This study examines people–place relationships in shallow bays on the Swedish Baltic Sea coast prior to ecological restoration. Using surveys and in-depth interviews, combined with biophysical assessments, it characterizes nearby property owners’ cultural ecosystem services (CES) and sense of place (SOP), examines if they are impacted by environmental degradation, and explores links between CES/SOP and restoration processes. Results show a rich diversity of CES and place meanings, grounded in environmental features and social relations, with nature-related experiences most prevalent. Emotional bonds highlight the cultural, relational, and personal significance of the bays. Measured degradation is recognized by residents and associated with a loss of CES and place meanings. Local conditions for restoration support appear favourable, alongside potential goal conflicts between ecological improvements and some recreational uses. The study underscores the importance of inclusive CES/SOP assessments to acknowledge heterogeneous values and trade-offs, supporting socially accepted and culturally relevant coastal restoration and conservation.
Property regimes do more than allocate rights: they generate material effects visible in the landscape. We examine this in Tacora, an Aymara community in northern Chile, where 14 pastoral estancias, six formalized and eight under undivided heirship, emerged from a contested registration process initiated after 1885. Questioning the boundaries between society and environment, we combine legal–archival history, oral histories, and a 41-year Landsat NDVI record (1984–2025) paired with the SPEI drought index. Where tenure is secure, individually or collectively, bofedales show higher productivity and weaker coupling to drought, mediated by registered water rights, irrigation maintenance, and state funding; contested or non-formalized tenure shows the inverse. Tenure security thus emerges as a key institutional condition, not privatization itself, operating alongside broader drivers of Indigenous territorial life. The principle generalizes to continuous hydrosocial systems that cannot be physically fractioned: peatlands, irrigated pastures, valley wetlands, and canal networks.
Aquaculture in Bangladesh’s floodplains boosts livelihoods but endangers biodiversity. This study employs turtles as ecological indicators within a socio-ecological systems framework to quantify development–conservation trade-offs. Integrating local ecological knowledge (LEK) with socioeconomic surveys, we assessed three decades of change. LEK-based abundance indices suggested a 96.9
Human–wildlife conflict challenges biodiversity, yet its institutional dimensions remain understudied. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed 58 records (2000–2025), mapping a shift from foundational state-centric models to contemporary power-focused research. Results highlight spatial mismatch between wildlife movement and rigid administrative boundaries. To address this spatial misfit, governance integrates formal laws with local customs to ensure management gains social legitimacy. Crucially, we identify animal agency as an independent catalyst driving management adaptation. The review presents a diagnostic tool showing that long-term coexistence depends on resolving structural power struggles and historical grievances through procedural fairness. Ultimately, we advance prioritization of power and the fostering of relational agency to achieve durable coexistence within shared landscapes.
Global conservation policy and state governance remain grounded in resource-oriented, secular frameworks. These can conflict with Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ (IPLCs) relational ontologies, in which landscape elements are sentient beings, ancestral territories, and abodes of ‘more-than-human’ entities. Drawing on a symposium on spiritual landscapes in Asia, we identify three barriers to community-led conservation: (1) land insecurity from state enclosure; (2) restrictive IPLC definitions; and (3) non-binding international agreements that fail to secure recognition of customary institutions and territorial rights. Case studies from Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, and China demonstrate how bureaucratic requirements can undermine customary laws and governance. Alternative pathways for recognizing other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) under the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) should recognise spiritual values, customary law, and adaptive institutions as integral to resilient biocultural landscapes. We argue that this shift can advance epistemic justice while providing a more equitable pathway towards achieving GBF Target 3.
