This Global Conversation, hosted by SocSES and the Social-Ecological Systems Institute (SESI) at Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany, brings together international scholars to explore how conservation, justice, and sustainability unfold in an increasingly interconnected world.

Entitled “Working toward conservation in a coupled world”, this Global Conversation is based on the notion of Connected Conservation, which simultaneously focuses on challenging the distant, wealth-driven forces that cause biodiversity loss and enhancing place-based collaborative conservation. The notion of Connected Conservation aligns with the metacoupling framework which offers a lens for unravelling the often-hidden, distant flows that shape social-ecological systems and, therefore, conservation practices.

Together, we will examine how these distant flows manifest in concrete cases affecting the endeavour of biodiversity conservation, from the telecoupled palm oil supply chain between Colombia and the European Union to the production of mezcal in Mexico. This Global Conversation aims to collectively reflect on how conservation can become more equitable, effective, and responsive in our coupled world. It draws on research by:

• Rachel Carmenta (School of Global Development and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, University of East Anglia) who developed the notion of Connected Conservation;
• Marcela Muñoz Escobar (Environmental Politics Department, Centre for Environmental Research) whose work focuses on European Union regulations affecting the Colombian palm oil value chain;
• Carlos Bolaños Aguilar (National Autonomous University of Mexico) who investigates how actors in the mezcal production in Mexico perceive environmental justice; and
• Jack Liu (Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University) who developed the metacoupling framework.

Global Conversation: Working toward conservation in a coupled world

🗓️ Thursday, 29 January 2026

🕚 08:00 Eastern / 14:00 CET / 15:00 CAT / 18:30 IST

🔗 Register to attend here

This Global Conversation is organised by Berta Martín-López, Anna Mayer and Roman Isaac from the Social-Ecological Systems Institute (SESI) at Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany. They are excited to welcome you to this Global Conversation and to jointly explore new ways of understanding and advancing conservation.