The Open Ecosystems Network (OpEN) was established in 2021 as a platform for collective engagement by communities. OpEN is a grassroots initiative born out of the lack of understanding of socio-ecological complexities of open ecosystems and how they are discussed in policy and public realms. The network involves 100+ natural and social scientists who work in open ecosystems and with the public, practitioners and policymakers.
Ecosystems are increasingly targets for globally conceived climate mitigation strategies. Yet, there are pervasive disconnects to local scale implementations, such as tree planting, that do not account for ecology and people. For sustainability of open ecosystems, now in the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and into the 22nd Century, recognition of the unique ecology of open ecosystems and their functions is essential for evidence-based actions to maintain biodiversity and societies. OpEN aims to cultivate this through our working principles.
Working Principles
- Communicate the best available scientific understanding of open ecosystems to policymakers and the public to support robust evidence-based environmental and climate change mitigation policies.
- Facilitate collaboration across the natural and social sciences to better understand open ecosystems, and in doing so highlight the need for science to be centred on environmental and social justice.
- Recognise and support the Indigenous knowledge systems that have shaped and managed open ecosystems over millennia, to this day and into the future.
- Catalyse conversations involving and including diverse knowledge for evidence-based decision-making around the sustainability of open ecosystems, relating to society and biodiversity.
- Foster public appreciation of the central role of open ecosystems in the Earth System and the diverse ways in which they shape and support people and the planet.
