Vision & Mission

We envision a fair world where the benefits generated within social-ecological systems are shared sustainably with other species, both within and across generations. Solutions to sustainability challenges are developed collaboratively across diverse scientific disciplines, knowledge systems, and social interests. To realise our vision, we recognise the need for transformative change. In pursuit of such change we:

• use place-based social-ecological systems thinking to understand and resolve sustainability challenges such as biodiversity loss and environmental injustice;
• bring together insights and approaches from the natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities in genuinely collaborative endeavours;
• integrate experiences, practices, and understandings from diverse knowledge systems;
• embed tools for transformative change into the social-ecological systems thinking via a leverage points perspective;
• develop and apply methods to bridge multiple scales and governance levels; and
• provide spaces for people sharing our vision to meet and exchange ideas.

We primarily conduct integrative and transdisciplinary research. In particular, the following topics are central to the Institute's research work:

• Biodiversity conservation
• Biocultural diversity
• Cross-scale governance
• Leverage points & transformation
• Ecosystem services
• Relational values
• Environmental justice