Integrated modeling to achieve global goals: Lessons from the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-use, and Energy (FABLE) initiative

Abstract

Humanity is challenged with making progress toward global biodiversity, freshwater, and climate goals, while providing food and nutritional security for everyone. Our current food and land-use systems are incompatible with this ambition making them unsustainable. Papers in this special feature introduce a participatory, integrated modeling approach applied to provide insights on how to transform food and land-use systems to sustainable trajectories in 12 countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Finland, India, Mexico, Rwanda, Sweden, the UK, and USA. Papers are based on work completed by members of the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-use, and Energy (FABLE) initiative, a network of in-country research teams engaging policymakers and other local stakeholders to co-develop future food and land-use scenarios and modeling their national and global sustainability impacts. Here, we discuss the key leverage points, methodological advances, and multi-sector engagement strategies presented and applied in this collection of work to set countries and our planet on course for achieving food security, biodiversity, freshwater, and climate targets by 2050.