Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecosystem Services journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoser Collaborative learning to unlock investments for functional ecological infrastructure: Bridging barriers in social-ecological systems in South Africa ☆ Per Angelstam a, ⁎ , Garth Barnes b , Marine Elbakidze a , Christo Marais b , Alex Marsh c , Sarah Polonsky b , David M. Richardson d , Nina Rivers e , Ross T. Shackleton d , William Stafford f a Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Forest Sciences, School for Forest Management, Forest-Landscape-Society network PO Box 43 SE- 739 21 Skinnskatteberg, Sweden b Department of Environmental Affairs, Natural Resource Management Programmes, 14 Loop Street, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa c South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag x7, Claremont 7735, South Africa d Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland 7620, South Africa e Living Lands, 120 Belvedere Road, Claremont 7708, Cape Town, South Africa f Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Natural Resources and Environment Unit, P.O. Box 320, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Ecological (green) infrastructure Landscape restoration Active adaptive management Landscape approach Learning by evaluation Scaling-up ABSTRACT Maintenance of functional ecological (or green) infrastructure is threatened by habitat conversion, fragmenta- tion and loss, water scarcity, invasive species, climate change, resource extraction, poor policy implementation and societal inequity. Using South Africa as a case study, our transdisciplinary team identified actions likely to be effective in scaling up research and development projects that support implementation of policy about ecological infrastructure by active adaptive management. Based on expert knowledge at three scales, we analysed South Africa's opportunity to active adaptive management and to unlock investments that enhance functional ecological infrastructure. Barriers included lack of trust among actors, limited collaborative governance and integrated planning, including local partnerships; as well as a poor inclusion of evidence- based knowledge based on monitoring of landscape restoration efforts and its social and ecological consequences. Bridges include practicing transdisciplinary knowledge production, enhancing social learning among actors and stakeholders, and advocacy based on improved understanding. We propose a portfolio of place-based actions that could help to facilitate unlocking investments for functional ecological infrastructure by prioritising conservation, management and restoration through integrated cross-scale, collaborative and multi- sector spatial planning. Understanding the structure and dynamics of social-ecological systems, identifying champions, framing key messages for different audiences, and sharing failures and success stories inter- nationally, are crucial requirements to unlock investments. 1. Introduction The natural capital provided by ecosystems is the ultimate founda- tion for human well-being. With its unique ability to modify its environment, Homo sapiens is a keystone species - a species that has disproportionately large effects on its environment relative to its abundance. This insight emerged long ago and has led to taboos and ancient norms, medieval legislations and scientific publications over more than three centuries to encourage conservation of natural capital (e.g., von Carlowitz, 1713; Marsh, 1864; Odum, 1959). Nevertheless, the human footprint on this natural capital is still heavy. To describe the state and trends of ecosystems effectively, their composition, structure and function need to be understood. This complexity is captured by the biodiversity concept (e.g., Noss, 1990), which was originally proposed to highlight the intrinsic value of natural capital. In parallel, contemporary policies aimed at regulating anthro- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.04.012 Received 29 April 2016; Received in revised form 20 April 2017; Accepted 25 April 2017 ☆ Revised MS for Special Issue “Developing an Ecological Infrastructure and Ecosystem Services Sector in South Africa” for the journal Ecosystem Services http://www.journals. elsevier.com/ecosystem-services/ ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: per.angelstam@slu.se (P. Angelstam), GBarnes@environment.gov.za (G. Barnes), marine.elbakidze@slu.se (M. Elbakidze), cmarais@environment.gov.za (C. Marais), a.marsh@sanbi.org.za (A. Marsh), spolonsky@environment.gov.za (S. Polonsky), rich@sun.ac.za (D.M. Richardson), nina.rivers@gmail.com (N. Rivers), rosss@sun.ac.za (R.T. Shackleton), wstafford@csir.co.za (W. Stafford). Ecosystem Services xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 2212-0416/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Angelstam, P., Ecosystem Services (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.04.012