Abstract Non-Technical Summary River sand is essential for construction, but poorly governed mining can damage rivers, reduce water availability, and create conflict within communities. This study explores how Makueni County, Kenya, has responded to these challenges over time. Different actors, including local communities, county governments, and national agencies, have each developed their own approaches to regulating river sand mining, but they have often worked separately rather than together. We show how a more collaborative approach, known as ‘polycentric governance’, can improve coordination, strengthen community participation, and help balance economic development with healthy rivers, reliable water resources, and sustainable livelihoods. Technical Summary Demand for sand on a global scale has far outpaced governance, particularly in the Global South, where it is essential for infrastructure, urbanization, and livelihoods. In Makueni County, Kenya, for instance, sand governance has evolved from open access to community-driven informal regulation and, more recently, formal county-level control, all evolving against the backdrop of a tapestry of national codes that could provide some control. However, institutional disconnects across the local, county, and national levels continue to undermine sustainable river sand governance. Drawing on a historical-institutional analysis, this paper argues that Makueni's governance system displays signs of latent polycentricity. If properly institutionalized, this could support more resilient and equitable river sand management that reconciles the competing objectives of the economic use of sand and the effective conservation of its ecological functions within these vulnerable river systems. Applying three of Ostrom's principles (Principles 2, 7, and 8), we propose three key interventions: 1. Institutional diagnosis using the established building blocks approach to determine the roles, rules, interests, stakes, and interactions of community, county, and state sand governance actors; 2. Formal recognition of community organization and rules; 3. Strengthening mandates by internal vertical coordination and role clarity across actors. Social Media Summary From fragmented efforts to coordinated action: a polycentric path for Makueni County's river sand governance.
Abstract Non-Technical Summary Companies around the world face increasing scrutiny for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) controversies, yet it remains unclear why these incidents occur more frequently in some countries than others. This study analyses more than 300,000 ESG incidents to understand how a country's institutions – such as rule of law, corruption levels, labor protections, and press freedom – shape the likelihood that problems become public. By linking these factors with company characteristics, we show that both national context and firm attributes jointly determine the risk of reported ESG incidents. These insights can improve global sustainability, governance, and risk management. Technical Summary This study investigates the determinants of ESG incident occurrence by integrating country-level institutional indicators with firm-level attributes in a unified empirical framework. Using a global sample of over 300,000 incidents recorded by RepRisk between 2008 and 2023 – covering more than 10,000 firms across 236 countries – we model the probability of ESG controversies using quasi-Poisson, hierarchical Poisson, and Bayesian negative binomial specifications. The dataset links each incident to firms, incident locations, and relevant ESG categories, enabling us to capture variation arising from both institutional context and company characteristics. Results show that incident counts are strongly associated with country-level factors such as gross domestic product, rule of law, labor rights, and press freedom, alongside firm-level characteristics such as market capitalization and sector. Liberal democracies and countries with higher press freedom systematically report more incidents, highlighting substantial observation bias, whereas stricter rule of law is associated with fewer reported events. The company size, along with country size and wealth, is positively correlated with the number of reported incidents, reflecting heightened scrutiny of larger companies. The findings underscore the importance of integrating institutional conditions into ESG incident prediction and offer new tools for regulators, investors, and sustainability officers seeking to manage global ESG risks. Social Media Summary What drives ESG scandals? Global evidence shows that country institutions and firm size jointly shape the risk of incidents.
Abstract Non-Technical Summary. Climate policies increasingly frame Himalayan forests as carbon sinks and sites for restoration. In Lahaul Valley, state-led programmes invoke women’s participation to demonstrate success and attract climate finance. Drawing on participatory and ethnographic community engagement, this study shows how such narratives often obscure deeper questions of land rights, labour, and decision-making. Women's collectives play a central role in caring for forests and responding to climate risks, yet their work remains unpaid, their knowledge marginalised, and their tenure rights weakly recognised. The paper argues for moving beyond technocratic green-growth approaches towards forms of climate justice rooted in democratic forest governance, local authority, and women’s collective political agency. Technical Summary. As climate policy increasingly recasts Himalayan landscapes as carbon sinks and conservation zones, participatory nature-based solutions have become key instruments for mobilising finance. This paper critically examines claims of participation within state-led forest governance initiatives in the trans-Himalayan tribal region of Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh. Grounded in environmental history, feminist political ecology, and climate justice, it traces how socio-ecological systems historically organised around mobility, agro-pastoralism, and reciprocal commons relations were gradually transformed through colonial forest enclosures, postcolonial development policies, and contemporary climate-oriented interventions. Drawing on participatory fieldwork with grassroots leaders, mahila mandals, archival sources, and Right to Information (RTI)-based document analysis (2021–2025), the study shows how donor-driven restoration programmes prioritise afforestation, carbon sequestration, and market-oriented livelihoods while marginalising open grassland ecologies, agroforestry systems, and claims to land, tenure, and decision-making authority. Women’s collective action emerges as central yet deeply constrained within unequal structures of labour and authority. Mahila mandals regulate forest use, patrol commons, and respond to climate-related disasters through unpaid labour, producing a decentralised environmentality that redistributes responsibility without power. The paper argues that climate justice in the trans-Himalaya requires re-centring forest governance around local authority, secure tenure, and recognition of forests as lived socio-ecological landscapes rather than sites of green accumulation. Social Media Summary. Who bears the labour of climate action in the Himalaya? Forests, rights, and women’s agency.
Abstract Non-Technical Summary Researchers increasingly work where science, public policy, and international relations meet, especially on climate and sustainability challenges. Yet they receive little practical guidance on the capabilities needed to translate evidence, use digital tools responsibly, and collaborate across cultures and institutions. This article proposes a three-layer model covering Mission Literacy, Digital and AI Capabilities, and Science Diplomacy Capabilities. It explains how these competencies can support credible evidence, policy relevance, trust, and cooperation without compromising academic freedom. The framework can guide researcher training in Europe and EU-linked international settings, while requiring adaptation to local contexts. Technical Summary European science diplomacy has become more prominent in research and external-action policy, but existing frameworks do not specify an integrated competency architecture for researchers at the science-policy-diplomacy interface. Using a conceptual framework-building approach, this paper synthesises EU policy instruments, GreenComp, DigComp 2.2, and scholarship on boundary spanning, knowledge brokerage and competence-in-action. It develops a three-layer model comprising Mission Literacy, Digital and AI Capabilities, and Science Diplomacy Capabilities. The model links each layer to mechanisms and proximal contributions: contextualisation and reflexive role awareness support policy relevance and legitimacy; evidence stewardship, transparency and interoperability support credibility and trust; and translation, relationship brokerage, process design and negotiation support stakeholder alignment and cooperation. Transformation capacity connects the layers through reflexive integration and adaptation. The framework distinguishes core, supporting, and context-dependent competencies and relates capacity building to SDGs 4, 9, 13, 16, and 17. An illustrative application to UNFCCC COP processes demonstrates analytical utility without claiming empirical validation. The model is intended for EU-linked and multilateral settings and requires context-sensitive adaptation beyond Europe. Future research should empirically test the hierarchy, mechanisms, and role-specific proficiency levels. Social Media Summary A three-layer model links green, digital, and diplomatic competencies for researchers in science diplomacy.
Abstract Non-Technical Summary Addressing sustainability challenges entails collaborating between people with different backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences to co-create change strategies. In this work, we share how a group of livestock producers, non-profit organization members, scientists, and government officials became a partnership aimed at promoting sustainable cattle ranching in Mexico. We identified three key ingredients for fostering meaningful partnerships: i) promoting horizontality among participants; ii) reframing participation beyond sectoral roles; and iii) co-creating a common actionable world. Nurturing these conditions at the onset of a co-design project phase is essential for catalysing the transformative potential of initiatives seeking transformative change towards sustainability. Technical Summary Literature concerning sustainability-related endeavours seeking transformative change increasingly acknowledges the importance of creating more meaningful interactions within transdisciplinary partnerships. Yet, further research is needed to understand what these interactions entail and which enabling conditions can create partnerships required to catalyse transformative change. Framed in the initial co-design phase of a Social-ecological Innovation Laboratory aimed at fostering change towards sustainable cattle ranching, and based on notions of safe-enough and public spaces, in this article we elaborate on certain enabling conditions for creating meaningful partnerships. We describe how participants collectively articulated an actionable shared world, represented by a network of changes, and positioned themselves as relational agents co-designing the strategies to enact the desired changes from within, not from outside. From this experience, we discuss the conditions identified as enablers for facilitating meaningful transdisciplinary partnerships: i) promoting horizontality among participants, ii) reframing participants’ sector-specific identities into genuine and relational subjects, and iii) co-constructing and institutionalizing a shared actionable world. Our findings emphasize the relevance of a co-design phase centred on nurturing the quality of social interactions through context-specific conditions. We posit that such enabling conditions are essential for accumulating the transformative potential of initiatives seeking to catalyse significant change towards sustainability. Social Media Summary Nurturing meaningful relationships in a shared world for co-designing transformative change.
