Implementation-oriented and transformative research—Lessons from a project on conservation and sustainable use of forest resources in Ethiopia

This article draws lessons from a seven-year project on conservation and use of remaining coffee forests in the highlands of South-west Ethiopia. The project investigated the genetic diversity of Coffea arabica in its place of origin as well as economic perspectives of quality coffee marketing. With initially broad multidisciplinary natural and social sciences research a basis was laid for a second phase of praxis and implementation-oriented research in the same region.As a key innovative approach an NGO was established to take over all project management and implementation-oriented work in Ethiopia at the beginning of the second phase. This initiative helped decisively to solve the kind of problems identified in RESCUE (2012): ownership of results developed within R&D, the often missing mandate for science to actively contribute to solutions ‘on the ground’, and problems of cultural and social unsuitability and misunderstanding, which often are at the core of the problem when solutions from scientists are expected.The NGO operated as an intermediary between the involved scientists and other stakeholders from the coffee industry as well as from public administration and the Ethiopian polity. Its overall target was to contribute toward establishment of a biosphere reserve following the UNESCO MAB scheme and to use this scheme for the conservation and use of the remaining Ethiopian coffee forests. This target was achieved: the biosphere reserve has been accepted and accredited by UNESCO and is in operation. In addition, quality coffee from the development zones of the biosphere reserve is being sold on local markets in Yayu, SW Ethiopia.There are important lessons for the future of transdisciplinary and transformative sustainability science that can be drawn from this experience. These lessons concern concrete challenges and chances of research and development geared toward sustainable development:•Working with implementation-targets as project organizing elements,•communication and transfer of responsibility to involved stakeholders,•challenges for praxis-oriented syntheses from research results,•practical challenges of management and coordination for transdisciplinary projects, as well as.•chances for long-term sustainability and use of research and implementation work.These lessons are described in this article with the overall intention to draw conclusions and to make them more widely available for scientists and project coordinators working in transdisciplinary projects that aim to contribute toward (more) sustainable development.