How to identify win-win interventions that benefit human health and conservation

Reaching the Sustainable Development Goals requires recognizing trade-offs and synergies among targets. Focusing on conservation and human health, this Perspective suggests how to productively distinguish win-wins from other outcomes. To reach the Sustainable Development Goals, we may need to act on synergies between some targets while mediating trade-offs between other targets. But what, exactly, are synergies and trade-offs, and how are they related to other outcomes, such as 'win-win' solutions? Finding limited guidance in the existing literature, we developed an operational method for distinguishing win-wins from eight other possible dual outcomes (lose-lose, lose-neutral and so on). Using examples related to human health and conservation, we illustrate how interdisciplinary problem-solvers can use this framework to assess relationships among targets and compare multi-target interventions that affect people and nature.

Automated summary

This Perspective emphasizes the importance of recognizing trade-offs and synergies among targets in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. By distinguishing win-wins from other outcomes and utilizing a framework for assessing relationships among targets, interdisciplinary problem-solvers can effectively compare multi-target interventions related to human health and conservation.