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Though the loss of biological diversity is an ecological phenomenon, it also has a social dimension. This makes the study of the social landscape, encompassing the multitude of perspectives and aspirations by different stakeholders, highly relevant for better navigating trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and other land use objectives. Engaging with and addressing contextual understandings of biodiversity is vital to develop socially palatable solutions for biodiversity loss. This dissertation, therefore, takes a place-based approach to studying biodiversity conservation trade-offs and seeks to understand how the perspectives and aspirations of different stakeholders shape them. First, it aims to identify shared viewpoints as ensembles of perceptions and meanings about human-nature relations and biodiversity. Second, it aims to understand how biodiversity is valued and constructed in stakeholders’ aspirations towards their landscape. To this end, a convergent mixed methods approach and case study design are used. Two cases were selected that face different underlying drivers of land-use change, resulting in loss of biodiversity. The Muttama Creek Catchment area is a farming landscape in south-eastern Australia where the ongoing intensification of agricultural production threatens native biodiversity. In the Spreewald Biosphere Reserve in north-eastern Germany, land abandonment and the resulting loss of the biodiversity-rich wet meadows presents a key challenge for biodiversity conservation. Narratives and discourses provide conceptual lenses through which the author studies biodiversity conservation trade-offs. Drawing on Q-methodology, this dissertation identifies biodiversity-production discourses for the first case study and cultural landscape narratives for the second case study. Moreover, based on a participatory futures approach, the Three Horizons Framework, it elicits narratives of change that highlight opportunities for biodiversity conservation in farming landscapes. The findings highlight that despite some overlap in how stakeholders perceive biodiversity, contrasting problem framings and different biodiversity priorities present hindrances to concerted action to protect biodiversity and for collaboration. The findings also identify shared values among stakeholders. However, there is polarity and contestation around the role and importance of biodiversity in rural development.
This dissertation evaluated the efficacy of three different internet-based interventions that can be regarded as indirect interventions to reduce depression since they primarily targeted risk factors for depression. For this purpose three registered randomized controlled trials were conducted. In addition to assessing the efficacy of the interventions regarding the primary outcomes, the efficacy to reduce depression and further secondary outcomes was studied. In Study I (N=200) the efficacy of an internet-based stress management intervention (iSMI), which was adapted and tailored to career starting teachers, was compared to a waitlist control group (WLG). The participants of the intervention group (IG) reported significant reductions on the primary outcome perceived stress at post-intervention (T2) and three month follow-up (3-MFU). Furthermore, it was shown that the intervention indirectly also reduced depression at T2 and 3-MFU. The effects were sustained at an extended 6-MFU. Besides efficacy, the feasibility to complement the iSMI with a newly developed internet-based classroom management training was shown. Moreover, mediation analyses corroborated the role of problem- and emotion-focused coping skills in the intervention's effect on stress and the indirect effect of the intervention on depression through stress. Study II (N=262) demonstrated the efficacy of an internet- and app-based gratitude intervention on the reduction of primary assessed repetitive negative thoughts at T2 and 3-MFU, as compared to a WLG. The participants of the IG also reported significantly reduced depressive symptoms at T2, and 3-MFU, with significant clinically meaningful effects. The effects were sustained at an extended 6-MFU. Besides efficacy, mediation analyses showed that repetitive negative thinking mediated the gratitude intervention's effect on depression. Finally, Study III N(=351) showed that an internet-based intervention, tackling worries at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, was effective as compared to an active mental health advice group. At T2, two weeks after randomization, the IG reported significantly reduced levels on the primary outcome worry as compared to controls. Participants of the IG also reported significantly reduced levels of depression at T2, with significant clinically meaningful reductions. The extended follow-ups in the IG indicated that the improvements from baseline were sustained until the 2-MFU and the 6-MFU. In a mediation analysis, worry was shown to mediate the intervention's effect on depression. Across all three studies a reliable deterioration of depression was occasionally observed. In summary, the studies in this dissertation demonstrated the efficacy of various indirect interventions focusing on rather common psychological problems to indirectly reduce depressive symptoms. The extent to which depression severity could be reduced is comparable to reductions found within participants with comparable baseline depression severity, in internet-based interventions directly addressing depressive symptoms. Indirect interventions are suggested to increase the uptake of interventions that reduce depressive symptoms, since they might be perceived as less stigmatizing and might broaden the range of interventions to choose from.
Contemporary society is shaped by the idea that time is, above all, a scarce economic resource that must be used efficiently. Increasingly, however, scientific findings suggest that such a way of perceiving of time seems a major cause of the current global climate and sustainability crisis. Considerably less research work has been carried out in relation to the role of individual time-related needs regarding unsustainable consumption behaviour, although consumer research has been addressing needs-oriented approaches to sustainable consumption for a long time. Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) is considered an essential strategy to achieve the global sustainability goals of Agenda 2030. Internationally, as well as on a national level, ESE is increasingly mainstreamed in educational curricula and practice. Given the relation between time, needs and sustainability, it appears valuable to inquire into this field from the perspective of ESE. The core research interest of this cumulative dissertation is therefore the question of how the connection between time, our needs and sustainability can be conveyed through pedagogical approaches. The inquiry used an exploratory, qualitative research design to address this question. In a first step, the concept of sustainability-related time use competence was developed. This then served as a guiding concept for the understanding of time used in this work and as the overall objective for the educational intervention developed and piloted as part of the research. Next, a content analysis of German curricula was conducted with the aim of determining whether and to what extent these address the relation between time and sustainability. The results show curricula contain only a few starting points that encourage a connection between time and sustainability in school lessons. The study further indicates that an understanding of time as a scarce resource to be used efficiently has prevailed in school contexts so far. The next step involved developing and piloting a time use competence curriculum in cooperation with three partner schools, using an Action Research Approach. This intervention followed the pedagogical approach of Self-Inquiry Based Learning (SIBL) seeking to sensitise learners to the relation between individual needs and consumer behaviour. During implementation, which lasted one semester, students logged their time, were encouraged to reflect on their personal needs, and subsequently implement individual change projects related to time use. This was embedded in continuous reflective individual and group exercises. The results strengthen the hypothesis that there is a relation between time use and sustainability. Furthermore, the pedagogical approach of SIBL has proven suitable to enable students to reflect on their time use and to raise their awareness of the role of individual needs. Participants reported that changes in time use did indeed increase their personal well-being. A third empirical study was carried out, inquiring into students' time use during the period of COVID-19-induced school closures, using a Grounded Theory Approach. Since the pandemic disrupted young peoples' routines drastically, the research focused on which kinds of learning experiences students made during this time and which insights can be derived for ESE. The results of the semi-structured interviews with 69 participants show first that a variety of learning experiences are revealed, such as learning one's own learning and everyday rhythms or creatively adapting consumption habits to the new situation of "lockdown". Overall, a key finding of this work is that students are currently unable to adequately realise their time-related needs. In view of the findings from research on time and sustainability, one recommendation is therefore that everyday school life could give students more space to organise their time according to their needs. Furthermore, it would be advisable to give the topic of time in connection with sustainability more space in curricula and in teacher training. The experiences during the pandemic have shown that schools and all actors involved including students and teachers, are so far insufficiently prepared to handle crises. Here, the approach to time use competence piloted in this work can offer valuable stimulations for ESE research and practice. This is especially true since it is compatible with existing approaches to key competencies for sustainability by seeking to complement them with a stronger focus on individual, needs-oriented time shaping.
Protected areas are an essential tool for conserving biodiversity. However, their ecological effectiveness is contested and their capacity to resist human pressures differ. This dissertation aimed to assess the ecological effectiveness of different protection levels (from strict to less strictly protected: national park, game reserve, forest reserve, game-controlled area, and unprotected areas) in biodiversity (both mega diverse butterflies and mammals), maintaining habitat connectivity, and reducing anthropogenic threats at the wider landscape in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem of southwestern Tanzania. To achieve this overarching goal, the researcher employed an interdisciplinary approach. First, he analyzed butterfly diversity and community composition patterns across protection levels in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem. He found that species richness and abundance were highest in the game reserves and game-controlled areas, intermediate in the forest reserves, national park and unprotected areas. Species composition differed significantly among protection levels. Landscape heterogeneity, forest cover, and primary productivity influenced species composition. Land-use, burned areas, forest cover, and primary productivity explained the richness of species and functional traits. Game reserves hosted most indicator species. Second, the author modelled the spatial distribution of six large mammal target species (buffalo Syncerus caffer, elephant Loxodonta africana, giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, hartebeest Alcelaphus buselaphus, topi Damaliscus korrigum, and zebra Equus burchellii) across environmental and protection gradients in the Katavi-Rukwa Ecosystem. Based on species-specific density surface models, he found relatively consistent effects of protection level and land-use variables on the spatial distribution of the target mammal species: relative densities were highest in the national park and game reserves, intermediate in forest reserves and game-controlled areas and lowest in un-protected areas. Beyond species-specific environmental predictors for relative densities, the results highlight consistent negative associations between relative densities of the target species and distance to cropland and avoidance of areas in proximity to houses. Third, the author examined temporal changes in land-use, population densities and distribution of six large mammal target species across protection levels between 1991 and 2018. During the surveyed period, cropland increased. Wildlife densities of most, but not all target species declined across the entire landscape. Based on logistic regression models, target species preferred the national park over less strictly protection levels and areas distant to cropland. Fourth, he quantified land-use changes, modelled habitat suitability and connectivity of elephant over time across a large protected area network in southwestern Tanzania. Based on analyses of remotely-sensed data, cropland increased from 7% in 2000 to 13% in 2019. Based on ensemble models, distance from cropland influenced survey-specific habitat suitability for elephant the most. Despite cropland expansion, the locations of the modelled elephant corridors (n=10) remained similar throughout the survey period. Based on circuit theory, the author prioritizes three corridors for protected area connectivity. Key indicators of corridor quality varied over time, whereas elephant movement through some corridors appears to have increased over time. Overall, this dissertation underpins differences in ecological effectiveness of protected areas within one ecosystem. It highlights the need to utilize a landscape conservation approach to guide effective conservation across the entire protection gradient. It also suggests the need to enforcing land use plans and having alternative and sustainable forms for generating income from the land without impairing wildlife habitat.
To respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene, scholars from various disciplines increasingly emphasize that a mere outer transformation is insufficient and that we also need an inner transformation that addresses deep leverage points. Yet, the open questions are how the inner and outer dimensions relate to each other and how inner transformation might lead to outer transformation. How we attempt to answer these questions is determined by our dominant paradigm. Paradigms define how we understand and shape the world, and thus, they define how we conceptualize challenges, such as inner and outer transformation. Various authors argue that the dominant paradigm, which is characterized by reductionism, empiricism, dualism, and determinism, might be a root cause for insufficiently addressing sustainability challenges. As an alternative, many argue for a relational paradigm, which understands complex phenomena in terms of constitutive processes and relations. A relational paradigm might offer possibilities to reconceptualize inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene and might shed new light on how to integrate both in sustainability science. Yet, it is still being determined how a relational paradigm can contribute to the understanding of inner and outer transformations towards sustainability in the Anthropocene. Therefore, this dissertation's overarching scope is to contribute to systems change towards a more social-ecological future by generating insights into and exploring possibilities of a relational paradigm for inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene. This thesis is divided into three sub-questions. The first research question aims to increase the theoretical understanding of a relational paradigm. The second research question aims to develop a transformative educational case study grounded in a relational, justice-oriented approach. The third research question aims to analyze how a relational paradigm might contribute to policies and practices for sustainable lifestyles. The results indicate that inner and outer transformation in the Anthropocene can be reconceptualized as paradigm-ing relationality in the Ecocene. "Paradigm-ing" as an active verb, reconceptualizes inner and outer transformation into ontologies, epistemologies, ethics, and socialecological realities that are ongoing, nonhierarchical, nonlinear, dynamic, co-creative processes of intra-action. The Ecocene decenters the human and attends to what we might be able to intra-actand become-with. These insights can offer unexplored perspectives to address sustainability challenges and increase our capacities to respond in novel ways.
The emergence of sustainability as a guiding principle for tourism development came along with needs to introduce instruments that can monitor the actual impacts of tourism. Sustainability assessments in tourism (SAT) have gained popularity in recent years with a range of measurement schemes being introduced for national and subnational tourism destinations. With the help of sustainability indicators these schemes intend to guide decision-makers in making better evidence-informed decisions and to improve the overall sustainability performance of tourism. With this dissertation, the author aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the implementation and performance of sustainability assessments, by linking transformative needs of tourism with necessary assessment approaches that can serve as effective instruments for a shift towards a more sustainable tourism development. Thus, the research is part of recent efforts to establish profound and effective measurement approaches for sustainable tourism. The author employs a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative, quantitative, set-theoretic, and review methods, with the aim of maximising the validity of results. First, he explores the general progress and current state of research on sustainability assessments in tourism, with the intention to identify patterns, key elements and research gaps within assessment approaches This is followed by subsequent detailed analyses that examine specific environmental and socio-economic sustainability issues with the aim of providing conceptual, methodological and empirical solutions for assessing them in detail. The dissertation highlights that concrete assessment tools are needed for evidence-informed decision-making and the establishment of effective actions in destination management. The findings indicate that assessments will be more successful in terms of serving as tools for decision-making, if they tackle main drivers of change and encourage management or policymakers to take decisions that affect multiple sustainability issues. It also reviews different concepts and accounting principles and rises awareness of a cautious selection of methods and measurement approaches, as this may affect overall results. The thesis empirically evaluates and applies different measurement approaches in specific destinations, with the help of quantitative and qualitative data collection methodologies. In general, my thesis provides further clarification about key environmental and socio-economic measurement methodologies, which supports ongoing debates about sustainability impacts of tourism. Thus, the research contributes to knowledge, frameworks, methodologies and practical application for tourism governance and tourism sustainability science.