and on the environment. We show that socio-cultural distances are a key limiting factor for gaining access to services, and thereby for improved household welfare. We also discuss the impact of socio-cultural distances on access to natural resources, and show that large-scale commercial exploitation of natural resources tends to occur beyond the spatial reach of socio-culturally and economically marginalised population segments. We conclude that it is essential to pay more attention to improving the structural environment that pr...
The present publication is the final outcome of the "Syndrome Pre-SynthesisProject" (SP... more The present publication is the final outcome of the "Syndrome Pre-SynthesisProject" (SPSP), a preparatory project initiated in 2001 to pave the way for the NCCR North-South. The SPSP applied a transdisciplinary approach to identify research partnerships for development in 8 regions of the world. The primary aim of the present publication is to present an initial synthesis of core problems in each region, of the status and focus of related research, and of corresponding new research needs. Based on the results of this participatory process, the NCCR North-South programme has followed up on the outcomes of the regional syntheses by identifying future research aims along the general lines determined in the workshops.
This paper examines how knowledge-based interventions improve the quality of life in communities ... more This paper examines how knowledge-based interventions improve the quality of life in communities where they are implemented. It draws on case studies of three interventions implemented as Partnership Actions to Mitigate Syndromes (PAMS) within the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South programme. The case studies consist of a qualitative evaluation based on experience, knowledge and expertise gained through participants’ observations, as well as relevant documents and reports. The concepts of 1) syndrome mitigation; 2) participation and empowerment; and 3) vulnerability and resilience are used as assessment indicators to demonstrate the levels of and differences in contributions by and among the respective interventions. The assessment reveals that although each of the three projects contributed to syndrome mitigation in its respective context, there are marked disparities in the level of individual achievement that are influenced by the nature of problem...
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 2019
Systems, targets and transformations are guiding metaphors of environmental and sustainability re... more Systems, targets and transformations are guiding metaphors of environmental and sustainability research. Is the framing of these concepts still adequate to address today’s wicked sustainability challenges?
Design: Simone Kummer (CDE) Language editing: Tina Hirschbuehl, Anu Lannen, and Marlene Thibault ... more Design: Simone Kummer (CDE) Language editing: Tina Hirschbuehl, Anu Lannen, and Marlene Thibault (CDE); Erin Gleeson (Gleeson’s SciencEdit.CH); Amanda A. Morgan (www.aamorgan.com) Proofreading: Stefan Zach (z.a.ch GmbH) Printing: Werner Druck & Medien AG, Basel, Switzerland Credits for photos without caption: CETRAD photo gallery, pp. 19, 77; Albrecht Ehrensperger, cover (bottom) and pp. 21, 47, 49, 105, 121; Simon Gmunder, p. 75; Hans Hurni, cover (top); Andreas Klay, p. 119; Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel, p. 103; Urs Wiesmann, cover (middle)
DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 2015
Since the launch of the World Heritage Convention in 1972, World Heritage sites have become incre... more Since the launch of the World Heritage Convention in 1972, World Heritage sites have become increasingly popular. To date, more than 1000 sites have received World Heritage status, among them 228 natural and mixed sites. Yet too, in the past four decades, protected area paradigms have evolved from rather strict and exclusionary to more integrative approaches. Nevertheless, relatively little is known on how such developments influence World Natural Heritage (WNH) sites. This paper presents the results of a global survey of 128 of 211 WNH sites listed in 2011 and analyses the results by taking the year of inscription as a reference. The article shows that the understanding of WNH status has undergone great changes: from being perceived as an internationally valued instrument to foster conservation, WNH status has now rather become a label of great promotional importance. This can, e.g., be shown by a decreasing influence of WNH status on the status of protection of a site. Conversely,...
Partnerships between Northern and Southern researchers are a powerful tool for studying problems ... more Partnerships between Northern and Southern researchers are a powerful tool for studying problems of global change and for shaping development policies. North–South partnerships enable teams of researchers to focus on specific problems and to strengthen research capacities in developing countries. They also enable Southern researchers to contribute to their home countries as part of an international network. This issue of evidence for policy draws on recent publications from the NCCR North-South to illustrate how partnership benefits science and sustainable development.
Problems in research for sustainable development are often complex, illdefined, dynamic, and inte... more Problems in research for sustainable development are often complex, illdefined, dynamic, and intersectoral, calling for a transdisciplinary approach, that is, an approach that enables researchers to both cross disciplinary boundaries and interact with stakeholders from society. Transdisciplinary research for sustainable development, however, faces specific challenges or ‘traps’, in particular the ‘ideographic trap’ and the ‘theory trap’, which are rooted in the fact that this type of research is necessarily bound to a specific context. We argue that system dynamics complies with the majority of epistemic requirements of transdisciplinarity and, as a consequence, is a valuable instrument for transdisciplinary research. Moreover, the use of system dynamics may offer genuine contributions to overcoming the above-mentioned traps. Indeed, system dynamics has a potential for generalisation, making it possible to overcome the ‘ideographic trap’; and a system dynamics model necessarily embo...
Eight regional workshops and the resulting pre-syntheses for the eight regions worldwide defined ... more Eight regional workshops and the resulting pre-syntheses for the eight regions worldwide defined as “Joint Areas of Case Studies” (JACS) constituted the core of the “Syndrome Pre-Synthesis Project” (SPSP), the aim of which was to provide a transdisciplinary foundation for the proposed NCCR NorthSouth. An approach and a methodology for the regional workshops were designed on the basis of initial conceptual preparation that linked the concepts of “sustainable development” and “syndrome mitigation” and explored their interrelations. The workshop participants represented a broad range of research and development institutions. They formed regional think tanks whose tasks were to critically review and discuss the proposed framework of the NCCR North-South, then address problems of sustainable development in the various syndrome contexts in the region, weight and cluster the problems, and identify the type of research that would help mitigate syndromes and enhance sustainable development i...
This article explores how global and local dynamics and stakes can be brought together when tryin... more This article explores how global and local dynamics and stakes can be brought together when trying to combine conservation and regional development. For this purpose we analyse a series of studies carried out in the area of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage Site (WHS). The approaches used in these studies to analyse the diversity and development of the region included data collection and evaluation of indicators such as population development, number of working places, occupation rates in various economic sectors and commuter balance, as well as interviews with key informants and assessment of existing planning tools. The major challenge of the newly declared World Heritage Region is that it is neither a political or administrative nor a cultural unit but constitutes a completely new type of space that breaks up and crosses traditional boundaries. The studies revealed an economic tertiarisation process and migration of the population from remote areas to regional centre...
Funds for poverty reduction are limited, so allocating them effectively is important in developme... more Funds for poverty reduction are limited, so allocating them effectively is important in development planning. A common way to do this is to plot the distribution of poor people on maps, and then to target poverty-alleviation efforts at areas with the largest incidences of poverty. But this is a crude approach that risks missing a large share of the poor. This issue of evidence for policy shows how careful analysis of detailed spatial information – in this case in Laos – can reveal patterns that are not immediately obvious. That can lead to better, more precise targeting well beyond a purely geographic focus on poor areas, and to more differentiated and spatially integrated development planning.
In contrast with the other JACS regions, the JACS Alps has a special, subordinate position within... more In contrast with the other JACS regions, the JACS Alps has a special, subordinate position within the conceptual framework of the NCCR North-South. Therefore, a regional workshop and related pre-synthesis for the JACS Alps was not foreseen in the framework of the SPSP project. The present brief contribution is thus not based on a transdisciplinary process, like the presyntheses from the other JACS regions, but attempts instead to address some of the core steps in such a pre-synthesis for comparative reasons, by drawing on literature and expertise. It deals with three sub-contexts within the dominant highland-lowland context: areas of concentration, deserted areas and recreational areas. A preliminary appraisal of core problems related to non-sustainable development in these three sub-contexts showed that the problems were less severe than in the other JACS regions. But the appraisal also hinted at potential syndromes of global change in the Alps. The status of research in the JACS A...
The Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn World Heritage Site (WHS) comprises mainly natural high-mountain... more The Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn World Heritage Site (WHS) comprises mainly natural high-mountain landscapes. The High Alps and impressive natural landscapes are not the only feature making the region so attractive; its uniqueness also lies in the adjoining landscapes shaped by centuries of traditional agricultural use. Given the dramatic changes in the agricultural sector, the risk faced by cultural landscapes in the World Heritage Region is possibly greater than that faced by the natural landscape inside the perimeter of the WHS. Inclusion on the World Heritage List was therefore an opportunity to contribute not only to the preservation of the ‘natural’ WHS: the protected part of the natural landscape is understood as the centrepiece of a strategy to enhance sustainable development in the entire region, including cultural landscapes. Maintaining the right balance between preservation of the WHS and promotion of sustainable regional development constitutes a key challenge for manag...
Access and accessibility are important determinants of people’s ability to utilise natural resour... more Access and accessibility are important determinants of people’s ability to utilise natural resources, and have a strong impact on household welfare. Physical accessibility of natural resources, on the other hand, has generally been regarded as one of the most important drivers of land-use and land-cover changes. Based on two case studies, this article discusses evidence of the impact of access to services and access to natural resources on household poverty and on the environment. We show that socio-cultural distances are a key limiting factor for gaining access to services, and thereby for improved household welfare. We also discuss the impact of socio-cultural distances on access to natural resources, and show that large-scale commercial exploitation of natural resources tends to occur beyond the spatial reach of socio-culturally and economically marginalised population segments. We conclude that it is essential to pay more attention to improving the structural environment that pr...
The present publication is the final outcome of the "Syndrome Pre-SynthesisProject" (SP... more The present publication is the final outcome of the "Syndrome Pre-SynthesisProject" (SPSP), a preparatory project initiated in 2001 to pave the way for the NCCR North-South. The SPSP applied a transdisciplinary approach to identify research partnerships for development in 8 regions of the world. The primary aim of the present publication is to present an initial synthesis of core problems in each region, of the status and focus of related research, and of corresponding new research needs. Based on the results of this participatory process, the NCCR North-South programme has followed up on the outcomes of the regional syntheses by identifying future research aims along the general lines determined in the workshops.
This paper examines how knowledge-based interventions improve the quality of life in communities ... more This paper examines how knowledge-based interventions improve the quality of life in communities where they are implemented. It draws on case studies of three interventions implemented as Partnership Actions to Mitigate Syndromes (PAMS) within the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South programme. The case studies consist of a qualitative evaluation based on experience, knowledge and expertise gained through participants’ observations, as well as relevant documents and reports. The concepts of 1) syndrome mitigation; 2) participation and empowerment; and 3) vulnerability and resilience are used as assessment indicators to demonstrate the levels of and differences in contributions by and among the respective interventions. The assessment reveals that although each of the three projects contributed to syndrome mitigation in its respective context, there are marked disparities in the level of individual achievement that are influenced by the nature of problem...
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 2019
Systems, targets and transformations are guiding metaphors of environmental and sustainability re... more Systems, targets and transformations are guiding metaphors of environmental and sustainability research. Is the framing of these concepts still adequate to address today’s wicked sustainability challenges?
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