Scenarios are a useful tool to explore possible futures of social-ecological systems. The number of scenarios has increased dramatically over recent decades, with a large diversity in temporal and spatial scales, purposes, themes, development methods, and content. Scenario archetypes generically describe future developments and can be useful in meaningfully classifying scenarios, structuring and summarizing the overwhelming amount of information, and enabling scientific outputs to more effectively interface with decision-making frameworks. The Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) faced this challenge and used scenario archetypes in its assessment of future interactions between nature and society. We describe the use of scenario archetypes in the IPBES Regional Assessment of Europe and Central Asia. Six scenario archetypes for the region are described in terms of their driver assumptions and impacts on nature (including biodiversity) and its contributions to people (including ecosystem services): business-as-usual, economic optimism, regional competition, regional sustainability, global sustainable development, and inequality. The analysis shows that trade-offs between nature's contributions to people are projected under different scenario archetypes. However, the means of resolving these trade-offs depend on differing political and societal value judgements within each scenario archetype. Scenarios that include proactive decision making on environmental issues, environmental management approaches that support multifunctionality, and mainstreaming environmental issues across sectors, are generally more successful in mitigating tradeoffs than isolated environmental policies. Furthermore, those scenario archetypes that focus on achieving a balanced supply of nature's contributions to people and that incorporate a diversity of values are estimated to achieve more policy goals and targets, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi targets. The scenario archetypes approach is shown to be helpful in supporting science-policy dialogue for proactive decision making that anticipates change, mitigates undesirable trade-offs, and fosters societal transformation in pursuit of sustainable development.
1.Ctr Ecol & Hydrol, Lancaster, England 2.Stockholm Univ, Stockholm Resilience Ctr, Stockholm, Sweden 3.DG Agr Res & Policies, TARM GIS & RS Ctr, Ankara, Turkey 4.CREAF, Barcelona, Spain 5.InForest Joint Res Unit CTFC CREAF, Solsona, Spain 6.CSIC, Cerdanyola Del Valles, Spain 7.Int Inst Appl Syst Anal, Laxenburg, Austria 8.Univ Melbourne, Sch BioSci, Parkville, Vic, Australia 9.PSL Univ Paris, Natl Ctr Sci Res, CRIOBE, Paris, France 10.Lab Excellence CORAIL, Mloorea, French Polynesi, France 11.Ctr Ecol & Hydrol, Wallingford, Oxon, England 12.Univ Lausanne, Dept Ecol & Evolut, Lausanne, Switzerland 13.Univ Lausanne, Inst Earth Surface Dynam, Lausanne, Switzerland 14.Cranfield Univ, Cranfield Water Sci Inst, Cranfield, Beds, England 15.Res Inst Nat & Forest INBO, Brussels, Belgium 16.Wageningen Univ & Res, Soi1 Geog & Landscape Grp, Wageningen, Netherlands 17.Potsdam Inst Climate Impact Res, Potsdam, Germany 18.Swiss Fed Inst Forest Snow & Landscape Res WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland 19.Inst Snow & Avalanche Res SLF, Davos, Switzerland 20.Autonomous Univ Madrid, Dept Ecol, Social Ecol Syst Lab, Madrid, Spain 21.Univ Geneva, Inst Environm Sci, Geneva, Switzerland 22.Natl Inst Oceanog & Expt Geophys OGS, Trieste, Italy 23.Abdus Salam Int Ctr Theoret Phys ICTP, Trieste, Italy 24.CoKnow Consulting Coproducing Knowledge Sustainab, Jesewitz, Germany
Recommended Citation:
Harrison, Paula A.,Harmackova, Zuzana, V,Karabulut, Armagan Aloe,et al. Synthesizing plausible futures for biodiversity and ecosystem services in Europe and Central Asia using scenario archetypes[J]. ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY,2019-01-01,24(2)