Calling all land managers, share your Sustainable Stories!

With the SDGs now decided, the world is begging the question: How can we create truly sustainable societies?

The SDGs look at the root causes of poverty, hunger and injustice to create healthier and more secure livelihoods and environments for  people around the world. The vision for a world relieved of these issues can seem utopian, since many environmental and social justice issues are entrenched in long-standing traditions and powerful interests. However, working a wide variety of goals directly with local communities results in powerful, inclusive change. Perhaps by breaking down the SDGs, in the context of each locality, we can create a collective positive impact that scales from local sustainability to global achievement of the SDGs.

This diagram roughly outlines some of the key issues at play in landscapes, and some of the approaches used in Integrated Landscape Management.

Share your stories of community progress on multiple SDGs.

We’re looking for your stories on how a holistic approach to managing a landscape has brought about social, economic and environmental benefits to the community. Through your insights, we want to make the case for the effectiveness of Integrated Landscape Management as a strategic means for making the Sustainable Development Goals a global reality.

We invite guest authors to respond with a brief narrative on their local approaches to a more equitable and sustainable landscape. Submissions (600 word maximum) will be accepted throughout the months of October and November. Strong entries will address the following:

Interconnections in the Issues: Looking at the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, what were the related issues facing you and your community?

Planning for Integrated Problem-solving: Social, economic and environmental problems are often linked and affect many different types of stakeholders. How did your community or organization identify who was involved and what actions to take to address the connected issues?

• What collaborations were involved, and how did they come into being?

Multiple Objectives, Multiple Outcomes: How did you work to realize multiple objectives, and how did the results affect the larger landscape?

• What lessons for achieving the SDGs does your experience offer?

We are strongly interested in posts that connect a local or landscape-level experience with the Sustainable Development Goals. Your insights will help make a strong case for the value of integrated landscape-level approaches to managing natural resources, conscientiously, for outcomes that benefit businesses, communities and nature.

Please send submissions to Lfernandez@ecoagriculture.org with the subject line “Sustainable Solutions.” Submissions with a compelling photo are likely to be accepted.

The featured photo for this post was sourced from the World Resources Institute Flickr account, taken by James Anderson. The photo was flipped horizontally for display here.