Attendees of The Royal Society workshop that led to the new paper
GLP-led Royal Society paper offers guiding principles for sustainable and just land policies
A new GLP-led paper published today in Royal Society Open Science builds on GLP’s Ten Facts about Land Systems paper and report for policy and practice (2022). The new study, “Policy Principles for Sustainable and Just Land Systems” lays out concrete guiding principles for policymakers and other actors working at the science-policy interface who are seeking to develop sustainable and equitable solutions to today’s most urgent global challenges. Led by Dr. Rachael Garrett, the paper was co-authored by 22 leading land-use scientists and communicators from 11 countries.
This new publication extends the insights from the Ten Facts study, which articulated ten general facts about land use and land systems that have implications for sustainability efforts, by drawing on the concrete expertise of participants to identify essential guiding principles for sustainable land policies. “We hope to encourage policy makers to lean on land systems science understandings and to move towards new pathways for sustainability and social justice,”said Dr. Rachael Garrett, lead author of the study, Co-Chair of the Global Land Programme, Professor at University of Cambridge.
Abstract
Land systems are the nexus of many global sustainability and justice challenges. Here we present eight guiding principles (P1–8) for improved land system policies following the heuristic stages of a policy cycle. The principles are as follows: embrace recognitional justice (P1), be politically strategic (P2), consider multiple policy goals (P3), address systemic issues (P4), take an integrative scope (P5), foster co-development (P6), adopt clear and monitorable targets (P7) and integrate diagnostic and adaptive capacities (P8). We then explore how well policies align with these principles in two globally relevant cases (land-based climate mitigation and biodiversity-friendly agriculture). In both cases, we find that when policies align poorly with the principles at the agenda-setting stage, there is further misalignment at the policy formulation stage. In the instances when recognitional justice is embraced at the onset, policies subsequently integrate more diverse goals and co-development, but they insufficiently consider political strategy and struggle to handle system complexity. Nonetheless, we identify promising policy mixes that provide benefits to multiple actors, integrate multiple goals, take an integrative scope and have strong monitoring and adaptation, aligning well with multiple principles. Further investigation of these principles could reveal promising policy pathways for land systems.