Unraveling deep roots in drylands: a systems thinking participatory approach to SDGs

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F86652079%3A_____%2F25%3A00618823" target="_blank" >RIV/86652079:_____/25:00618823 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/unravelling-deep-roots-in-drylands-a-systems-thinking-participatory-approach-to-the-sdgs/78C488B539C49A5F962852A0BE5CBC0C" target="_blank" >https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/unravelling-deep-roots-in-drylands-a-systems-thinking-participatory-approach-to-the-sdgs/78C488B539C49A5F962852A0BE5CBC0C</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/sus.2025.6" target="_blank" >10.1017/sus.2025.6</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Unraveling deep roots in drylands: a systems thinking participatory approach to SDGs

Original language description

Non-technical summary Achieving sustainability on the ground poses a challenge in decoding globally defined goals, such as sustainable development goals, and aligning them with local perspectives and realities. This decoding necessitates the understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of the sustainability challenges in a given context, including their underlying causes. In case studies from Brazilian drylands, we illustrate how an enhanced multiscale participatory method, combined with systems thinking tools, can shed light on systemic structures that currently entrench unsustainable development trajectories. This method offers insights into co-designing potential pathways toward sustainable futures and unlocking transformative capacities of the local population.Technical summary Translating United Nations global sustainable development goals (SDGs) into actions that address local realities and aspirations is an urgent challenge. It requires new thinking and approaches that foster the discussion about the main challenges to implementing the SDGs at multiple levels. This paper presents a novel multiscale participatory approach that combines the popular Three Horizons diagram with the formalism of causal loop diagrams in systems thinking. We present results from six multi-stakeholder dialogues held across drylands in Brazil with a focus on desired futures aligned with SDGs. Focusing on identifying the root causes and systemic structures of unsustainability, participants identified lock-ins, leverage points, and interventions for how these could be changed. The core lock-ins are the discontinuity of public policies, and the historical land and power concentration reinforced by the current expansion of large-scale agricultural, mining, and energy projects. The proposed interventions are structural and if implemented would contribute to achieving SDGs in an integrated manner. The unique approach developed in this study can provide leverage as it bridges the inclusivity of participatory visioning with the change potential of systems thinking tools to tackle root causes and unleash societal transformations.Social media summary We are not achieving SDGs. Understanding root causes of unsustainability is critical to move toward sustainable and just futures.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Global Sustainability

ISSN

2059-4798

e-ISSN

2059-4798

Volume of the periodical

8

Issue of the periodical within the volume

FEB

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

16

Pages from-to

e13

UT code for WoS article

001455105300001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105003927478