Team A: Climate and Hydrology
Team B: Biodiversity and Land Use
Team C: Ecosystem Services and Socio-Economy
Our team links ecosystem functions to ecosystem services that natural resources such as rangelands provide to society. Doing so, we provide a link between the natural system which is the focus area of Team A and B and the societal system, which is studied by Team D. We apply a variety of methods including cost-benefit and economy-wide analyses to assess these ecosystem services from a socio-economic perspective, providing estimates for the valuation of ecosystem services by different stakeholders. These assessments can serve stakeholders and decision-makers in the design of policies and institutions for a sustainable management of natural resources under climate change and raise general awareness for the importance of preserving these natural resources.
Team D: Governance and Ethics
Our team addresses the implementation gap, i.e. the problem that adaptive policy-intervention methods and management methods are known, but not implemented. Key to addressing the implementation gap are attitudes, values, and institutions, which greatly affect how natural resources are governed. We study socio-economic and cultural differences as well as cross-country obstacles to good governance of climate change, with a particular focus on conflict and cooperation. Yet, what does this entail? We operate on the level of – maybe conflicting – ethical baselines for good governance of limited natural resources in a transdisciplinary approach. Recent research suggests, for instance, that a better understanding of national security discourses is key to effectively scoping the available space, time, and willingness to negotiate water issues under conflict, which in turn is crucial for future water diplomacy. Via a discourse and ethics analysis of qualitative data, we identify regional policymakers’ and stakeholders’ attitudes towards the basi(c)s of good governance facing climate change as well as normative reasons for their attitudes.
