Background
Asia faces complex and urgent sustainability challenges driven by overlapping environmental, social, and economic factors. With over two-thirds of the global population, rapid economic growth, and vast social inequalities, Asia’s environmental changes involve intricate interactions that need holistic understanding. Marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems are degraded by multiple drivers, such as rising food demand, development projects, intensive agriculture, overfishing, invasive species, pollution, and land-use changes. Consequently, critical SDGs related to water (6), climate change (13), biodiversity, and ecosystem health (14, 15) are falling behind, with some showing regressive trends.
Data on socio-ecological systems are often fragmented, insufficient, and disconnected from local lifestyles. Incomplete and incoherent information, combined with a lack of culturally relevant sustainability visions and knowledge coordination, creates deficits in translating information into action. The SDGs alone do not fully capture the systemic challenges unique to Asia, and a reframed approach that aligns with the region’s lived cultural experiences is essential for addressing these issues. Evidence points to frequent transgressions of safe ecological and social boundaries, with ecological overshoots and social shortfalls persisting across the region. Addressing these complexities requires a multiscale, adaptable knowledge system that comprehensively understands the problems and enables context-based solutions.