The research cluster Biodiversity and Natural Resources brings together Vrije Universiteit researchers and external stakeholders to form a platform for the exchange of knowledge and generate new expertise on sustainability issues related to both biodiversity and natural resources.
Biodiversity and natural resources are under increasing pressure in contemporary times of overheating (Eriksen 2016, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services ). What is the role of biodiversity for the future earth? What is the impact of the human use of natural resources? This research cluster explores how raw materials and biodiversity are related in natural landscapes, economic systems, global culture, and ecological, social, and political connections. We scrutinise biodiversity parameters and how they connect with resource use and supply's physical and social dimensions. What can we learn from the study of entanglements of nature and culture and imagining alternative interactions with the environment?
The Cluster is a meeting place grounded in Responsible Research & Innovation principles and citizen and stakeholder involvement. Researchers and societal partners cooperate, co-design and co-create research and impact projects. The Cluster contributes new knowledge through transdisciplinary collaborations. It brings together national and internationally funded research projects at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam that are linked to biodiversity improvement, resource use, mineral supply chains, and landscape change.
Current projects:
- By linking ecological and socio-economic systems, we assess both existing and alternative land use models of key actors in the value chain. We focus on the roles for payments based on biodiversity and ecosystem services from the market and society.
- By linking biodiversity, climate and anthropogenic change from the deep history to the future of Europe’s landscapes, we assess the potential for applying and upscaling sustainable landscape change, including rewilding.
- How do the social and ecological aspects of mining relate? The extraction of mineral resources requires reasoned trade-offs on extractive lifeways worldwide, nature conservation and the great hunger for resources, among other things, to enable the energy transition.
Current publications:
- Book: Gold Matters: Visualising Mining Worlds
- Course (online): Integrated Landscape Analysis (ILA): Addressing the biodiversity and climate crises (terranova-itn.eu)
- Publication: The Anthropocene in the Aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark Schelde Delta Area: Geological History, Human Resilience and Future Landscape Management
- TerraNova White Paper 1: Policy Recommendations for Sustainable Landscape Management Strategies
- TerraNova White Paper 2: An Explorative Opinion Paper: 'Why do we Need Stakeholders' Engagement in Knowledge Production: TerraNova's Vision on Landscape Transformation'
