Swiss Academy of Sciences SCNAT
Biodiversity damaging subsidies in Switzerland
SWISS ACADEMIES FACTSHEETS, VOL. 15. NO. 7, 2020
The Confederation, the cantons and the municipalities have for many years financed measures to promote biodiversity in Switzerland. Despite this, biodiversity is in a critical state. One major reason for this is the large number of public subsidies and perverse financial incentives which promote activities that can cause severe damage to biodiversity.
The Federal Council's Swiss Biodiversity Strategy aims to identify the negative effects of such measures and to abolish, gradually dismantle or redesign the harmful subsidies. The study presented here identifies 162 subsidies harmful to biodiversity and makes recommendations on how they can be abolished or reconfigured.
Gubler L, Ismail SA, Seidl I (2020) Biodiversity damaging subsidies in Switzerland Swiss Academies Factsheet 15 (7).
Swiss Academy of Sciences SCNAT
Roles of Scientists in Sustainability Transformations: A Guide for Reflection and Workshop Facilitation
Scientists, scientific experts, and knowledge brokers often find themselves in situations where they need to play new roles in society or are criticised for positioning themselves at the interface between science and other societal fields of action. The present guide aims to stimulate reflections on, and discussions of, various different roles that scientists perform.
European Academies Science Advisory Council EASAC
Changing wildfires: policy options for a fire-literate and fire-adapted Europe
There is an increased probability of extreme fires, due mainly to climate change (droughts and declining summer precipitation), rural depopulation, and land-use changes. To respond to this, a new European Academies report is calling for an urgent shift in wildfire policy – from reactive fire suppression to proactive, risk-based land management.
Already today, wildfires burn half a million hectares in the EU yearly on average, i.e. nearly twice the size of Luxembourg. While the Mediterranean remains the highest-risk region, the report warns that continental, alpine, and boreal regions must also prepare for a new era of fire. Instead of focussing on fire suppression and emergency response, the report advocates for an integrated EU framework for landscape fire-risk governance that prioritises prevention alongside these three elements: climate and land-use policies that focus on restoring carbon-rich peatlands and managing forests sustainably; integrate fire risk into biodiversity and tree-planting plans; and educate for a fire-resilient society.
The report under the auspices of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) was drafted by scientists from across Europe. On behalf of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, Marco Conedera, forest engineer at the WSL Campus in Cadenazzo, contributed as a reviewer of a draft version.
Actor constellation - td-net toolbox profile 2 Pohl, C. 2020
This publication describes the actor constellation and is part of a series of tools and methods compiled in the td-net toolbox for co-producing knowledge. Actor constellation is a role-play for identifying the relevance of various involved actors for tackling a specific research question.