Editorials

More effective ways of connecting research programmes and initiatives on the ground will amplify the impact of many sustainability scholars and practitioners around the world.

Scholars contributing to the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have a lot of in-depth insights to share. Here’s what we recommend to those who are willing to do it.

Protecting Madagascar’s unique biodiversity can improve the life of many in the country.

Resilience is important, but context and details matter.

Developing a culture of innovation is critical to a successful sustainable development strategy.

Transforming human systems to achieve sustainability calls for holistic evidence of their multiple and interconnected facets.

Designing policies to maintain human wellbeing within the limits of planet Earth is a daunting task, but scholars and policymakers should embrace the challenge now.

Our expert panel on urban science has now delivered its much-awaited report, following more than a year of lively and intensive debate.

The country achieved impressive environmental and sustainability successes in the past. Now more than ever, scientists should focus on providing evidence to support policy that helps Brazil to continue doing so.

Achieving food security is possible, if we better understand the complexity of the agricultural system and re-design practices accordingly.

The latest United Nations review leaves no doubt, countries need to step up efforts and act fast if they want to achieve the Global Goals by 2030.

Sustainability research is often interdisciplinary, presenting challenges and opportunities for authors, editors and reviewers. Recognizing and contributing to its hard-won value is vital to unlocking the potential of sustainability science and scholarship.

Societal commitment to protect our seas has never been higher, but it will not succeed unless coordination across the various regulatory bodies involved is achieved.

Civil society, businesses, governments and academia should unite forces to transform the plastic economy.

Droughts and water shortages have threatened urban centres before, but Cape Town captured the world’s attention to the spectre of a full-scale shutdown. The lessons to be learned go beyond precipitation modelling to institutional organization, technological infrastructure, and social behaviour, and every world city should prepare before it’s too late.

Giving economic compensation in exchange for securing ecosystem services has gained traction in recent decades. However, debates about the efficacy and ethics of payments abound. To help ensure the effectiveness of these schemes, more care is needed in monitoring environmental outcomes and penalising non-compliance.

International experts joined a Nature Sustainability forum in China last month to re-think interdisciplinary research for global sustainability.

Nature Sustainability aims to cover a wide range of topics — a goal that will take a number of journal issues to accomplish.

Sustainability research provides significant insights into the ways people and the natural world are connected. It is the mission of Nature Sustainability to showcase this kind of understanding to help its way into policy, solutions and everyday debates.