Net-Map, an interview-based network mapping tool, has been applied across various scientific fields and purposes since its inception to study networks of influence. In this article, we first review the general uses and limitations of Net-Map and then share experiential knowledge gained from using Net-Map to develop an action-oriented research process focused on envisioning pathways to sustainable futures in Spanish drylands. Drawing from the literature and reflecting on our experience, we identified four practical contributions of Net-Map that support our action-oriented research process, including: 1) creating socially inclusive participatory spaces that capture a diversity of influential capacities for promoting sustainability transformations, 2) understanding how to articulate transformative changes at multiple scales, 3) anticipating conflicts and managing power imbalances across scales, and 4) building shared agency and capabilities for fostering collective action, while respecting differences between participants’ perspectives. This paper argues how Net-Map can help overcome common barriers in action-oriented research.

Food production and trade are key drivers of environmental change worldwide. Global initiatives emphasize the need to shift towards healthier and more sustainable diets, with increased consumption of fruits and vegetables (F&V). However, F&V cultivation relies on diverse high-value crop species that often require intensive fertilization and irrigation for optimum yield and quality, as well as a large labor force. This generates trade-offs across scales between the impacts in the production regions and the global need to increase F&V production. Through multi-actor dialogues, we analysed the social-ecological dynamics of the F&V agriculture system in Southeast Spain, which crucially supplies F&V to Northern Europe. Using a new approach combining the 3Horizons method and system thinking tools, our results reveal the agricultural system's context-specific structures as a foundation for exploring transformative opportunities. We found that the agricultural system a) is sustained in a governance model that lacks cooperation and fosters polarized views, 2) surpasses the biophysical limits, and 3) relies on immigrant low-wage labor. Additionally, our results underscore the need to share the responsibilities and costs of the food-system transformation across the supply chain actors, focusing on the potential of retailers, governance institutions at multiple scales, collective structures of farmer producers, and auxiliary industries to support sustainable and just transformative changes.

The Three Horizons for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a novel participatory approach to co-create future sustainable scenarios for supporting the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Whereas the approach has been applied to inform the design of global-scale sustainability scenarios based on regional perspectives, it has not been implemented to explore how local and regional scenarios can be connected across sites and scales to inform governance processes in the implementation of the SDGs. This study applies an adapted version of the Three Horizons for the SDGs approach in four sites at regional and local scales in Spanish drylands to explore its potential to support policy coherence at multiple governance scales for advancing SDG implementation through dialogue between actors from multiple sectors. We conducted four two-day in-person workshops with diverse actors (n = 59) to explore their perceptions about the desired futures, current concerns, and strategies to achieve sustainable futures in the region. Results reveal 27 similar and nine dissimilar themes related to desired futures and current concerns, respectively. These findings provide common ground and highlight different contextual realities between sites that may serve as a basis for harmonizing policy priorities for advancing regional and local SDG implementation. The study also identifies 19 themes encompassing multiple strategies with the potential to establish associations across sites and scales to coordinate actions in alignment with the 2030 Agenda. We argue that the adapted version of the Three Horizons for the SDGs approach can serve as a tool to support coherent multi-scale governance needed to achieve global sustainability goals. We discuss lessons learned and limitations encountered from using the approach that provides guidance for future experiences.

Secondary forests will likely dominate future tropical landscapes, and the ecosystem services they provide to humanity will be particularly relevant. However, few empirical studies provide quantitative evidence of how the supply of ecosystem services change along secondary forest succession. The need for such information is particularly pressing for tropical dry forests because of their extensive global coverage and a high degree of disturbance. Here we examine the changes in the potential supply of ecosystem services and the interactions among them along secondary tropical dry forest succession for a site on the Mexican Pacific coast. Using data from a chronosequence of twelve sites followed over ten years, we characterized changes in five ecosystem services along a successional gradient from abandoned farmland to old-growth forests: forage, multiple forest resources, microclimate regulation, carbon storage and carbon sequestration. The long-term recovery trajectory for each service was modelled using linear and non-linear mixed models. Interactions among them were examined over different timeframes using Spearman correlations. The results showed rapid non-linear recovery of multiple forest resources provision, microclimate regulation and carbon storage within the first two decades of succession. Carbon sequestration increased slightly over time, while the supply of forage showed no clear trend. The strength of the interactions among pairs of services changed through successional time, being particularly higher in farmlands and old-growth forests. Our findings suggest that adaptive forest management practices that foster the natural regeneration of tropical dry forests are cost-effective mechanisms to recover the supply of critical ecosystem services for local actors by meeting their livelihood needs as well as those for the global community through climate change mitigation. Maintaining tropical dry forest resilience will highly depend on the maintenance of diversity in terms of species and ecosystem services.