Session 6: Concluding notes

As demonstrated, the process of assessing the impact of a sustainability project is complex.  Many decisions need to be made along the way even if one is adopting an existing assessment framework rather than developing your own.  It is important to reflect on one’s decisions and recognise the implications of different decisions.  One of the implications of earlier decisions pertains to the potential way of communicating and presenting the result and impact.  Though this is not included in the scope of this piece, users may refer to some examples listed below as a starting point for considering presentation formats for sustainability assessment reports. 

A general piece of advice is to recognise that the purpose of the sustainability assessment framework proposed here is not to determine whether an initiative, such as the Start-up scheme in this case study, is successful or not.  Instead, it is to identify its achievements and the trends, giving room to the reader to make a judgement, if they so wish, on whether they consider the initiative successful.  

 

Resources

DeGraaf, M., Buck, L., Shames, S., & Zagt, R. (2017) Assessing Landscape Governance: A Participatory Approach. Tropenbos International and EcoAgriculture Partners: Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2018) Regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Europe and Central Asia of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. M. Fischer, M. Rounsevell, A. Torre-Marin Rando, A. Mader, A. Church, M. Elbakidze, V. Elias, T. Hahn, P.A. Harrison, J. Hauck, B. Martín-López, I. Ring, C. Sandström, I. Sousa Pinto, P. Visconti, N.E. Zimmermann and M. Christie (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 48 pages https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3237428 

Takahashi, Y., Schauffele, N., Mengrani, S., Mader, A., Scheyvens, H., Dasgupta, R., & Lopez-Casero, F. (2019). Achievements, challenges and ways forward for the Satoyama Development Mechanism: A self-assessment by the SDM Secretariat. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Japan.

UNU-IAS, Bioversity International, IGES and UNDP (2014) Toolkit for the Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS).