WCS 3-Sentence Science

Knowledge Gaps and Global Sustainability Goals

November 22, 2019

CREDIT: JULIE LARSEN MAHER/WCS

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present work by WCS’s Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne on factors that are necessary to achieve global sustainability goals.

1. To guide research that better informs policy and practice, researchers systematically synthesized knowledge gaps from recent assessments of four regions of the globe and three key themes by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
2. They found that global sustainability goals cannot be achieved without: 1.) improved knowledge on feedbacks between social and ecological systems 2.) effectiveness of governance systems and the influence of institutions on the social distribution of ecosystem services 3.) understanding the role of indigenous and local knowledge in sustaining nature’s benefits to people.
3. The findings contribute to a policy-relevant and solution-oriented agenda for global, long-term social-ecological research.

Study and Journal: “Key knowledge gaps to achieve global sustainability goals” from Nature Sustainability
WCS Co-Author(s): Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, Canada KBA Coordinator, WCS Canada

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.