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Despite a growing recognition that the solutions to current environmental problems will be developed through collaborations between scientists and stakeholders, substantial challenges stifle such cooperation and slow the transfer of knowledge. Challenges occur at several levels, including individual, disciplinary, and institutional. All of these have implications for scholars working at academic and research institutions. Fortunately, creative ideas and tested models exist that provide opportunities for conversation and serious consideration about how such institutions can facilitate the dialogue between scientists and society.

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protected areas (pAs) are a foundational and essential strategy for reducing biodiversity loss. However, many pAs around the world exist on paper only; thus, while logging and habitat conversion may be banned in these areas, illegal activities often continue to cause alarming habitat destruction. in such cases, the presence of armed conflict may ultimately prevent incursions to a greater extent than the absence of conflict. Although there are several reports of habitat destruction following cessation of conflict, there has never been a systematic and quantitative "before-and-after-conflict" analysis of a large sample of pAs and surrounding areas. Here we report the results of such a study in colombia, using an open-access global forest change dataset. By analysing 39 PAs over three years before and after colombia's peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed forces of colombia (fARc), we found a dramatic and highly significant increase in the deforestation rate for the majority of these areas and their buffer zones. We discuss the reasons behind such findings from the Colombian case, and debate some general conservation lessons applicable to other countries undergoing post-conflict transitions. The growing warfare ecology literature reports both negative and positive effects of conflict for biodiversity and the natural environment 1-3. This also applies to deforestation, which can be either increased or decreased depending on the specific complex socio-ecological dynamics linked to the conflict itself 3-5. Increased deforestation during conflict is reported for several regions of the world 6 , including Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Liberia 7 or Myanmar and Cambodia 8. In some cases, conflict reduces the institutional capacity to enforce laws and effectively manage the use or protection of natural resources, e.g. as reported for Kenya 9 , DRC 10 , Nepal 11 , and Colombia 5. In other cases, the displacement of people escaping or forced to leave conflict areas, the basic mechanism for the 'refuge effect' 12 , can prove beneficial for habitat and biodiversity protection, e.g. by limiting the pressure of resource extraction 13-15. The demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea is a good example of such a refuge 16. Conflict can largely disrupt economic activities 1 , such as timber logging in Nicaragua 17 , or farming, as in Sierra Leone 18. In the Chechen wars and in the nearby Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, agricultural land was abandoned in warzones, along with reported low re-cultivation rates after the cessation of the conflict 19,20. In other cases post-conflict development results in higher threats to forested ecosystems than conflict

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With increasing demand of abiotic resources also the pollution of natural resources like water and soil has risen in the last decades due to global industrial and technological development. Thus, enhancing resource efficiency is a key goal of national and international strategies. For a comprehensive assessment of all related impacts of resource extraction and use all three sustainability dimensions have to be taken into account: economic, environmental and social aspects. Furthermore, to avoid burden shifting life cycle based methods should be applied. As companies need operational tools and approaches, a comprehensive method has been developed to measure resource efficiency of products, processes and services in the context of sustainable development (ESSENZ). Overall 21 categories are established to measure impacts on the environment, physical and socio-economic availability of the used resources as well as their societal acceptance. For the categories socio-economic availability and societal acceptance new approaches are developed and characterization factors are provided for a portfolio of 36 metals and four fossil raw materials. The introduced approach has been tested on several case studies, demonstrating that it enhances the applicability of resource efficiency to assess product systems significantly by providing an overall framework that can be adopted across sectors, using indicators and methods which are applicable and can be integrated into existing life cycle assessment based schemes.