Open Access

We are in a phase of an alarming biodiversity loss, by scientist already referred to as Earth’s sixth mass extinction. According to estimations, the current extinction rates are 100 to 1000 times higher than those predicted from fossil records. To counteract species loss and preserve the remaining biodiversity, with its important ecosystem functioning and services essential to human well-being, there is an urgent need to develop promising and long-term conservation strategies. In order to achieve these goals, extensive research to gain a better understanding of the general mechanisms underlying community diversity is of greatest importance. Especially, the identification of intrinsic ecological and distributional species traits is receiving increased attention in ecology and conservation biology research. Depending on the expression of their traits, species perform particular ecosystem functions and respond in a specific manner to environmental conditions. The identification of the effect of certain traits on community compositions can therefore significantly improve our understanding of species extinction processes and help to develop valuable and appropriate recommendations for conservation management. As trait-based analyses are applicable to different geographical, temporal and taxonomical scales, they may even allow for a broader generalization if similar results are found on different scales, i.e. for local species pools, the complete species pools of different habitat types or the entire species pool across several habitat types including different climatic regions. Although insects make up the largest part of animal diversity and provide essential ecosystem services in form of e.g. pollination, pest control, and decomposition, the majority of studies on extinctions have mainly focused on vertebrates. Among invertebrates either charismatic taxa or those targeted by conservation laws have been investigated until now (e.g. butterflies or saproxylic beetles). Being highly species-rich and trait-diverse, ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) should be even more suitable for conducting trait-based analyses. Thus, using ground beetles as a model taxon, four case studies focusing on the analyses of traits form the basis of this doctoral thesis. The work of this thesis was conducted with the aim of gaining general insights on the influence of species traits on ground beetle community compositions, such as habitat occupancy and species vulnerability to extinction, for instance. An important aspect when investigating species traits is the consideration of confounding factors which could influence the results, such as dependent relations between the different traits. Compiling a large dataset of 566 Central European species, I identified that dependent relations between the six tested traits of ground beetles (distribution range size, habitat specialization, body size, hind-wing morphology, breeding season and trophic level) are highly common. Across all identified dependent trait relations, the relation between body size and hind wing morphology or range size and hind wing morphology showed the strongest significant dependencies. Since the consideration of trait relations is necessary to provide reliable interpretations, all analyses of this thesis tested several traits simultaneously and considered possible trait interactions. Studies on local communities found specific traits characterizing the local species pools of certain habitat types. Here, the species pools of seven different habitat types (coastal, forest, mountain, open, riparian, wetland and special habitat) were used to determine habitat-specific trait filters. The identified traits, characteristic for certain habitat types, were in most cases in accordance with the previous findings on local communities. Across Germany, the species of frequently disturbed habitat types, namely coastal, riparian and wetland habitats were characterized by small body size, high amount of macroptery, intermediate to high habitat specialization, spring breeding, and predatory feeding behavior. The species of stable habitat types (forest, mountain, and open habitats), however, were found to be generally larger in body size and more frequently breeding in autumn, further displaying greater variations in the other traits. The gained knowledge on the habitat-specific filtering of traits improve our understanding of the organization and assembly of communities, and can thereby help to detect alterations in the habitat-specific species pool due to natural or human-induced environmental changes. Furthermore, traits can provide evidence on species occurrences and vulnerability to extinction. Three case studies of this thesis aimed to gain new insights on this topic, through the investigations on the following research questions; I. Which traits drive species extinction risks of Central European ground beetle species, II. How traits influence the species occurrences of 28 forest species within a large area in Central Europe, and III. Whether certain traits are related to long-term population trends of the species pool from an ancient forest in northern Germany. The results indicated, that depending on the habitat type and tested species pool, different traits prove to be good predictors for the vulnerability of species. Nevertheless, across different geographical and taxonomical scales, especially species with small range sizes and high habitat specialization faced a greater risk of extinction. Therefore, the two traits distributional range size and habitat specialization emerge as reliable predictors of ground beetles vulnerability to extinction. Interestingly, body size did not display a consistent response; while increasing body size led to higher extinction risk in riparian, wetland and open habitats and large macropterous species showed higher extinction risks across the entire species pool, smaller species showed long-term population declines in an ancient forest. To summarize, this thesis presents a comprehensive picture of ground beetle species traits, providing valuable insights and a better understanding of the mechanisms driving changes in ground beetle diversity. On the basis of the results presented in this work, the efficiency of biodiversity protection can be increased by developing appropriate management and recovery plans, especially targeting species of threatened habitat types or ‘functional groups’ of species, exhibiting trait values strongly associated with a greater vulnerability to extinction.

On 25 October 2016, the European Commission presented a proposal for a directive on a Common Corporate Tax Base (hereafter CCTB Proposal), which contains a comprehensive concept for the harmonisation of profit calculation regulations within the EU. Against this current background, the objective of the present work is to contribute to the implementation of the CCTB by identifying ambiguities and conceptual weaknesses in the design of the profit determination system of the CCTB Proposal and developing concrete recommendations for action for adjustments in the course of the further legislative procedure. In the first article, selected profit calculation rules of the CCTB Proposal will be analysed in detail and compared with the provisions on profit calculation under German commercial and tax law and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) recognised across member states. Based on the legal comparison, questions of interpretation and inadequacies of the profit calculation system will be considered and proposals for adjustments to various regulatory areas will be submitted. Furthermore, in the second article, within the framework of a holistic study, expert interviews will be used as an empirical-qualitative research design to generate reliable assessments on the part of the various stakeholder groups affected by the implementation of the future directive or involved in its elaboration. The results show the extent to which the profit determination rules of the CCTB Proposal in their current form are suitable for national and EU-wide implementation and in which areas the various expert groups still see concrete need for adaptation. Based on these expert assessments, the third article finally develops a proposal to reduce the threat of legal uncertainty in interpretation issues criticised by the experts. Based on economic maxims developed by the European Commission and existing accounting principles of the current CCTB Proposal, the EU Accounting Directive and IFRS, a system of specific European tax principles will be developed which could be implemented within the framework of the CCTB Proposal.

When Libet and colleagues published their results on the temporal order of movement preparation and the reported time of conscious will to move in 1983, they shed some doubt on the existence of free will. This marked the beginning of a controversial and still ongoing debate, not only about the existence of free will, but also about the appropriateness of methods and validity of results from research on free will. Only a few empirical contributions were added to this debate in the last decades, so the discussion about the existence of free will sometimes seems to rely more on personal views than on empirical evidence. Opportunely, belief in free will was also discovered as psychological research topic. Literature on belief in free will shows some evidence that most laypersons across different cultural backgrounds believe that they have free will and that a person’s belief in free will might have an impact on cognition and behavior, tending to positive outcomes with a greater belief in free will. Empirical findings from the German-speaking area are sparse, probably due to a lack of validated measurements assessing belief in free will available in the German language. For many psychological research fields, recent years have been characterized by the publication crisis. To overcome the crisis, it is important to critically scrutinize the methodological procedures used in a specific research field, to replicate published results, and to examine the ability to generalize these results to a broader context. The aim of this dissertation is to critically examine some aspects in psychological research on free will and the belief in free will. Two studies are reported that aim to generalize the Libet paradigm for a free and voluntary decision with consequences for the acting person, as this was never reported to have been researched in literature before, and to test the critical objection that the measurement of reporting the conscious intention to move has a direct effect on the result in the Libet paradigm. Furthermore, the construction of the first inventory measuring belief in free will in the German language is described. This inventory was also created with the aim of overcoming some methodological problems in the existing instruments in English language. Furthermore, studies on the experimental manipulability of the belief in free will are reported. These findings provide implications in view of the current state of research on free will and belief in free will and its reliability.

Der vorliegende Beitrag beschäftigt sich, wie zwei vorangegangene Berichte, mit den Arbeits-bedingungen von Unternehmern. Als Analysebasis dienen die Daten des European Survey on Working Conditions aus den Jahren 2000, 2005 und 2010 sowie, nun ergänzend, die Daten aus der Erhebung aus dem Jahr 2015. Über die vier Erhebungswellen hinweg betrachtet ergeben sich, was die Beschreibung der Arbeitssituation der Unternehmer angeht, keine wesentlichen Verän-derungen. Die Unternehmer sind, was ihre Arbeitsbedingungen angeht, zum Teil, aber nicht durchgängig, besser gestellt als die übrigen Erwerbspersonen. Grundlage der Analyse ist ein ein-faches Modell, das positive und negative Aspekte der Arbeitssituation gegenüberstellt. Aus the-oretischer Sicht von Interesse sind die sich wechselseitig verstärkenden Effekte von Belastungs- und Motivationsfaktoren.

This dissertation examines how smallholder farming livelihoods may be more effectively leveraged to address food security. It is based on empirical research in three woredas (districts) in the Jimma Zone of southwestern Ethiopia. Findings in the chapters that follow draw on quantitative and qualitative data. In this research, I focus on local actors to investigate how they can be better supported in their roles as agents who have the ability to improve their livelihoods and achieve food security. This general aim is operationalized through three research questions that are addressed in separate chapters. The research questions are: (i) How do livelihood strategies influence food security?; (ii) What livelihood challenges are common and how do households cope with these?; and (iii) How do social institutions, in which livelihoods are embedded, influence people’s abilities to undertake livelihoods and be food secure? Using quantitative data from a survey of randomly selected households, I applied a number of multivariate statistical analysis to determine types of livelihood strategies and to establish how these strategies are associated with capital assets and food security. Here I view livelihood strategies as a portfolio of livelihood activities that households undertake to make a living. The predominant livelihood in the study area was diversified smallholder farming involving mainly the production of crops. Food crops such as maize, teff, sorghum, and in smaller quantities – barley and wheat, were primarily produced for subsistence. Cash crops namely coffee and khat were primarily produced for the market. Based on our analyses, we found five types of livelihood strategies to be present along a gradient of crop diversity. Food security generally decreased with less crops being part of the livelihood strategy. The livelihood strategies were associated with households’ capital assets. For example, the livelihood strategy with the most number of crops had more access to a wider range of capital assets. They had larger aggregate farm field size, and were more involved in learning with other farmers through informal exchange of information and knowledge. The status of food (in)security of each household during the lean season was measured using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). A generalized linear model established that the type of livelihood strategy a household undertook significantly influenced their food security. Other significant variables were educational attainment and gender of household head. The findings contribute evidence to the benefits of diversified livelihoods for food security, in this case, the combination of diverse food crops and cash crops. Smallholder farming in southwest Ethiopia is beset with process-related and outcome-related challenges. Here, a process-related challenge pertains to the lack of different types of capital assets that people need to be able to undertake their livelihoods, while an outcome-related challenge pertains to lack of food. The most frequently mentioned process-related challenges were associated with the natural capital either as lack in necessary ecosystem services or high levels of ecosystem disservices. Farming households typically faced the combined challenges of decreasing soil fertility, land scarcity, die-off of oxen due to diseases, and wild animal pests that raided their crops and attacked their livestock. Lack of cash was also common and this was associated with an inability to access goods and services that households needed to address other problems. For example, lack of cash prevented households from buying fertilizers or replacing the oxen they lost to diseases. Confronted with multiple and simultaneous challenges, households coped by drawing on more readily accessible capital assets in order to address a lack. This process is here referred to as capital asset substitution. The findings indicate that when households liquidate a physical asset in order to gain cash which they then use to address other challenges, the common outcome is an erosion of their capital asset base. Many households reported having to sell their livestock to buy fertilizers, as required by the government, without seeing an increase in their harvest. The same process of liquidating capital asset to purchase food particularly during the lean season, also led to erosion of capital assets. On the other hand, when households drew on their social capital to address the challenges, they tended to maintain their capital asset base. The local didaro system is one such example in which farming households with adjacent farm fields synchronize their cropping timing and pool their labor together to address the problem of wild animal pests. Human capital, for example, in the form of available labor was also important for coping. Protecting and enhancing natural capital is needed to strengthen the basis of livelihoods in the study area, and maintaining social and human capitals is important to enable farming households to cope with challenges without eroding their capital asset base. Smallholder farming in southwest Ethiopia is embedded in a social context that creates differentiated challenges and opportunities amongst people. Gender is an axis of social differentiation on which many of the differences are based. Since the coming into power of the currently ruling Ethiopian political coalition, important policy reforms have been put in place to empower women. This includes the formal requirement that wives’ names are included in land certificates. Local residents reported notable changes related to gender in the last ten years. To make sense of the changes, we adapted the leverage points concept which identifies places to intervene in a system with different depths and effectiveness for changing the trajectory of a system. Using this concept, we classified the reported changes as belonging to the domains of visible gaps, social structures, and attitudes. Importantly, changes within these domains interacted, suggesting that changes facilitate further changes. The most prominent driver of the changes observed was the government’s emphasis on empowering women and government-organized interventions including gender sensitization trainings. The changes toward more egalitarian relationships at the household level were perceived by local residents to lead to better implementation of livelihoods, and better ability to be food secure. The study offers the insight that while changing deep, underlying drivers (e. g. attitudes) of systemic inequalities is critical, other leverage points such as formal institutional change and closing of certain visible gaps can facilitate deeper changes (e. g. attitudes) through interaction between different leverage points. This can inform gender transformative approaches. While positive gender-related changes have been observed, highly unequal gender norms still persist that lead to women as well as poor men being disadvantaged. Social norms which provide the basis for collective understanding of acceptable attitudes and behaviors are entrenched in people’s ways of being and doing and can therefore significantly lag behind formal institutional changes. For instance, daughters in southwest Ethiopia continued to be excluded from land inheritance because of long-standing patrilineal inheritance practices. This impacted on women’s abilities to engage in smallholder farming in equal footing as men. Norms influenced practices around access and control of capital assets, decision-making, and allocation of activities with important implications for who gets to participate, how, and who gets to benefit. Landless men also faced distinct disadvantages in sharecropping arrangements where people involved often have unequal socioeconomic status. Processes that facilitate critical local reflections are needed to begin to change unequal social norms and transform smallholder farming to becoming more inclusive and egalitarian spheres. To more effectively leverage smallholder farming for a food secure future, this dissertation closes with four key insights namely: (1) Diversified livelihoods combining food and cash crops result in better food security; (2) Enhancing natural and social capital is a requisite for viable smallholder farming; (3) Social and gender equality are strategically important in improving livelihoods and food security; and (4) Institutions particularly social norms are key to achieving gender and social equality. Because the livelihoods-food security nexus depend on people’s agency in their livelihoods, this dissertation concludes that livelihoods should be recast as critical spheres for expanding human agency and that conceptual development as well as formulation of suitable tools of measurement be pursued.

Die Energiepolitik in Deutschland hat in den letzten Jahren umfassende Veränderungen erfahren. In den Fokus rücken dabei immer mehr die erneuerbaren Energien. Deren Anteil an der gesamten Energieerzeugung wird in Zukunft weiter ansteigen. Hintergrund ist die Umsetzung der klimapolitischen Ziele der Bundesregierung: Im Energiekonzept für eine umweltschonende, zuverlässige und bezahlbare Energieversorgung von 2010 wird eine Reduktion der Treibhausgasemissionen um 40% bis zum Jahr 2020 und bis zum Jahr 2050 sogar um 80% gegenüber dem Stand von 1990 angestrebt. Neben dem Energiekonzept der Bundesregierung stellen das Reaktorunglück von Fukushima und die damit verbundene Energiewende 2011 eine wesentliche Zäsur für die Energiepolitik in Deutschland dar. Die Folge war ein beschleunigter Ausstieg aus der Kernenergie sowie die sofortige Abschaltung von acht Kernkraftwerken. Neben der Laufzeitverkürzung und Stilllegung von Atomkraftwerken wurde auch das aus mehreren neuen Gesetzen und Gesetzesänderungen bestehende Energiepaket verabschiedet. Dort wurde mit der Einführung der §§ 12a ff. Energiewirtschaftsgesetz erstmalig eine bundesweite Bedarfsplanung für den Bau von Höchstspannungsleitungen festgelegt. Zudem erfolgte mit der Einführung des Netzausbaubeschleunigungsgesetzes Übertragungsnetz (NABEG) erstmalig ein bundesweit gültiges Gesetz für die Planung von Vorhaben auf der Ebene der Höchstspannungsnetze. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht vor diesem Hintergrund die Frage, ob durch die neu geschaffenen Regelungen des NABEG für Höchstspannungsleitungen eine Beschleunigung innerhalb des Planungsverfahrens erreicht werden kann und ob die mit dem NABEG verfolgten Ziele umgesetzt worden sind. Dabei wird aufgezeigt, wie sich die Zielsetzungen des NABEG zu den denjenigen Zielen der im Rahmen der Abwägung der öffentlichen und privaten Belange zu beachtenden, sonstigen fachspezifischen Gesetzen verhalten. Der Beschleunigungsgedanke darf nicht dazu führen, dass umwelt-, immissionsrechtliche und sonstige fachgesetzliche Aspekte an Gewicht verlieren. Dabei werden auch mögliche Probleme der jetzigen Gesetzeslage beim Freileitungsausbau sowie weitere gesetzliche Möglichkeiten, die Beschleunigung des Netzausbaus zu erreichen, aufgezeigt.

Die schlechte Qualität von Binnengewässern ist ein weit verbreitetes und herausforderndes Problem für die Menschheit. Das Konzept der Komplexität ist ein besonders vielversprechendes Konzept zur Analyse und Lösung dieses Problems und von Problemen der öffentlichen Ordnung im Allgemeinen. Der Hauptgrund ist die Stärke des Konzepts, strukturelle Problemmerkmale innerhalb eines umfassenderen strukturellen Ansatzes für die politische Problemlösung zusammenzufassen. Bislang blieben diese möglichen Vorteile jedoch verborgen, da kein klares Verständnis der Komplexität vorhanden war, was letztendlich eine systematische Analyse der Auswirkungen der Komplexität auf Lösungen und Governance-Strategien behinderte. Diese Studie zielt darauf ab, den Wert des Komplexitätsbegriffs für systematische vergleichende Analysen von Wasserproblemen und von Problemen der öffentlichen Politik im Allgemeinen zu stärken. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, werden in dieser Arbeit das Konzept der Komplexität sowie die Implikationen der Komplexität für Lösungen und Governance-Strategien sowohl aus theoretischer als auch aus empirischer Sicht spezifiziert. Zu diesem Zweck werden fünf grundsätzliche Ansätze angewandt, die sich auf die zugrunde liegenden Prämissen, die Rolle eines interdisziplinären Ansatzes, die Europäische Wasserrahmenrichtlinie als empirischen Bezugspunkt, die Integration von praktischem Wissen und den Fokus auf externe Validität beziehen. Hauptergebnisse sind: Operationalisierung und Messung: Diese Dissertation bietet eine detaillierte Operationalisierung der Komplexität in Bezug auf die Dimensionen der Ziele, Variablen, Dynamiken, Vernetzungen und Informationsunsicherheiten. Sie zeigt zudem, dass sich Wasserqualitätsprobleme in Deutschland entlang dieser fünf Komplexitätsdimensionen unterscheiden. Dies gilt für 37 Typen von Wasserqualitätsproblemen und vier Problemcluster, die sich hier auf ´zahme´, ´bösartige´, ´sysytemkomplexe´ und ´mit Unsicherheit behaftete´ Probleme beziehen. Implikationen von Komplexität für Lösungen: Diese Dissertation legt nahe, dass die Beziehungen zwischen Komplexität und Politikumsetzung sowohl positiv als auch negativ sein können und je nach Dimension der Komplexität und Politikumsetzung variieren können. In Bezug auf die untersuchten Wasserqualitätsprobleme zeigt diese Arbeit zudem verschiedene Auswirkungen der Komplexität auf die Politikumsetzung auf, sowohl bei den 37 Problemtypen als auch bei den vier Problemclustern. Implikationen von Komplexität für die Governance: Diese Dissertation schlägt einen differenzierten theoretischen Ansatz vor, um Governance-Strategien für komplexe Problemlösungen zu definieren. Dabei wird gezeigt, dass die Rolle verschiedener Institutionen, Akteure und Interaktionen für Lösungen entlang der fünf Schlüsseldimensionen der Komplexität (Ziele Variablen, Dynamiken, Vernetzungen und Informationsunsicherheiten) sowie entlang verschiedener Managementstrategien (Informationsgenerierung, Modellierung, Verwendung von Entscheidungsunterstützungs-instrumenten, Priorisierung von Maßnahmen, Konfliktlösung, Entscheidung unter Unsicherheit und Anpassungsfähigkeit und Flexibilität) variieren. Zukünftiger Forschung wird empfohlen, auf diesen Ergebnissen aufzubauen, indem weitere empirische Nachweise geliefert werden und der Governance-Ansatz für komplexe Problemlösungen weiter kontextualisiert wird. Auf diesem Weg kann dazu beigetragen werden, die ´Logik des Scheiterns´ (Dörner 1996) in Bezug auf komplexe Problemlösungen in eine ´Erfolgslogik´ umzuwandeln, um Probleme unterschiedlicher Komplexität im Wasserressourcenmanagement und bei Problemen öffentlicher Ordnung anzugehen.

Ensuring food security and halting biodiversity loss are two of the most pressing global sustainability challenges. Traditionally food security and biodiversity conservation were treated as mutually exclusive goals, and as a result, discourses and approaches were developed separately around each of these goals. Recently, however, sustainability science increasingly recognizes the close interdependence of food security and biodiversity and hence, pays greater emphasis to the need for integration of the two goals. Navigating pathways to ensure the successful integration of the two goals is, therefore, an important requirement. Attempts to identify pathways toward such integration have been dominated with a biophysical-technical focus that provides technical solutions to the integration of food security and biodiversity conservation. To this end, different food production techniques, and agricultural land use strategies have been widely considered as a solution to the food security-biodiversity nexus. While much scholarly attention has been given to the biophysical-technical dimensions, the social-political dimension, including equity, governance, and empowerment received little to no attention. By focusing on the poorly investigated social-political dimension, this dissertation aimed to identify governance properties that facilitate and impede the integration of food security and biodiversity conservation through an empirical case study conducted in a multi-level governance setting of southwestern Ethiopia. To address the overarching goal of this dissertation, first I examined how the existing widely discussed food security approaches and agricultural land use framework, land sparing versus land sharing unfold in the local context of southwestern Ethiopia. The finding in this dissertation indicated that the existing global framing of food security approaches as well as frameworks around agricultural land use has limited applicability in on-the-ground realities mainly because landscapes are complex systems that consist of stakeholders with multiple and (often) conflicting interests. This was evident from the finding that, unlike the binary framing of agricultural land use as land sparing and land sharing, local land use preference was not a matter of ‘either/or’, but instead involved mixed features exhibiting properties of both land sparing and land sharing. Moreover, in addition to the biophysical factors embedded in the existing food security approaches and land use frameworks, stakeholders preference involved social factors such as the compatibility of land use strategy with local values and traditions, which are mainly unaccounted in the existing global frameworks. Findings in his dissertation revealed that the existing reductionist analytical framings to the issues of food security and biodiversity conservation seldom address the complexity inherent within and between food security and biodiversity conservation sectors. Second, this dissertation identified governance structural and process related challenges that influence individual as well as integrated achievements of food security and biodiversity conservation goals. The result of the study showed that the governance of food security and biodiversity conservation was characterized by a strongly hierarchical system with mainly linear vertical linkages, lacking horizontal linkages between stakeholders that would transcend administrative boundaries. This type of governance structure, where stakeholders interaction is restricted to administrative boundaries could not fit with the nature of food security and biodiversity conservation because the two goals are complex in their own involving sub-systems transcending different policy sectors and administrative boundaries. Furthermore, with regard to the governance process, three key and interdependent categories of governance process challenges namely, institutional misfit, the problem of interplay, and policy incoherence influenced the achievement of individual and integrated goals of food security and were identified. Given the interdependence of these governance challenges, coupled with the complexity inherent in the food security and biodiversity conservation, attempts to achieve the dual goals thus needs an integrative, flexible and adaptive governance system Third, to understand how food security and biodiversity conservation unfold in the future, I explored future development trajectories for southwestern Ethiopia. Iterative scenario planning process produced four plausible future scenarios that distinctly differed with regard to dominating land use strategies and crops grown, actor constellations and governance mechanisms, and outcomes for food security and biodiversity conservation. Three out of the four scenarios focused on increasing economic gains through intensive and commercial agricultural production. The agricultural intensification and commercialization may increase food availability and income gains, but negatively affect food security through neglecting other dimensions such as dietary diversity, social justice and stability of supply. It also affects biodiversity conservation by causing habitat loss, land degradation, and water pollution, biodiversity loss. In contrast, one scenario involved features that are widely considered as beneficial to food security and biodiversity conservation, such as agroecological production, diversification practices, and increased social-ecological resilience. In smallholder landscapes such as the one studied here, such a pathway that promises benefits for both food security and biodiversity conservation may need to be given greater emphasis. In order to ensure the integration of food security and biodiversity conservation, recognizing their interdependence and addressing the challenges in a way that fits with the local dynamics is essential. In addition, addressing the food security-biodiversity nexus requires a holistic analytical lens that enables proper identification of system properties that benefit food security and biodiversity conservation. Moreover, this dissertation indicated that there is a clear need to pay attention to the governance structure that accommodates the diversity of perspectives, enable participation and strong coordination across geographical boundaries, policy domains and governance levels. Finally, this dissertation revealed opportunities to integrate food security and biodiversity through the pro-active management of social-ecological interactions that produce a win-win outcome. The win-win outcome could be achieved in a system that involve properties such as diversification and modern agroecological techniques, smallholders empowerment, emphasize adaptive governance of social-ecological systems, value local knowledge, culture and traditions, and ensure smallholders participation. While such diversification and agroecological practices may lack the rapid economic development that is inherent to the conventional intensification, it essentially create a system that is more resilient to environmental and economic shocks, thereby providing a more sustainable long-term benefit.