Unai Pascual

Biographic Data

ID72030
NAMEUnai Pascual
GIVEN NAMESUnai
FAMILY NAMEPascual
SIGNATUREPASCUAL U
AFFILIATIONSIkerbasque
ORCID0000-0002-5696-236X
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS111
TOTAL CITATIONS1059
AUTHOR COUNT109
EDITOR COUNT2
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2004
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX15

  • Corporations and financial institutions driving coastal conflicts involving Indigenous Peoples

    Open AccessVillasante, Julia Tovar Verba et al.ARTICLEAMBIO2026

    Socio-environmental conflicts associated with large-scale economic projects in Indigenous territories are well documented, but conflicts in coastal areas remain largely unexplored, despite the crucial differences between inland and coastal ecosystems. While the empirical literature about socio-environmental conflicts in Indigenous territories in coastal areas is growing, the role of financial institutions and corporations in these conflicts is of…

  • Rethinking scenario building for sustainable futures: Mobilizing conscientização, social learning and knowledge co-production

    Open AccessDanilo Borja, Jan Daněk et al.ARTICLEEcosystems and People2025

    Scenario building is a powerful tool for evaluating drivers of environmental change and assessing alternative socioecological pathways, helping integrate science-based information into decision-making. Nonetheless, this potential has not been fully embraced by scientists and decision-makers, in part owing to limitations of current scenario frameworks at representing the diversity of values for nature and potential transformative changes to bend t…

  • Reciprocity towards nature in the biodiversity science–policy interface

    Open AccessSandra Dı́az, Unai PascualARTICLEPeople and Nature2025

    The notion of reciprocity between humans and the rest of the living world is receiving increasing attention in the environmental sciences and science–policy international bodies. Here we first discuss different meanings of reciprocity, then we discuss this notion in relation to the conceptual framework of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), to date the most prominent international mechanism informing the…

  • Drivers to adopt agroforestry and sustainable land-use innovations: A review and framework for policy

    Open AccessAiora Zabala, Unai Pascual et al.ARTICLELand Use Policy2025

    What influences individuals' decisions to adopt sustainable land-use practices? The drivers of such complex decisions are manyfold. We develop a conceptual framework of the predictors that are external (contextual), related to the innovation, and internal or intrinsic to individuals. This framework can guide the design and evaluation of policies to encourage such decisions and subsequent behaviour. The conceptual framework is based on a literatur…

  • The human right to a safe climate

    Open AccessVillasante, Lynne Shannon et al.ARTICLENature Sustainability2025References: 2

  • Unveiling pervasive assumptions: Moving beyond the poverty-biodiversity loss association in conservation

    Open AccessRachel Carmenta, Mairon G Bastos Lima et al.ARTICLECurrent Opinion in Environmental…2025References: 20

    This paper reflects on the continued persistence of the idea in conservation research and practice that poverty drives biodiversity loss (the poverty-biodiversity loss association [PBLA]). We draw on evidence to show how the PBLA has proven resistant to counter-evidence and is particularly visible at local-level implementation, and is often implicit in conservation strategies. We untangle three underlying reasons that help to explain why the PBLA…

  • A relational turn in climate change adaptation: Evidence from urban nature-based solutions

    Open AccessSean Goodwin, Marta Olazabal et al.ARTICLEAMBIO2025Cited by: 1References: 82

    The emergence of nature-based solutions (NbS) in science, policy, and practice signals a paradigmatic shift in urban climate change adaptation, yet empirical investigations into its impact on adaptation definitions and progress tracking remain scarce. Addressing this gap, we conducted thematic analysis on semi-structured interviews ( n = 15) with practitioners responsible for implementing and evaluating urban NbS in different countries. We provid…

  • Business-as-usual trends will largely miss 2030 global conservation targets

    Open AccessIgnacio Palomo, Alberto González-García et al.ARTICLEAMBIO2025Cited by: 1References: 90

    To address climate change and global biodiversity loss, the world must hit three important international conservation targets by 2030: protect 30% of terrestrial and marine areas, halt and reverse forest loss, and restore 350 Mha of degraded and deforested landscapes. Here, we (1) provide estimates of the gaps between these globally agreed targets and business-as-usual trends; (2) identify examples of rapid past trend-shifts towards achieving the…

  • Why nature matters: A systematic review of intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values

    Open AccessAustin Himes, Barbara Muraca et al.ARTICLEBioScience2024

    In this article, we present results from a literature review of intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values of nature conducted for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as part of the Methodological Assessment of the Diverse Values and Valuations of Nature. We identify the most frequently recurring meanings in the heterogeneous use of different value types and their association with worldviews a…

  • Plural values of nature help to understand contested pathways to sustainability

    Open AccessAdrian Martins, Erik Gomez‐baggethun et al.ARTICLEOne Earth2024

    Despite globally agreed sustainability goals, advocacy for specific pathways of action remains highly contested. Disagreement about how best to advance sustainability can produce constructive debate but can also lead to marginalization, conflict, and inaction. This review uncovers how different “values of nature” underpin allegiance to different pathways of action for sustainability. It analyzes four selected pathways: (1) Green Economy, (2) Natu…

  • Is it just conservation? A typology of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ roles in conserving biodiversity

    Open AccessNiamh Dawson, Brendan Coolsaet et al.ARTICLEOne Earth2024

    As conservation initiatives expand in response to biodiversity loss, there remains limited understanding about what forms of governance and roles for different actors produce the best ecological outcomes. Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ (IPs’ and LCs’) roles extend beyond participation to more equitable governance based on relative control and recognition of their values and institutions, but the relationship with conservation outcomes…

  • Multi-level finance impacts on participation, inclusion, and equity: Bricolage and Fuzziness in NextGenerationEU-funded renaturing projects

    Open AccessJulia Neidig, Isabelle Anguelovski et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Science & Policy2024References: 11

    We analyze a multi-level ad-hoc emergency fund (MAEF) – the European NextGenerationEU program – as an opportunity to advance ambitious municipal climate action. Presently, MAEF follow a vertical complex governance structure, including strict timelines, evaluations, and competencies spread across policy scales, which condition local aspirations for transformative governance in terms of participation, inclusion, and equity. Drawing on qualitative d…

  • Measuring the contribution of nature-based solutions beyond climate adaptation in cities

    Open AccessSean Goodwin, Marta Olazabal et al.ARTICLEGlobal Environmental Change2024Cited by: 2References: 4

    MEL for urban NbS must account for the diversity of co-benefits they may provide. • Current MEL practices for NbS favour ecological over social (justice) benefits. • Good information for use within MEL is defined by local socio-political dynamics. • Effective MEL for NbS needs flexible guidelines that can be contextualised locally. • Bridging the interests and needs of diverse actors is crucial for successful MEL. Measuring the contribution of ur…

  • Sustainability-aligned values: Exploring the Concept, Evidence, and Practice

    Open AccessAdrian Martins, Patricia Balvanera et al.ARTICLEConservation Ecology2024

    Modern environmental thought has always involved normative claims about the values needed for sustainability. This has often played out in debates between proponents of anthropocentric and ecocentric ways of valuing nature. More recently, there has been a flourishing of interest in relational and pluricentric ways of valuing nature, coinciding with a “turn to values” in the sustainability literature. In this paper we explore the meaning and use o…

  • Overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts

    Open AccessHans‐otto Pörtner, Robert J Scholes et al.ARTICLEScience2023

    Earth’s biodiversity and human societies face pollution, overconsumption of natural resources, urbanization, demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities, and habitat loss, many of which are exacerbated by climate change. Here, we review links among climate, biodiversity, and society and develop a roadmap toward sustainability. These include limiting warming to 1.5°C and effectively conserving and restoring functional ecosystems on 30 to …

  • Diverse values of nature for sustainability

    Open AccessUnai Pascual, Patricia Balvanera et al.ARTICLENature2023

    Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being 1,2 , addressing the global biodiversity crisis 3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understandin…

  • Participatory mapping of ecosystem services across a gradient of agricultural intensification in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

    Open AccessAlexander Mathys, A S Mathys et al.ARTICLEEcosystems and People2023

    Agrarian change affects the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES) by reducing the extent of natural ecosystems. Agricultural intensification can lead to changes in land covers and livelihood opportunities and it remains unclear how such changes align or misalign with the desires of local communities. Using participatry mapping, we assessed ES uses and desires of Indigenous people and local communities provided by different land cover types…

  • Multilingualism for pluralising knowledge and decision making about people and nature relationships

    Open AccessLaÿna Droz, Marcela Brugnach et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2023

    The need for a pluralistic approach to biodiversity conservation science and policy is increasingly being recognized. We argue that plural perspectives require multilingualism in the sources and processes. Unless the linguistic bias and the related issues in terms of legitimacy and validity, resistance to inclusion, and knowledge coproduction are meaningfully addressed, biodiversity science and its positive effects for conservation policy and pra…

  • Exploring the relationship between plural values of nature, human well‐being, and conservation and development intervention: Why it matters and how to do it

    Open AccessRachel Carmenta, Julie G Zaehringer et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2023

    Globally, land and seascapes across the bioculturally diverse tropics are in transition. Impacted by the demands of distant consumers, the processes of global environmental change and numerous interventions seeking climate, conservation and development goals, these transitions have the potential to impact the relationships and plurality of values held between people and place. This paper is a Synthesis of seven empirical studies within the Specia…

  • On the links between nature's values and language

    Open AccessDylan Inglis, Unai Pascual et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2023

    Recent research into the plural values about nature is focusing on relational values as a concept through which to better understand the breadth and importance of situated human–nature relations. However, potential relevance of language as a mediating factor in relational values has not been sufficiently examined. To investigate the links between language and values, we explore the influence of the ancient non‐Indo‐European Basque language (‘Eusk…

  • Pluralizing environmental values for urban planning: How to uncover the diversity of imaginaries about socio‐natures from Vitoria‐Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain)

    Open AccessJulia Neidig, Isabelle Anguelovski et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2023

    Cities have pushed forward re‐naturing initiatives in local planning agendas. Discourses and rationales for such interventions tend to follow instrumental framings often narrowed down to the economic, health and ecological benefits of nature's contributions to people (NCP). Yet, diverse urban residents often connect to other socio‐nature framings that are associated with a plurality of values held for nature, including relational, intrinsic, and …

  • Global mapping of urban nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation

    Open AccessSean Goodwin, Marta Olazabal et al.ARTICLENature Sustainability2023Cited by: 10References: 11

  • Five levels of internalizing environmental externalities: Decision-making based on instrumental and relational values of nature

    Open AccessMeine Van Noordwijk, Beria Leimona et al.ARTICLECurrent Opinion in Environmental…2023References: 16

    Some values affected by expected social and environmental impacts of decisions are considered important and are taken into account, others not. These latter, known as ‘decision externalities’, are of two types: unforeseen effects and foreseen impacts beyond the group decision-makers care about. One way to internalize externalities is by altering the financial consequences of impacts expected on those beyond the inner circle of decision-making (th…

  • An inclusive typology of values for navigating transformations towards a just and sustainable future

    Open AccessChristopher M Raymond, Christopher B Anderson et al.ARTICLECurrent Opinion in Environmental…2023Cited by: 9References: 21

    Achieving the intertwined goals of justice and sustainability requires transformative changes to meaningfully engage diverse perspectives. Therefore, scholars and policymakers need new ways of recognising and addressing nature’s multiple values across cultures, disciplines and other knowledge traditions. By reviewing academic publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local community sources, we developed an inclusive typology of nature’s …

  • The role of power in leveraging the diverse values of nature for transformative change

    Open AccessPaola Arias-Arévalo, Elena Lazos-Chavero et al.ARTICLECurrent Opinion in Environmental…2023Cited by: 6References: 24