| Abstract: |
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 12 of Agenda 2030 states that the world ‘requires a strong national framework for sustainable consumption and production, integrated into national and sectoral plans, sustainable business practices and consumer behaviour’. This goal interconnects with other goals aimed at improving ecological infrastructure (SDG 13, 14, 15), changing institutions, increasing transparency, reducing conflicts, and ensuring sufficient food, water and energy for global society (SDG 2, 6, 7). In essence, these goals underline a shared belief that a shift towards more effectively managed biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services (ES) is indispensable.
This Special Issue in International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management aims to contribute to the emerging science on how to maintain and rehabilitate biodiversity and ES effectively in the tropics where agricultural expansion has shaped the landscapes. Food production as a provisioning ES dominates direct economic value and employment in roughly half the world.2 Its sustainability, or lack thereof, depends on the way the trade-offs between human activities and ES, beyond the provision of food, are balanced and managed locally (e.g. impacts on water and soil quality and availability) and globally (e.g. impacts on macroclimate and global biodiversity) (Namirembe et al. 2018). Economic and social concerns closely interact with the ecological aspects of sustainable agriculture (Bernard et al. 2014) and reliance on child labour clashes with universal rights to education (Berlan 2004). The viability of rural communities has emerged as an issue during rapid urbanization with hopes that responsible consumption can reduce risks on both sides of the desakota (or rural–urban) continuum (Pelling and Mustafa 2010). |
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