Monographs
Friis, C. & J. Østergaard Nielsen (2019): Telecoupling. Exploring Land-Use Change in a Globalised World. Palgrave Studies in Natural Resource Management. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11105-2
For more information see: Book Publication on Telecoupling – How Researchers track Land-Use Change in a Globalised World.
Articles in Journal
2022
Buchadas, A., S. Qin, P. Meyfroidt & T. Kuemmerle (2022). Conservation frontiers: understanding the geographic expansion of conservation. Journal of Land Use Science. https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2021.2018516
Leijten, F., T.N.P. dos Reis, S. Sim, P.H. Verburg & P. Meyfroidt (2022). The influence of company sourcing patterns on the adoption and
effectiveness of zero-deforestation commitments in Brazil’s soy supply chain. Environmental Science and Policy 128: 208-215, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.10.032
, M., Ten facts about land systems for sustainability. PNAS 119: 7, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109217118
Qin, S., T. Kuemmerle, P. Meyfroidt, M. Napolitano Ferreira, G.I. Gavier Pizarro, M.E. Periago, T.N.P. dos Reis, A. Romero-Muñoz, A. Yanosky (2022). The geography of international conservation interest in South American deforestation frontiers. Conservation Letters: e12859. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12859
2021
Bager, S., U.M.Persson & T.N.P. dos Reis (2021). Eighty-six EU policy options for reducing imported deforestation. One Earth 4: 289-306, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.01.011
Bhan, M., S. Gingrich, N. Roux, J. Le Noe, T. Kastner, S. Matej, F. Schwarzmueller & K.-H. Erb (2021). Quantifying and attributing land use-induced carbon emissions to biomass consumption: A critical assessment of existing approaches. Journal of Environmental Management 286: 112228, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112228
Coenen, J., L.M. Glass & L. Sanderink (2021). Two degrees and the SDGs: a network analysis of the interlinkages between transnational climate actions and the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-01007-9
Fanning, A.L., D.W. O’Neill, J.Hickel & N.Roux (2021). The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00799-z
Frohn Pedersen, A., J. Ø. Nielsen, C. Friis & J. Bosse Jønsson (2021). Mineral exhaustion and its livelihood implications for artisanal and small-scale miners. Environmental Science and Policy 119:34-43, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.02.002
Frohn Pedersen, A., J. Ø. Nielsen, F. Mempel, S. Bager, J. Bosse Jønsson & E. Corbera (2021). The ambiguity of transparency in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector of Tanzania. The Extractive Industries and Society 101004, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2021.101004
Laroche, P.C.S.J., Schulp, C.J.E., Kastner, T. & P.H.Verburg (2021). Assessing the contribution of mobility in the European Union to rubber expansion. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01579-x
Leijten, F., S. Sim, H. King & P.H. Verburg (2021). Local deforestation spillovers induced by forest moratoria: evidence from Indonesia. Land Use Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105690
Mempel, F. & E. Corbera (2021). Framing the frontier – Tracing issues related to soybean expansion in transnational public spheres. Global Environmental Change 69:102308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102308
Persson, J., S. Ford, A. Keophoxay, O. Mertz, J. Østergaard Nielsen, T. Vongvisouk & M. Zörner (2021). Large Differences in Livelihood Responses and Outcomes to Increased Conservation Enforcement in a Protected Area. Human Ecology 49: 597-616. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00267-4
Russo Lopes, G., M.G. Bastos Lima & T.N.P. dos Reis (2021): Maldevelopment revisited: Inclusiveness and social impacts of soy expansion over Brazil’s Cerrado in Matopiba. World Development 139:105316, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105316
Roux, N.,T. Kastner, K.-H. Erb & H. Haberl (2021): Does agricultural trade reduce pressure on land ecosystems? Decomposing drivers of the embodied human appropriation of net primary production. Ecological Economics 181:106915, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106915
2020
Bager, S.L. & E.F. Lambin (2020). Sustainability strategies by companies in the global coffee sector. Business Strategy and the Environment 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2596
Coenen, J., S. Bager, P. Meyfroidt, J. Newig & E. Challies (2020). Environmental Governance of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Environmental Policy and Governance 1–15. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1901
Corbera, E., I. Anguelovski, J. Honey-Rosés & I. Ruiz-Mallén (2020). Academia in the Time of COVID-19: Towards an Ethics of Care. Planning Theory & Practice 21:191-199. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2020.1757891.
Laroche, P.C.S.J. , C.J.E.Schulp, T. Kastner & P.H.Verburg (2020). Telecoupled environmental impacts of current and alternative Western diets. Global Environmental Change 62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102066
Leijten, F., S. Sim, H. King & P.H. Verburg (2020). Which forests could be protected by corporate zero deforestation commitments? A spatial assessment. Environmental Research Letters 15:064021. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8158
Otero, I., K.N. Farrell, S. Pueyo, G. Kallis, L. Kehoe, H. Haberl, C. Plutzar, P. Hobson, J. García-Márquez, B. Rodríguez-Labajos, J.-L. Martin, K.-H. Erb, S. Schindler, J. Nielsen, T. Skorin, J. Settele, F. Essl, E. Gómez-Baggethun, L. Brotons, W. Rabitsch, F. Schneider & G. Pe’er (2020). Biodiversity policy beyond economic growth. Conservation Letters e12713 https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12713
Reis, T.N.P. dos, P. Meyfroidt, E.K.H.J. zu Ermgassen, C. West, T. Gardner, S. Bager, S. Croft, M.J. Lathuillière & J. Godar (2020). Understanding the Stickiness of Commodity Supply Chains Is Key to Improving Their Sustainability. One Earth 3(1):100-115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.06.012
Sonderegger, G., C. Oberlack, J.C. Llopis, P.H. Verburg & A. Heinimann. 2020. Telecoupling visualizations through a network lens: a systematic review. Ecology and Society 25(4):47. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11830-250447
2019
Munroe, D.K., M. Batistella, C. Friis, N.I. Gasparri, E. Lambin, J. Liu, P. Meyfroidt, E. Moran & J. Østergaard Nielsen (2019). Governing flows in telecoupled land systems. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 38:53-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2019.05.004
Nielsen, J.Ø., A. de Bremond, R. Roy Chowdhury, C. Friis, G. Metternicht, P. Meyfroidt, D. Munroe, U. Pascual & A. Thomson (2019). Toward a normative land systems science. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 38:1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2019.02.003
Parra Paitan, C. & P.H. Verburg (2019). Methods to Assess the Impacts and Indirect Land Use Change Caused by Telecoupled Agricultural Supply Chains: A Review. Sustainability 11:1162. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041162
Qin, S., R.E. Golden Kroner, C. Cook, A.T. Tesfaw, R. Braybrook, C.M. Rodriguez & C. Poelking, M.B. Mascia (2019). Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement as a threat to iconic protected areas. Conservation Biology 33 (6):1275-1285. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13365
2018
Meyfroidt, P., R. Roy Chowdhury, A. de Bremond, E.C. Ellis, K.H. Erb, T. Filatova, R.D. Garrett, J.M. Grove, A. Heinimann, T. Kuemmerle, C.A. Kull, E.F. Lambin, Y. Landon, Y. le Polain de Waroux, P. Messerli, D. Müller, J.Ø. Nielsen, G.D. Peterson, V. Rodriguez García, M. Schlüter, B.L. Turner II & P.H. Verburg (2018). Middle-range theories of land system change. Global Environmental Change 53:52–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.08.006
Policy Briefs
COUPLED Policy Briefs feature highlights and policy implications from our research. Responsibility for the content rests entirely with the authors. Neither the COUPLED network nor the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Executive Agency (REA) necessarily share the expressed views.
Perrine Laroche: Rubber boom and the global and local impacts of personal car use in the European Union
COUPLED Policy Brief, No. 2, June 2021.
Car use and car-dependent lifestyles in the European Union (EU) are contributing to the rubber boom in the tropics due to tyre use. By focusing the transition towards sustainable mobility patterns on the reduction of carbon emissions, the EU is missing opportunities to prevent other environmental impacts. This is particularly true for environmental impacts occurring at distant places where the impacts are actually felt, such as the degradation of tropical ecosystems. Progress toward sustainable mobility in the EU requires cross-cutting policies that enable Europeans to live car-free.
Joel Persson: A need for bottom-up governance in Lao protected areas
COUPLED Policy Brief, No. 3, June 2021.
Lao forests offer critical habitat for a range of locally and internationally important species. Protected areas have been the mainstay of international efforts in Lao PDR (Laos) to safeguard these. New in-depth research on Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park shows that rapid market expansion and international conservation investments are shaping the winners and losers at the frontiers of protected areas in highly uneven ways. The post-2020 global agenda on biodiversity offers an important opportunity to refocus protected areas to enhancing equitable outcomes and building on efforts to safeguard local communities’ rights. Measures should build on ongoing market processes and bottom-up institutions grounded in local realities that explicitly account for complex social differentiation.
Tiago Reis: Assessing relationship patterns in commodity supply chains and their sustainability implications
COUPLED Policy Brief, No. 4, June 2021.
The production, consumption and trade of global agricultural commodities, such as soy, beef and palm oil, are responsible for significant global forest loss, carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. Supply chain actors, such as food processors, slaughterhouses, traders or retailers, play a crucial role in shaping land use dynamics. Recently, they have been forming coalitions to pledge sustainability goals, including zero-deforestation commitments. So far, little attention has been given to the persistence of supply chains relationships, including companies’ sourcing patterns, and how they influence these sustainability goals. We show that although more persistent supply chains may lead to more adoption of commitments, they may also increase deforestation. Therefore, supply chain sustainability initiatives need to consider sourcing patterns in their design.
N. Roux: Land use, land use change and forestry emissions: changing the EU’s accounting schemes
COUPLED Policy Brief, No. 5, June 2021.
The European Commission (EC) has committed to increase its target to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2030. To implement this plan, the EC wants to amend its carbon emissions accounting rules in the Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) sector (Regulation 2018/841). The Regulation aims to incentivize EU Member States to enhance their carbon sink and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from the LULUCF sector. Here, we recommend a novel accounting scheme to increase the effectiveness and fairness of the Regulation 2018/841.
Resources
Flyer - Quick Guide to COUPLED PDF
Media Coverage
BBC. No silver-bullet solutions for saving used planet. By Helen Briggs. 08.02.2022. News Article on the PNAS Paper Ten facts about land systems for sustainability (Meyfroidt et al. 2022)
European Research Executive Agency: European Year of Youth: three young MSCA researchers helping to build a brighter future for generations to come! News article. 28.01.2022. To kick-start the ‘European Year of Youth’, three young inspiring MSCA researchers were interviewed to discuss their projects and their hopes to build a brighter future through their work. Among them is our very own Claudia Parra Paitan.
The Guardian. No country has met welfare goals in past 30 years ‘without putting planet at risk’. By L. Elliott. 18.11.2021
Der Standard. Steigender Ressourcenverbrauch, weniger soziale Gerechtigkeit (Increasing resource consumption, less social justice. In German only). By V. Mischitz. 19.11.2021.
ORF. Punkt Eins radio show. Die große Entwaldung und unser Beitrag (The Great Deforestation and Our Contribution. In German only). Nicolas Roux invited expert speaker. 16.04.2021.
The Ecologist. The EU and tropical deforestation. By S. Bager & M. Persson. 01.04.2021.
Humboldts17. Alles hängt mit allem zusammen… (Everything is connected… In German only). 09.03.2021.
Horizon.The EU Research & Innovation Magazine: To confront climate change, we need to understand the environmental footprint of global supply chains. By S. Wild. 08.02.2021.
Related video: EU imports like cocoa and coffee have an environmental cost – but accounting for them from the start of their supply chains could help reduce impacts. Twitter, 11.02.2021.
Humboldts17. Wie können wir Minenarbeitern einen nachhaltigen Lebensunterhalt ermöglichen? (How can we provide sustainable livelihoods for mine workers? In German only). By A. Frohn Pedersen. 27.01.2021.
Adlershof Journal. Tracing the Anthropocene. Professor of geography Jonas Østergaard Nielsen studies land use changes in an age of global interconnectedness. By N. Lessing. 04.01.2021.
360° - Verden I Udvikling: Afrikas Wild West - Jagen pa det gode guld (Africa’s Wild West - The Hunt for the Good Gold. In Danish only). By A. Kidmose Jensen. 07.12.2018.
We want to understand changes of land use in a globalised economy. Because what happens on land is important for a range of sustainability indicators.
How does International Trade of food and biomass products affect the environment, deforestation and other ecosystems?
Billions of Dollars, millions of traded tons & millions of connections: the Brazil soy supply chain. A video by Tiago Reis on his study of connections between producing municipalities, traders & consumer countries. Why do some change, why do some remain stable?
Does trade help to achieve SDGs? Or do we need different trade regulations? Nicolas has six minutes to discuss whether or not international trade in agricultural products did reduce pressure in land ecosystems. Does he pass the challenge? Look for yourself.
Meet some COUPLED members and get a short insight into our training network. It was filmed during our Summer School last July in Berlin and surroundings. Thanks to Anna Frohn Pedersen for putting it together.
Do you ever ask yourself where your golden jewellery was born? It might well be right here, in Tanzania. Extracting gold is what employs hundreds of thousands Tanzanians and gives them food on the table. But it comes with a price that both the people and the environment will eventually pay.
60Seconds is an urban video festival projecting selected silent short films. Anna‘s short film Gold was selected and presented in April 2020.
It was also screened at the 12th Seoul Metro International Subway Film Festival (SMIFF) from 17.08 - 12.09.2021 (https://smiff.kr/smiff/2021/?
The deliverables are the building blocks of our project and guide you through our workplan. The deliverables of the Work Packages 3-7 are public and will be available for download.
Work Package 1 - Project Management & Communication
Work Package 2 - Training Implementation
Work Package 3 - Processes
D3.1 Report on the outcomes of Virtual Meeting Series 1 (flows) (August 2019)
D3.2 Report on the outcomes of Virtual Meeting Series 2 (actors) (November 2020)
D3.3 Synthesis paper on processes coupling land systems (October 2021)
Work Package 4 - Distance
D4.1 Report on the outcomes of Virtual Meeting Series 3 (distance) (August 2019)
D4.2 Report on the outcomes of Virtual Meeting Series 4 (mismatches) (November 2020)
D4.3 Synthesis paper on different concepts of distance and mismatches (October 2021)
Work Package 5 - Processes
D5.1 Report on the outcomes of Virtual Meeting Series 5 (causality) (August 2019)
D5.2 Report on the outcomes of Virtual Meeting Series 6 (trade-offs) (November 2020)
D5.3 Synthesis paper on trade-offs in telecoupled systems (October 2021)
Work Package 6 - Synthesis
D6.1 Report on typology of telecoupled land systems (June 2020)
D6.2 Toolbox to assess, model, and govern telecoupled land systems (June 2021)
D6.3 Report on emerging issues in telecoupled land systems (June 2021)
Work Package 7 - Dissemination, Communication, and Translation
D7.1 Practitioners Summaries (June 2021)
D7.2 Policy white paper (August 2021)
D7.3 Summary report of publications in international, peer-reviewed journals and scientific presentations during COUPLED (December 2021)
Work Package 8 - Ethics requirements