Who are we?
We are a team of researchers from the Ecosystem Management group at ETH Zürich. We work on understanding and evaluating solutions for complex socio-ecological systems.
Our research themes include agro-ecological management, forest and landscape restoration, ecological functions in landscape mosaics, and socio-technical transitions. We are also interested in decision-making processes that shape environmental outcomes.
In Scotland, our work is guided by a commitment to ensuring diverse perspectives are represented in negotiations over landscape use.
Achieving net zero, protecting biodiversity, or mitigating flood risk all require cooperation between diverse groups across large areas. We want to give stakeholders the tools to navigate complex systems through participatory engagement across public, private, and non-governmental actors.
Our team
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Prof. Dr. Jaboury Ghazoul
Project leader
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Anna Edgar
Project leader
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Johanna Wierer
Project leader
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Dr. Xuezhu Zhai
Senior scientist, visualisation
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Jiugeng Sun
Scientific assistant
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Anne Dray
Senior scientist
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Dr. Ivan Novotny
Project leader
Our partners
Bioregioning Tayside
Bioregioning Tayside aims at bringing people in Tayside together to build community resilience in the face of:
global heating – with major implications for survival of life as we know it,
a sixth mass extinction of plants and animals driven by us, which is collapsing biodiversity and threatening the food webs we depend on
a broken economic model – which is fuelling the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse and resulting in increasing social injustice and mental ill health
They aim to build that community resilience through the concept of a Bioregion.
A Bioregion is a geographic area defined not by political or economic boundaries but through its natural features – its geology; topography; climate; soils; hydrology and watersheds; agriculture; biodiversity, flora and fauna and vegetation.
Bioregioning re-connects people with those natural systems, and each other, through the places where they live, enabling deeper understanding of the interdependence between them and human flourishing
Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere
Galloway and Southern Ayrshire is the largest of the UK’s UNESCO Biospheres, and was the first UNESCO Biosphere in Scotland. It covers 9,720km² of terrestrial and marine environments, including 85% of South Ayrshire, 52% of East Ayrshire, and 59% of Dumfries & Galloway.
The Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere Partnership is a charity working across the UNESCO region in conservation, education, enterprise and climate resilience. Its mission is to promote a balanced relationship between people and the natural environment through establishing effective partnerships, community engagement, innovative projects, research and learning, encouraging local communities to act collaboratively to build thriving, sustainable societies in harmony with their natural surroundings.
The GSA Biosphere Partnership’s operational model is distinct for bringing diverse, multi-sector groups together while drawing in experience and expertise from UNESCO’s global network. All around the world UNESCO Biospheres are regarded as testbeds for innovation, places to launch pioneering sustainable development projects and demonstrate how balance between social, economic and environmental priorities can be achieved.
The GSA Biosphere Partnership leads and facilitates land use initiatives ranging from citizen science to regenerative farming, micro-rewilding to nature restoration at landscape scale. Its holistic, participatory approach to landscape visioning responds to the needs of local communities, rural industries, and the vast range of wildlife and habitats encompassed by the UNESCO Biosphere.
