Cross-sector collaboration enables the achievement of development, health, and coral reef conservation goals

Increasing development in tropical regions provides new economic opportunities that can improve livelihoods, but it threatens the functional integrity and ecosystem services provided by terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems when... [ view full abstract ]

Increasing development in tropical regions provides new economic opportunities that can improve livelihoods, but it threatens the functional integrity and ecosystem services provided by terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems when conducted unsustainably. The UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to balance these potentially competing interests through emphasizing the co-benefits that can arise when development planning and management incorporate both human and environmental health. Yet, determining ways to manage development in order to maximize co-benefits and minimize trade-offs is still not fully understood. This study quantifies the impacts of logging activities on sustainable soil erosion rates, downstream drinking water quality, and coral reef health. Further, we examine the ability of common erosion reduction strategies, stipulated in logging codes-of-practice, to reduce these impacts as clearing extent increases. We found that increasing land clearing - even with best management strategies in place - led to unsustainable levels of soil erosion and significant impacts to downstream water quality, compromising the integrity of the land for future agricultural uses, consistent access to clean drinking water, and important downstream ecosystems. The spatially-explicit examination of the impact of land-clearing on multiple sectors allows for an examination of locations where development activities could occur that minimizes impacts to key ecosystem services, thus providing opportunities to achieve development, health, and coral reef conservation goals. Our results demonstrate that in order to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals in one location, the approach taken here to understand cross-sector interactions must be applied more broadly.