We report new provincial records for the invasive giant resin bee, Megachile sculpturalis Smith, 1853, from Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, confirming its establishment in the Basque Country and ongoing expansion across the Iberian Peninsula. Observations from July to August 2025 provide the first evidence of nesting in the region, including a documented case of a female repurposing nest material from the native bee Anthidium septemspinosum Lepeletier, 1841. These findings highlight the urgent need for monitoring programs and public involvement to track the species’ spread and assess potential impacts on native pollinator communities. RESUMEN: Se informa de nuevos registros a nivel provincial de la abeja gigante de la resina, Megachile sculpturalis Smith, 1853, en Bizkaia y Gipuzkoa, confirmando su establecimiento en la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco y su propagación continuada en la Península Ibérica. Observaciones realizadas entre julio y agosto de 2025 proporcionan las primeras evidencias de nidificación en la región, incluyendo una observación documentada de una hembra reutilizando para ello material de un nido de la especie de abeja autóctona Anthidium septemspinosum Lepeletier, 1841. Estos resultados subrayan la necesidad urgente de programas de seguimiento y participación ciudadana para documentar la expansión de la especie y evaluar su posible impacto sobre las comunidades de polinizadores autóctonos.
Growing political backlash against nature restoration highlights the need to understand public values of nature. We present the first cross-national mapping of instrumental, intrinsic and relational values of nature held by citizens across 30 European countries (n = 13,763). Endorsement of all values is generally high, but also heterogeneous across countries and individuals. Moving beyond theoretical accounts of value diversity, we provide empirical evidence for a cumulative effect of values: support for nature restoration does not rely on any single value, but is significantly higher among citizens who endorse multiple value categories simultaneously. Conversely, a politically salient subgroup—young men—exhibit significantly lower value endorsement, and consequently reduced support for nature restoration. These results suggest that visible opposition coexists with widespread, underlying support. Ultimately, bundling diverse value justifications is more than an ethical requirement for inclusive transformations, it is also a promising strategy for strengthening public support for nature restoration.
European research policy aspires to "spread excellence", yet Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) actors from Southern and Central-Eastern Europe (SE/CEE) rarely occupy agenda-setting roles. In the context of academic capitalism, anchoring analysis examines how marketised competition, network centrality, and epistemic valuation shape meaningful participation, including leadership/coordination, control over work packages/budgets, and agenda influence. Evidence combines an online survey of 137 SSH researchers with two regional workshops (Bilbao and Pecs) on climate, energy, and mobility. We find cumulative advantage concentrates resources and coordination in established hubs; centralised collaboration networks reproduce supportive rather than leading roles; and SSH credibility and region-salient topics are undervalued. We propose mechanism-aligned remedies: front-loaded institutional capacity, coordination and leadership work-package allocation for SE/CEE partners, diversified evaluation criteria that recognise SSH, and monitoring that tracks leadership and budget control-not headcounts. We conclude that redistributing capabilities and decision rights is essential to equitable EU collaboration.
As cities confront intensifying climate risks, attention is growing not only to how adaptation happens and what it delivers, but also to how adaptation success is defined, by whom, and on what terms. This paper draws on qualitative methods, including participatory Theory of Change workshops and semi-structured interviews with local government officials, practitioners, and civil society actors in three Latin American cities – Santiago (Chile), Rosario (Argentina), and Santos (Brazil) - to examine how local actors envision successful urban adaptation in context, unveiling how sociopolitical dynamics shape adaptation goals and processes. Across the cases, success is collectively imagined as the creation of durable public infrastructure that is socially meaningful, institutionally supported, and territorially grounded, and that works over time for those most exposed to risk. These imaginaries of adaptation are shaped by fragmented governance, political volatility, and deeply entrenched legacies of inequality that condition what futures are seen as desirable, feasible, and fair. Our findings show that defining adaptation success locally unfolds through negotiation, compromise, and repeated reflection on values, trade-offs, and safeguards. By surfacing these situated processes, the paper suggests that, in these Latin American cities, reimagining adaptation success involves asking sociopolitical questions that allow for futuring from within context - remaining accountable to place, history, and enduring legacies of inequality - rather than applying universal benchmarks from above. Beyond Latin America, these insights offer globally-relevant lessons for embedding context and learning into adaptation planning and evaluation, particularly in rapidly urbanising and socially diverse regions, where contrasting visions and goals about the future of cities might collide socially, temporally, and spatially.
Landscapes are relational and contested arenas where systemic crises, competing values and power asymmetries shape contested visions of sustainability. Conventional policy and technical responses often overlook how narratives and power relations legitimise particular futures while marginalising others. In response, we present the Needs–Care–Justice framework, a reflexive, multidimensional approach designed to support different actors including researchers, educators, activists, land managers, policymakers and communities, to analyse how landscape narratives are produced, contested, and mobilised, to co-produce more plural and democratic pathways of transformation. The framework integrates three interconnected modes of engagement: (i) mapping and diagnosis; (ii) deliberative reflexivity; and (iii) transformative design; allowing flexible entry points across context and priorities. Using an illustrative fictional case, we show how the framework can surface hidden needs, expose assumptions about care and responsibilities, and highlight justice claims. The framework supports reflexive (re)narration attentive to plurality, positionality, conflict and democratic transformation pathways.
