Announcements

Call for Papers: Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Volume 8

2021.11.11

The United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) is pleased to announce a call for papers for the eighth volume of the series “Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review”. The eighth volume will feature the theme “Ecosystem restoration through managing socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”. Authors from the member organisations of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI), who have case studies relevant to this theme, are highly encouraged to submit a manuscript following the guidance provided in this call for papers.


About the “Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review”
The Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review is a compilation of case studies providing useful knowledge and lessons focusing on a specific theme related to “socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”. The overall aim is to collect practical experiences and relevant knowledge, taking advantage of on-the-ground activities by practitioners while contributing to policy recommendations. Each volume also includes a synthesis chapter clarifying its relevance to policy and academic discussion to encourage the application of lessons learned in the field. Similar to the last two volumes of the publication series, Volume 8 is also planned to be published from Springer.
See the previous six volumes from the links below.

  1. Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol.1: “Enhancing knowledge for better management of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”
  2. Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol.2: “Mainstreaming concepts and approaches of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) into policy and decision-making”
  3. Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol.3: “Livelihoods and socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”
  4. Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol.4: “Sustainable use of biodiversity in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) and its contribution to effective area-based conservation”
  5. Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol.5: “Understanding the multiple values associated with sustainable use in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”
  6. Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol.6: “Fostering transformative change for sustainability in the context of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”
  7. Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol.7: “Biodiversity-health-sustainability nexus in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)” (to be published in early 2022)

Theme
“Ecosystem restoration through managing socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS)”
In this volume we seek to highlight how the efforts in managing SEPLS can prevent, halt, and reverse land and sea degradation, contributing to ecosystem restoration and sustainable development. Landscape approaches, which underpin the management of SEPLS, can facilitate ecosystem restoration in an integrated manner by rendering area-based multi-stakeholder strategies to balance conservation and development objectives. This volume will look at the strategies and approaches by which multiple stakeholders express, negotiate, and embrace their plural value perspectives of nature to restore ecosystems within a landscape or seascape.


Background
The degradation of land and sea has been occurring at an alarming rate across the world and consequently harming biodiversity and human well-being. Land degradation has led to productivity decline in 23 per cent of the global terrestrial surface and negatively affected at least 3.2 billion people while costing more than 10 per cent of the annual global gross product.[1],[2] Wetlands have been degraded with 54 per cent lost globally since 1900 and, where data available, by 35 per cent since 1970.1,[3] Coastal and marine areas also face heavy pressures, including growing agriculture and aquaculture, urban expansion, and ocean acidity.[4],[5] For instance, 37.8 per cent of global mangrove coverage has declined over the period between 1996 and 2016.[6] The loss and degradation of these areas negatively impacts the vital services from ecosystems, including coastal protection, fisheries production, blue carbon capture, and detoxification.[7]
In response to these trends, the United Nations (UN) declared the period of 2021-2030 as the “Decade on Ecosystem Restoration” at its 73rd session of the General Assembly held on 1 March 2019. This declaration calls for action to support and scale up efforts in preventing, halting, and reversing the degradation of ecosystems worldwide to address the issues of climate change, food security, water supply, and biodiversity. However, concerns have already been raised over what can be achieved in this decade and to what extent restoration efforts could be successful. Evidence to properly guide policymakers and practitioners for sound restoration is scarce.[8] A lack of monitoring and evaluation of restoration projects would be a serious lost opportunity, possibly letting vast investments end up as negligible outcomes.8 In many cases, projects lacking objectives and accountability do not yield the expected success for restoration.[9] A couple of pertinent challenges are to understand the actual extent and level of ecosystem degradation as a baseline, define clear and realistic objectives of restoration and identify how to achieve them.9,[10]
The Satoyama Initiative promotes landscape approaches as integrative area-based strategies to bring together diverse stakeholders aiming to balance multiple objectives, including conservation and development, for the benefit of biodiversity and human well-being. Many of the IPSI case studies offer rich evidence to help guide further restoration efforts, while advancing relevant knowledge and practices. The experiences in managing SEPLS demonstrate how different stakeholders identify problems, negotiate multiple value perspectives of nature (e.g., nature for nature, nature for society, and nature as culture), and set out goals for concerted efforts in restoration. They also showcase what action has been taken for restoration on a landscape or seascape scale and whether and how the efforts have sufficed the needs and interests of the stakeholders. Ecosystem degradation is a systemic phenomenon with far-reaching consequences for human well-being globally, including the interlinked impacts on food and water security, biodiversity loss and climate change. Thus, pluralistic approaches of SEPLS management can better inform policymaking and policy implementation and help strengthen them based on lessons learnt from on-the-ground initiatives to achieve global goals for sustainability.


The Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review Vol. 8
This volume will focus on the relevance of SEPLS to aspects of ecosystem restoration. Cases to be included in the volume may highlight the roles, attitudes, and actions of multiple stakeholders, including smallholders, indigenous peoples and local communities, and others in addressing the degradation of ecosystems and restoring them for the benefit of biodiversity and human well-being through their work in SEPLS. They are also expected to provide insights on how restoration efforts at the landscape and seascape level can contribute to the local, national and global policymaking on ecosystem restoration and its implementation processes, while rendering local on-the-ground benefits for biodiversity and human well-being.
IPSI partners are invited to contribute case studies related to this theme, demonstrating experiences and insights on, among others:

  • How and why has the restoration effort in your area been initiated or emerged through the management of SEPLS?
  • What multiple values of nature are expressed, and how are they negotiated and embraced by the stakeholders to define the objectives of the restoration effort in managing SEPLS?
  • How effective is SEPLS management to prevent, halt and reverse any degraded ecosystems and achieve the restoration objectives? What methodologies and approaches have been used for restoration, and how can good practices be replicated? How can you measure, monitor, evaluate and report the progress and outcomes of the restoration effort in SEPLS management?
  • What are the challenges and opportunities in restoring ecosystems through managing SEPLS to achieve biodiversity conservation and sustainable development?
  • Has local and traditional knowledge and cultural diversity helped to inform or facilitate the restoration of degraded SEPLS? If so, how?

How to submit a manuscript and what happens after submission
Eligibility:

Authors are invited to submit a paper if at least one of the authors belongs to an IPSI member organisation. (See http://satoyama-initiative.org/en/partnership/ipsi_members/)


Procedure:
Authors are requested to submit an abstract (400 words) to the IPSI Secretariat by email (sitr@unu.edu) by 20 December 2021. Submission of a full manuscript should be made before 20 February 2022, after receiving confirmation from the editorial team. Authors are requested to follow the Authors’ Guide and the reference style and are encouraged to use the Template for Manuscripts. After screening, selected authors will be informed in March 2022 and then invited to a Case Study Workshop planned to be held virtually or in person in June 2022. This Case Study Workshop will offer an opportunity for getting feedback on manuscripts and discussion among participants for development of a synthesis paper to be included in the volume.


Timeline (dates are subject to change):
20 December 2021: Deadline for submission of abstracts (400 words)
20 February 2022: Deadline for submission of full manuscripts
March 2022: Notification of selected authors
June 2022: Selected authors participate in Case Study Workshop (virtual or in-person)
August 2022: Submission of revised manuscripts
March 2023: Publication


Related documents:
· Document 2. Author’s Guide
· Document 3. Template for manuscripts
· Document 4. Reference style
· Document 5. Abstract format


For inquiries, please contact…
Dr. Maiko Nishi at the IPSI Secretariat (sitr@unu.edu)