Supporting Nature's Contributions to People and social equity in the face of climate change

ended

Increasing pressures on land resources necessitate landscape management solutions that simultaneously deliver multiple benefits to diverse stakeholder groups with competing interests. Yet, there are enduring inequities in the benefits derived from nature by social groups. These inequities are expected to be amplified by climate change, which typically affects vulnerable people the most. However, a quantification of the effects of climate change on the overall contribution of nature to people’s quality of life (referred to as “multifunctionality”, defined here as overall supply of Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) weighted by their relative prioritisation by people), and its distribution across social groups, is missing. This project aims to fill these gaps by 1) identifying the main socio-demographic factors underlying disparities in supply, demand and access to NCP; and their impacts on quality of life; 2) quantifying the impact of climate change on the distribution of multifunctionality across social groups; and 3) identifying land management solutions to increase multifunctionality for most groups, and minimise inequities, under future climate change. This project will thus provide new insights into factors driving people’s benefits from nature, and provide a synthetic assessment of climate change impacts on social inequities via their effects on nature and NCP. As fighting inequities and environmental change become increasingly pressing and intertwined issues in policy, this research will provide land managers and policy makers with a basis for informed decision-making for guiding equitable and sustainable development. The project will additionally provide me with a unique opportunity to expand my collaboration network as well as my conceptual, technical and project management skills, paving the way towards my professional independence and leadership in the field of social-ecology.