Governing the co-production of nature's contributions to people: the road ahead

Nature's contributions to people (NCP) support human well-being in multiple ways and are provided through an interplay of natural and anthropogenic capitals. This process is also known as NCP co-production. NCP and the capitals that co-produce them are subject to formal and informal institutions in governance settings across spatial, temporal, and administrative scales. Recent research has shown how scientific literature has studied the governance of anthropogenic capitals in the co-production of NCP. Here we build on this research by exploring challenges and highlighting research gaps and challenges. These include conceptual gaps, such as defining what makes NCP co-production sustainable and differentiating social capital from governance. Second, gaps regarding research practices such as increasing inclusivity of stakeholders. Third, thematic gaps include the understanding of power in polycentric governance of co-produced NCP and the identification of leverage points in a transformation towards sustainable forms of NCP co-production. By identifying these gaps, we explore how future research could deepen the understanding of the interplay between natural and anthropogenic capitals in NCP co-production and thus contribute to more sustainable management practices.