Metacoupled Tourism and Wildlife Translocations Affect Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals across Spillover Systems

Zhao, Zhiqiang; Cai, Meng; Connor, Thomas; Chung, Min Gon; Liu, Jianguo

doi:10.3390/su12187677

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Metacoupled Tourism and Wildlife Translocations Affect Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals across Spillover Systems

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Jianguo Liu

Academy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, Xining 810016, China

Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

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Sierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7677; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187677

Received: 29 August 2020 / Revised: 14 September 2020 / Accepted: 15 September 2020 / Published: 17 September 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Through the Lens of Telecoupling: New Perspectives for Global Sustainability)

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Abstract

Synergies and trade-offs among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been hotly debated. Although the world is increasingly metacoupled (socioeconomic-environmental interactions within and across adjacent or distant systems), there is little understanding of the impacts of globally widespread and important flows on enhancing or compromising sustainability in different systems. Here, we used a new integrated framework to guide SDG synergy and trade-off analysis within and across systems, as influenced by cross-boundary tourism and wildlife translocations. The world’s terrestrial protected areas alone receive approximately 8 billion visits per year, generating a direct economic impact of US $600 billion. Globally, more than 5000 animal species and 29,000 plant species are traded across country borders, and the wildlife trade has arguably contributed to zoonotic disease worldwide, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We synthesized 22 cases of tourism and wildlife translocations across six continents and found 33 synergies and 14 trade-offs among 10 SDGs within focal systems and across spillover systems. Our study provides an empirical demonstration of SDG interactions across spillover systems and insights for holistic sustainability governance, contributing to fostering synergies and reducing trade-offs to achieve global sustainable development in the metacoupled Anthropocene. View Full-Text

Keywords: sustainable development goals; synergy; trade-off; metacoupling; telecoupling; spillover systems; tourism; wildlife; protected area

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Zhao, Z.; Cai, M.; Connor, T.; Chung, M.G.; Liu, J. Metacoupled Tourism and Wildlife Translocations Affect Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals across Spillover Systems. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7677. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187677

AMA Style

Zhao Z, Cai M, Connor T, Chung MG, Liu J. Metacoupled Tourism and Wildlife Translocations Affect Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals across Spillover Systems. Sustainability. 2020; 12(18):7677. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187677

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhao, Zhiqiang, Meng Cai, Thomas Connor, Min G. Chung, and Jianguo Liu. 2020. "Metacoupled Tourism and Wildlife Translocations Affect Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals across Spillover Systems" Sustainability 12, no. 18: 7677. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187677

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Metacoupled Tourism and Wildlife Translocations Affect Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals across Spillover Systems

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