Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MOSAIC (Joined-up land use strategies tackling climate change and biodiversity loss)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-09-01 bis 2025-02-28
People most often value the environment yet take decisions that harm it. Although there is fit-for-purpose legislation in place, and lots of funding is spent, still biodiversity is in decline and climate goals are not met. Biodiversity loss and climate change are urgent, interlinked crises, caused by human activity, and in which land use plays an important role. A rapid and radical transformation in land use is necessary through simultaneous and coordinated action by a diversity of land use decision makers, ranging from private landowners and farmers to nature organisations and public authorities.
MOSAIC wants to contribute to a better understanding of why people take certain land use decisions, be it harmful or beneficial, what their motivations are, which drivers influence them, and how these can be targeted by specific approaches and (policy) instruments.
More importantly, MOSAIC wants to contribute to the solutions by integrating this knowledge, model expected land use on the basis thereof, and develop tools in a digital learning environment to provide actionable knowledge for land use decision makers.
Specifically, MOSAIC aims to achieve the following 5 objectives:
1. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and drivers behind land use decisions (e.g. behavioural factors, social identities, market prices, regulatory frameworks, etc.), including their relative importance and interactions, within and between relevant governance levels, ranging from individual land managers to supra-national organisations.
2. To gain a thorough understanding of the awareness of key land use decision makers, such as private landowners, farmers, governmental authorities and regulatory agencies, about climate change, biodiversity loss and renewable energy challenges and their willingness to address these challenges.
3. To characterise future land use patterns based on spatial, social and economic models that integrate key insights into the motivations and drivers behind land use related decisions and the result of these decisions in causing displacement effects, i.e. indirect land use changes in other parts of the world.
4. To support climate (mitigation, adaptation), renewable energy and biodiversity policy design and implementation by means of innovative cost-effective instruments and approaches co-created in policy labs contributing to and elaborating on MOSAIC’s research results in a transdisciplinary way.
5. To develop an interactive digital learning environment, embedded within a digital toolbox comprising proven technologies and approaches consistent with long-term European sustainability goals and strategies to support land use decision processes at governance levels ranging from local to supra-national scales.
MOSAIC wants to contribute to a better understanding of why people take certain land use decisions, be it harmful or beneficial, what their motivations are, which drivers influence them, and how these can be targeted by specific approaches and (policy) instruments.
More importantly, MOSAIC wants to contribute to the solutions by integrating this knowledge, model expected land use on the basis thereof, and develop tools in a digital learning environment to provide actionable knowledge for land use decision makers.
Specifically, MOSAIC aims to achieve the following 5 objectives:
1. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and drivers behind land use decisions (e.g. behavioural factors, social identities, market prices, regulatory frameworks, etc.), including their relative importance and interactions, within and between relevant governance levels, ranging from individual land managers to supra-national organisations.
2. To gain a thorough understanding of the awareness of key land use decision makers, such as private landowners, farmers, governmental authorities and regulatory agencies, about climate change, biodiversity loss and renewable energy challenges and their willingness to address these challenges.
3. To characterise future land use patterns based on spatial, social and economic models that integrate key insights into the motivations and drivers behind land use related decisions and the result of these decisions in causing displacement effects, i.e. indirect land use changes in other parts of the world.
4. To support climate (mitigation, adaptation), renewable energy and biodiversity policy design and implementation by means of innovative cost-effective instruments and approaches co-created in policy labs contributing to and elaborating on MOSAIC’s research results in a transdisciplinary way.
5. To develop an interactive digital learning environment, embedded within a digital toolbox comprising proven technologies and approaches consistent with long-term European sustainability goals and strategies to support land use decision processes at governance levels ranging from local to supra-national scales.
The main achievement in the first reporting period is the establishment of the Policy Labs as hubs for transdisciplinary research where researchers practitioners and decision makers decide together upon the angle the social science research on drivers, motivations and research should take so its results are directly actionable for the cases at hand, informing decision makers on the path to follow and the potential effects of policies. Policy Labs have been established in Denmark and Switzerland at national level, in Portugal at regional level, in Belgium (Flanders) and Hungary at local level, and finally at EU level. Establishment was not only about installing such Policy Labs as entities but about preparing relevant research in discussion with practitioners and decision makers. It encompassed establishing a Core Group dedicated to lead the effort, developing a Core Focus informed by the European Policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation and biodiversity conservation, Policy Mapping to understand the policy framework relevant to the focus, Stakeholder Engagement, developing a Coherent Workplan, and Message Definition for a clear and compelling communication strategy. The existence of the Policy Labs is vital for all the related research.
Social science research on the drivers of land-use change has been undertaken and in some case areas research on incentives and motivations to apply practices beneficial to the objectives of climate change, mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity has started.
Land Use modelling has been preparing the scenarios for modelling the cases based upon the Nature Futures Framework of the IPBES supporting modelling of desirable futures for people, nature and Mother Earth and the so-called SSP-RCP scenarios of the IPCC which incorporate assumptions about future socioeconomic developments, such as population growth, economic trends, and technological advancements.
Work on the digital tools has started of with two digital tool examples in the Swiss and Belgian case.
Social science research on the drivers of land-use change has been undertaken and in some case areas research on incentives and motivations to apply practices beneficial to the objectives of climate change, mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity has started.
Land Use modelling has been preparing the scenarios for modelling the cases based upon the Nature Futures Framework of the IPBES supporting modelling of desirable futures for people, nature and Mother Earth and the so-called SSP-RCP scenarios of the IPCC which incorporate assumptions about future socioeconomic developments, such as population growth, economic trends, and technological advancements.
Work on the digital tools has started of with two digital tool examples in the Swiss and Belgian case.