Transdisciplinary education: A leverage point to foster transformative change for biodiversity conservation.

Global challenges caused by increasing anthropogenic pressures lead to biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems. To counter the threatened integrity of socio-ecological systems, transformative change that supports biodiversity conservation and long-term human well-being is needed. Fostering such changes in our global society is complex–as evidenced by the limited
success achieved to date in tackling these challenges. Transdisciplinary approaches, however, have proven capable of facilitating the development of an integrative understanding of socio-ecological systems by disentangling complex relationships, bridging the gaps between science and policy and thereby highlighting ways forward for system-wide transformation. Nonetheless, transdisciplinarity is not yet broadly adopted in science, policy and practice. One way to overcome this gap in implementation is transdisciplinary education.
We will illustrate how the use of transdisciplinary education for early-career researchers can serve as a key leverage point to foster transformative change in biodiversity conservation. To this end we draw upon the practical experience of a summer school focusing on transformative change for biodiversity. We argue that this transdisciplinary and immersive learning experience contributes to transformative change on three levels: On a personal level, the learning process
helps researchers to identify their own role in this transformative change; on a research level, its collaborative approach, using knowledge integration and co-creation, can improve research outcomes which address the complexity of socio-ecological problems; and, on a societal level, it enables researchers to mobilize this knowledge for vital contributions to transformative change. Transdisciplinary education opens opportunities for interdisciplinary networks, supporting the inclusion of stakeholders and integrating the socio-ecological system to foster and understand ecosystem services and their value to humans. As transformative change is long past due to address society’s compound crises, we demonstrate the importance of equipping young researchers with the tools of transdisciplinarity so that they can effectively fulfill their responsibilities in tomorrow's society.