Integrated Approach: IASS Researchers Publish Special Issue on “Soils in the Nexus”

The contributions investigate the challenges of implementing the SDGs at both a global and a local level. They focus particularly on the following sustainability goals: ending poverty (SDG 1), food security (SDG 2), access to affordable renewable energy (SDG 7), combating climate change (SDG 13), protecting ecosystems (SDG 15) and supporting peaceful and inclusive societies (SDG 16).

The authors are especially interested in the significance of social and economic factors for implementing sustainable agricultural methods, reducing poverty, and achieving food security. Secure land rights for smallholders plays a central role in this. In addition to investigating how to support small-scale farming in order to address food security, topics covered in this volume include soil degradation and the loss of land and the challenges this poses for achieving the global vision of sustainable development. The identification of possible trade-offs and synergies resulting from resource use is a focus of the discussion of this nexus. The contributions include human-rights perspectives, an overview of global sustainability processes, and field studies and approaches from Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Cuba. In order to implement the sustainable agenda by 2030, the authors argue, national strategies are needed that can be implemented in a coherent and integrated fashion at a regional level, thus allowing their transformative character to unfold.

The journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, published by Elsevier, is dedicated to publishing detailed survey articles on environmental topics of current social relevance.

Links to the special issue and individual articles by IASS researchers: