Project

Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the FCB Nexus

The 6-year Partnership, “Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus” (Solving-FCB), aims to support and facilitate the development of viable FCB solutions that explicitly consider their complex social and ecological contexts. The Solving-FCB Partnership brings together world-leading scholars and practitioners from academic institutes, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, and government agencies to undertake transdisciplinary research that examines policies and human actions at the intersection of achieving food security, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation goals.

Introduction

To ensure a sustainable and secure future for both humans and the natural environment, decisions about natural resource use and societal well-being must be aligned with Earth's environmental limits. The major global challenge of finding a just, equitable and culturally-sensitive way to feed and nourish the future human population while achieving biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation goals is the focus of this expert panel.

Objective

The “Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus” (Solving-FCB) partnership aims to support and facilitate the development of viable FCB solutions that explicitly consider their complex social and ecological contexts. Specifically, the Partnership has three overarching objectives:

  • Develop pluralistic visions of ‘desirable’ futures of FCB;
  • Identify priorities and examine consequences of actions to build nexus-informed pathways for transforming and transitioning to ‘desirable’ FCB futures;
  • Develop a systematic procedure and toolkit to co-identify solution options with stakeholders, rights-holders, and knowledge-holders to address the interactions between FCB and other sustainability challenges.

In The Netherlands, the Partnership aims to explore nexus-informed pathways towards circular and ‘nature inclusive’ food systems.

Method

The Partnership is grounded on five case studies that focus on FCB challenges under a range of societal and environmental contexts. We will use both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse relationships and feedback in FCB systems, including integrated modelling and scenarios development to evaluate temporal and spatial dynamics and impacts in response to FCB-related actions, and co-production of knowledge with stakeholders and rights-holders.

(Expected) results

For the Dutch case study, we expect the following results:

  • Representation of plausible futures of ‘nature-inclusive’ food systems;
  • Guidance to policy-makers and stakeholders on socioeconomic and/or policy transitions;
  • Application of the nexus approach to solve FCB challenges in well-developed economies.