ZEF Project Details

BioClimSocial - The Social Dimension of Research and Implementation of Nature-based solutions: Utilising Synergies for Biodiversity and Climate

Keywords

Nature-based Solutions; biodiversity-climate synergies; Social dimension; participatory processes: Transdisciplinarity

Countries

Austria, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya, Lebanon

Summary

The BioClimSocial project is intended to highlight the significance of the social dimension in the context of researching, planning and implementing measures for biodiversity and climate at the local (or regional) level.

The ‘social dimension’ encompasses the views, needs and experiences of a diversity of actors/stakeholders across civil society, industry and academia, as well as relationships between these actors/stakeholders (power relations, institutional arrangements, governance systems). The project is to complement the existing knowledge and tools in the respective field by putting emphasis on exploring the social dimension in the applied research in climate- biodiversity relevant NbS.

The BioClimSociale project will analyse the social dimension of synergistic climate-biodiversity NbS through two interlinking research packages.

Work Package 1 involves the undertaking of data collection on the features of the social dimension as an integral part of NbS research and implementation. The data set will be drawn from those NbS researchers who are applying transdisciplinary research. A mixed methodology analysis of data via surveys and interviews from this database of global NbS study cases will encompass NbS in four sectors: agroforestry, coastal, mountainous and urban regions. The questionnaire that will form the survey will be formulated in part, by data derived from an academic and grey literature review on NbS case studies that fit the criteria (climate-biodiversity synergy and with a strong focus on the social dimension), where themes will be identified and coded in order to be integrated into the questionnaire.

Furthermore, data derived from Work Package 2 - constituting our four NbS case study partners will also contribute to the forthcoming survey and in depth interview questions. The resultant data will contribute directly to both the NbS Guideline and a prospective scientific co-authored publication. The four NbS case study partners, along with our selected Project Advisory Board of experts, will be part of the iterative process of knowledge co-production through transdisciplinarity in order to produce the said outputs of the Guideline and the publication.

Work Package 3 and 4 constitute capacity building and project management activities, both of which are designed to support the ongoing and potentially future research activities for our case study partners at the biodiversity-climate interface in practice.

Specific objectives of the project are:

To undertake transdisciplinary research that will lead to the development of a guideline. The purpose of this Guideline is to provide a theoretical underpinning as well as practical recommendations for considering the social dimension in NbS for climate and biodiversity.
To collaborate with four, active global NbS case studies to enrich the Guidelines with “good practice” examples and lessons learnt of the four case studies which explore experiences made by applied and application-oriented projects on: restoring mangroves in Colombia; urban greening in Lebanon; agroforestry practices in Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya; and biodiversity-climate synergies in the rural mountainous areas of Austria.
To foster capacity building for future collaboration and potential research that expands on the current scientific foci.

Methodology

Mixed methodology:

Questionnaires
In-depth interviews with academics in the field of Nature-based Solutions
Online and in-person workshops
Qualitative and quantitative analyses

Main Cooperation Partners

African Climate and Environment Centre - Future African Savannas (AFAS), Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Prof. Dr N'Golo A. Kone, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny - NbS case study partner
Climate Research Center, Nature Park Ötscher Tormäuer, Austria, Florian Schublach, Katja Weirer, Dr Günther Schreder, Danube University Krems - NbS case study partner
sea4soCiety - Increasing the carbon storage potential of coastal ecosystems rich in vegetation; Colombia, Malaysia, Prof. Dr Martin Zimmer; Prof. Dr Esteban Zarza Gonzalez, Universidad del Sinu and Prof Dr. José Ernesto Mancera Pineda, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Exact Partner TBD) - NbS case study partner
Urban Greening, Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management, Beirut, Lebanon, Prof. Salma N. Talhouk, American University of Beirut - NbS case study partner

Main Funding Partners

Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), with funds of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)

Project Advisory Group (PAG)