Keywordslong-term socio-ecological research; social inequality; land costs of sustainability; material and nutrient flow accounting; pre-industrial agriculture; social ecology; societal relations to nature; colonization; metabolism; regulation; transformation; social-ecological crisis; dynamics of use; ecosystem services; social-ecological system; spatial and temporal dynamics; supply and demand; pharmaceuticals; microplastics; semicentralized water infrastructures; forest management; provisioning system; normal operation; labour; sociometabolic transition; energy regimes; primary energy; exergy; social-ecological transformation; societal relations to nature; social ecology; political ecology; land use; resource-extractivism; water crisis; transdisciplinarity; extractive economies; international trade; material flow accounting; political ecology; social ecology; socioeconomic metabolism; economy-wide material flow analysis; in-use stocks of materials; stock-flow relations; dynamic stock model; decoupling; socioecological transformation; ecosystem services; social–ecological systems; social ecology; transdisciplinary research; interdisciplinary research; colonisation; boundary concept; Cuvelai-Etosha Basin; savannah ecosystems; ecosystem services; integrated water resources management; rainwater and floodwater harvesting; social-ecological systems; transdisciplinary research; Anthropocene; critical theory; social-ecological systems; social ecology; societal relations to nature; sustainable development; transdisciplinarity