Sonderegger, Gabi (2023). Governing agricultural land use in an interconnected world: Opportunities and challenges for Voluntary Sustainability Standards. (Thesis). Universität Bern, Bern
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Abstract
In today's interconnected world, agricultural land use is influenced by distant drivers and actors, while also having far-reaching sustainability implications extending beyond the boundaries of individual farms. These implications significantly contribute to pressing sustainability challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequalities. Recognizing this, scientists and policymakers increasingly advocate for considering cross-scalar dynamics, including feedbacks and spillovers, to define and govern sustainable agricultural practices. To address this need, the field of land system science has introduced the concept of telecoupling, which provides a framework for conceptualizing, studying, and communicating the intricate social-ecological interactions that influence land use decisions and sustainability outcomes across distant regions. This dissertation adopts a telecoupling lens to investigate the interface between sustainable agriculture, sustainability governance, and science communication. More specifically, it aims to provide knowledge for 1) developing an integrative and comprehensive approach to conceptualize and operationalize sustainable agriculture in a telecoupled world, 2) a better understanding of the governance of sustainable agriculture within a telecoupled world, and 3) enhancing the communication of scientific knowledge on telecoupling phenomena through visuals. It places a particular focus on the role of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) in governing spillovers of agricultural land use. These three objectives are addressed in six research articles, which utilize a combination of synthesis and empirical research methods, including quantitative and qualitative approaches. The presented synthesis research provides foundational knowledge for each objective, by integrating knowledge from various disciplines through (systematic) literature reviews and interdisciplinary workshops. The empirical research involved quantitative analyses of 100 agricultural standards' contents and characteristics, as well as qualitative expert interviews using visual elicitation methods. In contribution of objective 1, the dissertation highlights that in a telecoupled world, a comprehensive notion of sustainable agricultural land use needs to explicitly consider spillover processes arising from agricultural management practices and leading to impacts beyond the farm in nearby and distant places. It offers practical tools and knowledge to aid researchers and policymakers in this quest, such as a compilation of 21 socio-economic and environmental spillovers of agricultural land use and an analytical framework to assess across scales the sustainability outcomes resulting from changes in agricultural practices. Spillovers can give rise to scale mismatches in the design of governance interventions, posing common challenges in governing telecoupling phenomena and potentially undermining efforts to promote sustainable agriculture. The dissertation explores the current practice of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) in governing spillovers (contributing to objective 2). It reveals variations in the extent to which standards regulate spillovers through their requirements. While environmental spillovers are more extensively regulated, socio-economic spillovers appear to receive considerably less attention. The study also identifies additional strategies for standard-setting organizations to integrate spillover perspectives in their standard systems, such rescaling certification activities to the landscape level and expanding the organization's portfolio beyond certification activities. Moreover, it identifies significant barriers to implementing these strategies, which highlight the importance of incorporating spillovers in strategic priority-setting within VSS systems, taking targeted actions at operational levels and employing complementary measures across different governance interventions. In contribution of objective 3, the dissertation shows the importance of effective science communication in promoting the governance of sustainable agriculture in a highly interconnected world. It demonstrates the potential of visuals as powerful tools for communicating knowledge about complex telecoupling phenomena by employing them in qualitative interviews. The study further explores common practices and challenges associated with visualizing telecouplings, offering practical recommendations for visually communicating such information in an accessible and effective manner. The dissertation contributes to the field of land system science by providing a foundation for future research and action in governing agricultural land use while considering sustainability implications at both local and global scales. It draws attention to the importance of explicitly considering telecoupling and spillover dynamics when sustainability standards are defined. It provides knowledge that may assist standard-setting organizations in this process, by offering insights into different types of spillovers, current VSS practices in regulating spillovers, and strategies to integrate spillover perspectives into VSS systems. It emphasizes the need for ongoing discussions and research on the nature, relevance and governability of spillovers and the complementary roles of various governance instruments in promoting sustainability across scales. Furthermore, it underscores the significance of effective communication, particularly through visual means, in facilitating dialogues at the science-policy interface to develop effective governance approaches that address the pressing sustainability challenges of our time.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Dissertation Type: | Cumulative |
| Date of Defense: | 22 September 2023 |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology |
| Institute / Center: | 10 Strategic Research Centers > Wyss Academy for Nature 08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography 10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Stalder |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Sep 2025 13:19 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2025 22:25 |
| URI: | https://boristheses.unibe.ch/id/eprint/5377 |
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