Abstract for: The Dynamics of Sustainability Paradoxes: A study of a non-timber forest production

This paper aims to identify the sustainability paradoxes in non-timber forest products (NTFP) in the Pan-Amazon system. We develop the causal mapping using NTFP’s cases in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Our study sheds light on the dynamic and the causality of sustainability paradoxes cycles, emphasising the role of balancing loops. We explain how balancing loops and their interaction with reinforcing ones can illustrate the counterintuitive behaviour of tension and paradoxes. From a conceptual perspective, our main expected contribution addresses the persistence process of paradoxes. The practical and social expected contributions relate to the use of systems analysis as a powerful tool to identify the underlying paradoxes of sustainability. The study, however, requires some improvement in the simulation planning and execution.