Addressing the climate security nexus using a land, water and food systems lens: a PLOS Climate Mini Collection

PLOS Climate Section Editor for Agriculture & Food Systems Ana Maria Loboguerrero introduces a new Mini Collection

Why are so many current climate interventions failing to achieve sustainable impact? Why are we failing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in relation to hunger, poverty, gender, and climate? What have we achieved through piecemeal solutions, top-down interventions, and isolated conservation efforts?

The PLOS Climate Mini Collection, “Addressing the Climate Security Nexus Using a Land, Water, and Food Systems Lens,” invites us to see climate security challenges as an interconnected, urgent reality. Through a wide lens, these articles bring to light how climate impacts disrupt the delicate balance of natural resources, livelihoods, and community resilience in regions as varied as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Northern Kenya, and the Lake Chad Basin. Each study is grounded in local realities and designed with the understanding that our responses to climate change must consider the ecological, cultural, and economic contexts that shape resilience and security. At the same time, they argue that current approaches simply aren’t enough. Instead, we need bold, adaptive, and inclusive strategies that respond to the local realities and diverse cultures that shape resilience on the ground.

Across these diverse regions, the collection reveals how changing rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and biodiversity loss don’t just threaten nature; they put entire communities at risk of losing their livelihoods, escalating conflicts, and, in some cases, even turning to armed groups for survival. In Northern Kenya, pastoralists find their traditional mobility restricted as droughts lengthen and water access dwindles [1]. The result? Tensions mount, competition over scarce resources grows fiercer, and conflict intensifies. Lake Chad, once a lifeline for millions, is now a battleground for farmers, herders, and fishers struggling over shrinking resources, making people easy targets for recruitment by armed groups [2]. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Australia’s Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef are experimenting with radical solutions like coral restoration and adaptive land management—but the scale and urgency of these interventions call for more than pilot programs; they demand systemic change [3].

These studies lay down a challenge for policymakers and scientists alike: It’s time to abandon token solutions and, instead, to fully recognize that climate resilience is inseparable from social resilience. Governance that fails to empower communities or address the root causes of vulnerability is governance that fails. The Mini Collection underscores the need for transformative policies and cross-border and cross-sectoral collaboration that go beyond traditional conservation or development approaches and prioritize adaptive, community-driven resilience strategies.

But these studies also raise critical questions that demand urgent answers. How can we build governance frameworks that are truly responsive to local social and ecological complexities? Which measures best track resilience in communities on the front lines of climate stress [4]? And most importantly, are we willing to let communities lead in the fight for ecosystem health, conflict prevention, and lasting climate resilience?

By addressing these pressing questions, future research can deepen our understanding of the climate-security nexus, revealing more effective pathways to link climate resilience with sustainable, inclusive, and healthy food systems. In this way, science can truly empower policymakers, communities, and researchers to work together for solutions that build resilience, restore ecosystems, and secure peace and well-being in a rapidly changing climate. PLOS Climate, through its dedication to making climate science actionable and inclusive, is eager to contribute to this journey.

Discover the articles in this Mini Collection:

1. “Facing old and new risks in arid environments: The case of pastoral communities in Northern Kenya”– Schilling & Werland
   
2. “Peace in an extreme climate: How climate-related security risks affect prospects for stability in Lake Chad”– Nagarajan et al.
   
3. “Coral reefs, cloud forests and radical climate interventions in Australia’s Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef”– Sovacool et al.
   
4. “Measuring the climate security nexus: The Integrated Climate Security Framework”– Pacillo et al.
   

Interested in convening a Mini Collection of articles in PLOS Climate? Let us know!