Abstract
Natural resource policies enacted to protect environmental integrity play an important role in promoting sustainability. However, when resources are shared ecologically, economically, or through a common, global interest, policies implemented to protect resource sustainability in one domain can displace, and in some cases magnify, environmental degradation to other domains. Although such displacement has been recognized as a fundamental challenge to environmental and conservation policy within some resource sectors, there has been little cross‐disciplinary and cross‐sectoral integration to address the problem. This suggests that siloed knowledge may be impeding widespread recognition of the ubiquity of displacement and the need for mitigation. Here, we connect research across multiple disciplines to promote a broader discussion and recognition of the processes and pathways that can lead to displaced impacts that countermand or undermine resource policy and outline a number of approaches that can mitigate displacement.
Highlights
The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN Sustainable Development Goals, n.d.) identifies the need for responsible and sustainable consumption and production as a key goal
Despite growing evidence (Box 1), there has been relatively little effort within and across resource sectors to adequately integrate this work into policy discussions in a manner that transcends disciplinary, sectoral, or other boundaries. This likely explains why the unintended displacement of environmental impacts and necessary solutions have yet to be widely incorporated into the design and evaluation of conservation or natural resource policy
Natural resource conservation policies will continue to be a fundamental tool for sustainable production and consumption
Summary
The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN Sustainable Development Goals, n.d.) identifies the need for responsible and sustainable consumption and production as a key goal. When resources are shared or linked ecologically or economically through physical movement of resources (i.e., migration and trade) or through a common, global interest (e.g., carbon sequestration, species extinction, biodiversity conservation), policies in one jurisdiction can displace, and in some cases magnify, environmental degradation beyond a policy's intended boundaries. This is evident in domains where environmental, conservation, or resource use governance is less stringent. A compounding body of literature suggests that a failure to recognize and account for these outsourced effects can jeopardize or undermine the efficacy of environmental or conservation policy
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