The concept of a forest transition – a regional shift from deforestation to forest recovery – tends to equate forest area expansion with sustainability, assuming that more forest is good for people and the environment. To promote debate and more just and ecologically sustainable outcomes during this period of intense focus on forests (such as the United Nations’ Decade on Ecological Restoration, the Trillion Trees initiative and at the United Nations’ Climate Change Conferences), we synthesize recent nuanced and integrated research to inform forest management and restoration in the future. Our results reveal nine pitfalls to assuming forest transitions and sustainability are automatically linked. The pitfalls are as follows: (1) fixating on forest quantity instead of quality; (2) masking local diversity with large-scale trends; (3) expecting U-shaped temporal trends of forest change; (4) failing to account for irreversibility; (5) framing categories and concepts as universal/neutral; (6) diverting attention from the simplification of forestlands into single-purpose conservation forests or intensive production lands; (7) neglecting social power transitions and dispossessions; (8) neglecting productivism as the hidden driving force; and (9) ignoring local agency and sentiments. We develop and illustrate these pitfalls with local- and national-level evidence from Southeast Asia and outline forward-looking recommendations for research and policy to address them. Forest transition research that neglects these pitfalls risks legitimizing unsustainable and unjust policies and programmes of forest restoration or tree planting.

Art is rarely imagined as a strategic approach in the design of the future city. The purpose here is to offer a perspective on future cities that resides at the intersection of art and the practice of upcycling. I dub this perspective ‘Tache with Trash’, offering an artistic design for busy locales based on transforming recyclable waste into a vibrant spectrum of colours. Applicable in places like shopping malls, campuses and convention centres, I envision individuals disposing of trash in a shredding machine that injects those fragments into transparent containers, such as glass ornaments and glass wall panels. Disposing of recyclable trash becomes like dabbing a tache (stain, spot, blob) of pigment on an artwork. Rooted in the theoretical framework of ‘envisioning the future’, this perspective is inspired by the ‘junk art’ genre and aims to integrate communal art with sustainable upcycling. The benefits of the perspective include enhancing social interaction on sustainability, serving as a tool for younger generations’ sustainability education, providing a platform for local artists and assisting crowded centres with economization.

Urban green spaces are important for interactions between people and non-human nature, with their associated health and well-being impacts, although their distribution is often unequal. Here, we characterize the distribution of urban green spaces in Belém, the largest city in the Amazon Delta, and relate it to levels of human development and social vulnerability across the city; this is the first such analysis to be conducted for a Brazilian Amazon city. We first conducted a supervised maximum likelihood classification of images at 5–m spatial resolution taken in 2011 by the RapidEye satellites to map the distribution of green space across the urban part of the municipality of Belém. We then calculated two measures of urban green space at the level of human development units: the proportional cover of vegetation (Vegetation Cover Index; VCI) and the area of vegetation per person (Vegetation Cover per Inhabitant; VCPI), and we used hurdle models to relate them to two measures of socioeconomic status: the Social Vulnerability Index and the Human Development Index, as well as to demographic density. We find that VCI and VCPI are higher in more socially vulnerable areas. We explain how this pattern is driven by historical and ongoing processes of urbanization, consider access to urban green space and the benefits to human health and well-being and discuss equitable planning of urban green space management in the Amazon. We conclude that the assumption that urban greening will bring health benefits risks maintaining the status quo in terms of green exclusion and repeating historical injustices via displacement of socially vulnerable residents driven by demand for access to urban green spaces.

People are psychologically predisposed to minimize their losses, even in the face of substantial gains. This predisposition, referred to as ‘loss aversion’, is especially present when people face uncertain outcomes. In small-scale fisheries, where fishers’ decisions are influenced by monetary and non-monetary assets, exploring how loss aversion intersects with conservation efforts may offer insights into how fishers balance short-term and long-term priorities. This study assessed the variables that contribute to loss aversion of small-scale fishers when making trade-offs between two valued assets: information-sharing and catch success. We used a structured questionnaire and a hypothetical simple lottery choice task of 78 fishers across 20 fishing beaches in Jamaica. We found that fishers were marginally more loss averse when both information-sharing opportunities and catch success were threatened than when only catch success was threatened. Communication frequency and size of fishing crew contributed significantly to fishers’ loss aversion in most choice sets, regardless of whether materially or non-materially valued assets were threatened. By exploring the drivers underpinning fishers’ choices, we provide insights into how the consideration of these variables can support the development of fisheries conservation measures that better align with the decision priorities of fishers.

Pinyon–juniper woodlands are dry ecosystems defined by the presence of juniper (Juniperus spp.) and pinyon pine (Pinus spp.), which stretch over 400 000 km2 across 10 US states. Certain areas have become unnaturally dense and have moved into former shrub and grasslands, while others have experienced widespread mortality. To properly manage these woodlands, sites must be evaluated individually and decisions made based on scientific information that is often not available. Many species utilize pinyon–juniper woodlands, including the pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus), named for its mutualism with pinyon pine, whose population has declined by c. 2.2% per year from 1966 to 2022, an overall decrease of c. 71%. To increase the likelihood of further research progress, we propose a tool to model the distribution of pinyon pine at a finer scale than current woodland classification tools in the northern US Great Basin: a random forest model using geographical, ecological and climate variables. Our results achieved an accuracy of 93.94%, indicating high predictive power to identify locations of pinyon pine in north-eastern Nevada, the south-eastern corner of Oregon and southern Idaho. These findings can inform managers and planners researching pinyon pine, pinyon–juniper woodlands and potentially the pinyon jay.

In the West Asia region, the vulnerability of Ramsar Convention wetlands due to unsustainable utilization driven by water scarcity continues to grow. Here, a global surface water product generated by the European Joint Research Centre was used to assess changes in surface water in 77 wetlands listed under the Ramsar Convention over a 37-year period (1984–2021). By combining this product with a quantitative valuation model, estimates were made of the economic value of the ecosystem services provided by these wetlands, enabling the determination of the economic losses resulting from any reduction in surface water. We show that 20% (7550 km2) of permanent surface waters in Ramsar sites have disappeared or are no longer classified as permanent. Based on this, USD 106 billion of the economic value of wetlands ecosystem services have been lost. Additionally, 33% (12 100 km2) of seasonal surface waters in these wetlands have experienced a decrease in area. Iran and Iraq account for 90% of water losses, primarily in 34 wetlands (30 in Iran and 4 in Iraq). These findings underscore the urgent need for water management policies and conservation strategies in the West Asia region.

Natural resources such as soil and water are essential to agriculture, especially in arid and semi-arid rain-fed areas, yet the impacts of managing these crucial natural resources on farm technical efficiency are little known. Using data from 400 households with 1031 plots, we examined the impacts of soil and water conservation measures (SWCMs) on the technical efficiency of farmers in the semi-arid Bundelkhand (central India). We estimated stochastic production frontiers, considering potential self-selection bias stemming from both observable and unobservable factors in the adoption of SWCMs at the farm level. The farm technical efficiency for adopters of SWCMs ranged from 0.68 to 0.72, and that for non-adopters ranged from 0.52 to 0.65, depending on how biases were controlled for. As the average efficiency is consistently higher for adopter farmers than the control group, promoting SWCMs could help to increase input use efficiency, especially in resource-deprived rain-fed systems in the semi-arid tropics.

This paper establishes a theoretical connection between China’s Five-Year Plan (FYP) and environmental pollution. We propose a target allocation cycle theory to explain the periodic feature of environmental pollution, which advances political business theory in different institutional contexts. By analysing industrial SO2 and PM2.5 data as well as the political career data of officials in 277 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019, we reveal a significant influence of China’s political business cycles, as dictated by the FYP, on the periodicity of environmental pollution. Specifically, the emissions of industrial SO2 and PM2.5 exhibit a U-shaped periodic trend, peaking during the initial 2 years of each FYP, followed by a gradual decline in subsequent years, only to peak again in the first year of the succeeding FYP. These findings suggest that local political leaders strategically allocate their efforts in managing environmental pollution. Initially, there is a relaxation of environmental regulation during the early stages of a FYP, which is then followed by a shift towards more stringent environmental governance after the midpoint of the FYP.

Farmland abandonment contributes to agroecosystem degradation and food crises. Sustainable farmland use requires a well-designed agri-environmental policy to provide farmers with incentives, including agroecosystem services apart from food production. One of these is recreation. Here, we focus on a Japanese terraced paddy land. We assessed seasonal changes in the value of recreational ecosystem services by integrating mobile phone big data of on-site visitors, collected between 2018 and 2020, into a valuation method. The application of mobile data enables the precise and consistent analysis of non-market agroecosystem services. The recreational value of the paddy land varied with season but overall was high. Sustainable farmland use provides social benefits, and we support the validity of agri-environmental policies that relate to economic incentives for agroecosystem conservation. However, the results show that the incentives provided by the public/government may be insufficient in comparison to this recreational value. Our findings provide information regarding the appropriate amount of economic support required to achieve sustainable agricultural land use in this setting.

Iguaçu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, faces threats from proposed legislation aimed at downgrading its protection to allow reopening of the Caminho-do-Colono road, which would fragment the National Park. This study assesses the National Park’s importance in preserving native vegetation and its economic significance via payments for environmental services. We evaluated different scenarios, demonstrating how these resources are vital for certain municipalities. By comparing economic performance before and after the road’s closure, our findings reveal that, contrary to local beliefs, the closure did not negatively impact the local economy. Additionally, these legislative bills are legally infeasible and fail to offer environmental or economic benefits, favouring small interest groups over the collective good. This research highlights that the Caminho-do-Colono road is not a viable approach to municipal development. Instead, maintaining the National Park’s integrity is crucial for both ecological preservation and economic stability in the region. Our analysis underscores the broader implications of environmental conservation efforts and the necessity of rejecting projects that compromise protected areas. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the National Park’s role, emphasizing the need for sustainable development that aligns with environmental and community well-being.

The Cerrado biome is a global biodiversity hotspot, and more than half of its area has been devastated in recent decades. Nevertheless, environmental enforcement agencies have a low capacity for monitoring and curbing illegal deforestation and fires. In this context, the local unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Itiquira, Mato Grosso, has been experimenting since mid-2018 with the Global Forest Watch platform to detect illegal deforestation at its onset and notify landowners by electronic means (WhatsApp, email, etc.). With this remote inspection there has been a significant increase in the number of infraction notices, criminal actions, agreements for civil reparation of damage and public civil suits. By seeking to identify illegal deforestation in progress (in flagrant situations), the Public Prosecutor’s Office has prevented such events from turning into major deforestation. Preliminary data indicate that the practice of monitoring and notifications by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and environmental control agencies has increased law enforcement on deforestation and fires in that municipality and halted infractions at their inception. The challenge now is to determine the extent to which this method can be replicated in broader territories and other biomes such as Amazonia and Pantanal.