Shalini Dhyani (PhD) is a principal scientist at the National Environment Engineering Research Institute, a constituent laboratory under the Council for Science and Industrial Research, India. She is Asia vice chair and steering committee member in the Commission on Ecosystems Management of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She is a UNESCO-TWAS (The World Academy of Science) Associate and visiting scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor. She has been the lead author in the IPBES global thematic assessment on the sustainable use of wild species and the Asia-Pacific regional assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services. She works on interlinkages between socio-ecological systems, following diverse knowledge systems and sustainability science approaches for mainstreaming the relevance of ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as multi-sectoral and people-centric approaches in decision-making. She is involved inthe editorial boards of Sustainability Science, PLOS One, and Anthropocene Science journals.   Mallika Sardeshpande (PhD) is a researcher affiliated with the Centre for Transformative Food Systems at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, India. She works on natural resource systems with a focus on agroecology, biodiversity, forestry, and urban systems. Her primary work involves the design and development of productive spaces with indigenous species in collaboration with communities, local governments, and non-government organizations. She also works with various global consortia to synthesize research and policy to make food systems ecologically, nutritionally, and socially sustainable and to increase urban resilience through green infrastructure management. She is an associate editor at Cities and the Environment Journal