Just Transformations to Sustainability

Nathan J Bennett,Gerald G Singh,Jessica Blythe,Andrés M Cisneros-Montemayor,U Rashid Sumaila

doi:10.3390/su11143881

Abstract

Transformations towards sustainability are needed to address many of the earth’s profound environmental and social challenges. Yet, actions taken to deliberately shift social–ecological systems towards more sustainable trajectories can have substantial social impacts and exclude people from decision-making processes. The concept of just transformations makes explicit a need to consider social justice in the process of shifting towards sustainability. In this paper, we draw on the transformations, just transitions, and social justice literature to advance a pragmatic framing of just transformations that includes recognitional, procedural and distributional considerations. Decision-making processes to guide just transformations need to consider these three factors before, during and after the transformation period. We offer practical and methodological guidance to help navigate just transformations in environmental management and sustainability policies and practice. The framing of just transformations put forward here might be used to inform decision making in numerous marine and terrestrial ecosystems, in rural and urban environments, and at various scales from local to global. We argue that sustainability transformations cannot be considered a success unless social justice is a central concern.

Highlights

Many of the world’s ecosystems are unsustainable at current levels of human use [1,2,3,4,5]
We aim to bring recognitional, procedural and distributional justice considerations to the forefront in sustainability and transformations science, policy and practice
This implies that sustainability and environmental decision-making processes will need to ask: Who is implicated in sustainability decisions? Who should be included in decision making? How should decisions be made? How should distinct worldviews and cultures be considered? What will be the short and long-term impacts of decisions? Who will the winners and losers be? Engagement in sustainability transformations research and management, in particular, calls for reflection on the distribution of wealth, power, opportunities, and privileges within our societies

Summary

Introduction

Many of the world’s ecosystems are unsustainable at current levels of human use [1,2,3,4,5]. Ensuring the well-being of current and future generations within the limits of a finite planet is one of the defining challenges of our time. In response to this challenge, the notion of transformations towards sustainability has risen to the forefront of global scientific and policy endeavors. Deliberate actions taken to achieve environmental sustainability might take many forms, from strict preservation where human use is curtailed to management actions that encourage more sustainable practices or reduce harvesting levels to environmental restoration or ‘re-wilding’ activities [9]

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion