News archive

CDE team receives award for innovative, international pedagogical approaches

14.10.2025
ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning Award 2025. More information

Dust Bowl farm. Coldwater District, Texas, 1938

Is its success about to become a Pyrrhic victory? Reflections on the conceptual history of sustainability

14.10.2024
“When sustainability risks degenerating into a stock phrase – used to feign serious concern about the environment while blithely continuing to worship the fetish of growth and accumulation – then historical objection, orientation, and clarification become imperative,” says Juri Auderset, historian at the University of Bern. More information

Women participating in the first WeCaN global gathering on advocacy planning. Photo: FAO/Roberto Cenciarelli

Policy mechanisms for gender transformative action in dryland regions

30.09.2025
A new project connects dryland women worldwide, promotes gender-responsive good practices in sustainable land management, and strengthens the negotiation and advocacy skills of women in high-level fora. More information

bunch of net zero icons

Heading sustainably towards environmental crisis?

27.08.2025
“Sustainability” has become a buzzword. In our new series focusing on the term, we examine the impact of this appropriation. CDE scientist Lilla Gurtner kicks things off by exploring the question: How do we react when everything looks “sustainable”? More information

Mural in different colours showing trees on a blue sky background

Co-designing pathways for transformative change

14.08.2025
The next edition of CDE’s successful Online International School on Sustainable Development for Bachelor’s and Master’s Students will take place in Winter 2026 from 26-30 January. More information

Thomas Hammer

Nature parks in France: Laboratories for new ways of living?

12.08.2025
France’s regional nature parks are “innovation laboratories” for sustainable development, according to Thomas Hammer, long-time professor at CDE and the University of Bern. In his new book, he shows how these parks have evolved from nature protectors to influential agents of change. More information

Honey production

Beekeeping in Laos: More than honey

07.08.2025
Several initiatives to promote agrobiodiversity in Southeast Asia include a focus on honey production: Forests are healthier and harbour more flowering trees in places where wild bee colonies are no longer plundered, but rather maintained using low-tech practices. Despite such progress, other problems remain that must be addressed. More information

Indigenous people demonstrating for their rights in Bogotá

Biosphere defenders leveraging legal and governance tools (DEFEND-BIO)

27.06.2025
A new research project. More information

Cocoa farmer opens a cocoa pod

Cocoa pricing for a living income: mechanisms, regulatory levers, and limitations

24.06.2025
CDE’s new Working paper aims to enhance understanding of pricing schemes designed to support a living income for cocoa-farming communities. The paper lays the groundwork for creative efforts to harness synergies between private and public governance structures. More information

CDE's Annual Report 2024

CDE’s Annual Report 2024

19.06.2025
The news headlines are worrying. In our latest annual report, we strive instead to focus on positive developments. The report features many insights and promising results from our programme activities – contributions that are helping to solve complex challenges and provide grounds for optimism. More information

Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Sabin Bieri

“We mustn’t shy away from doing science that’s political”

01.05.2025
2024 swept autocrats into power and strengthened nationalist parties. What does this mean for the goals of sustainable development, and for sustainability science itself? And how do we get back out of this situation? We spoke to CDE Board Member Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Sabin Bieri. More information

World map in colours

On the path to transformation

15.04.2025
In autumn 2024, the new CDE Master’s programme in Sustainability Transformations officially kicked off. Now, we take a moment to look back on an intense period – as well as to briefly look ahead. Read the story about our Master’s programme, Episode 1. More information

Hugo Caviola

Do we really need to “step on the gas” for the transport transition?

09.04.2025
There’s hardly a form of mobility that causes higher economic costs than private motorized transport. Achieving change in this sector will also require a change in how we talk about transport. “Whether the transport transition succeeds will depend, among other things, on whether we can view roads as multifunctional spaces,” says Hugo Caviola in our interview. More information in German

Pigeon breeder in Cappadocia with pigeons

Colombiculture in Cappadocia: Awakening a fairy tale

03.04.2025
Visit our new online exhibition by Edit Elif Tibet. More information

Cities have a key role in promoting sustainable food

04.03.2025
How can cities promote more sustainable food systems? A conference on 4 March showcased the results of a CDE and BFH-HAFL research project, including a “White Paper on Urban Food Policy” by CDE researchers. Several cities have also launched the “Sustainable Food and Nutrition” charter. More information in German

Stephanie Moser by Marion Nitsch Lunax

“Sustainability initiatives are important forces for change”

18.02.2025
We often feel helpless and overwhelmed in the face of current world crises. Now a new book by CDE scientists shows how civil society sustainability initiatives can provide a counterbalance. They’re a “step towards a more resource-efficient life,” says Stephanie Moser, one of the book’s authors. More information

Master's in Sustainability Transformations

Master's in Sustainability Transformations

28.01.2025
Join a programme designed for future changemakers who are ready to tackle pressing global challenges like climate change, resource depletion, and social inequalities. The programme starts in the autumn semester of 2025. More information

Cows

Survey: Swiss dairy market system draws criticism from producers

15.01.2025
More and more Swiss farmers are giving up milk production. The main reason is that many farms are no longer able to produce profitably at current milk prices. A new, comprehensive study by CDE reveals how producers perceive the challenges and mechanisms of the Swiss dairy market – and what their main points of criticism are. More information in German or French

Albrecht Ehrensperger

Research leads to national strategy on invasive plants

13.01.2025
In East Africa, millions of hectares of land are under threat from Prosopis juliflora, an invasive alien tree species. Finding ways of stopping this invasion was the focus of a research and implementation project conducted by an international team of scientists, including researchers from CDE. More information