Metacoupled Tourism and Wildlife Translocations Affect Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals across Spillover Systems

Synergies and trade-offs among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been hotly debated. Although the world is increasingly metacoupled (socioeconomic-environmental interactions within and across adjacent or distant systems), there is little understanding of the impacts of globally widespread and important flows on enhancing or compromising sustainability in different systems. Here, we used a new integrated framework to guide SDG synergy and trade-off analysis within and across systems, as influenced by cross-boundary tourism and wildlife translocations. The world’s terrestrial protected areas alone receive approximately 8 billion visits per year, generating a direct economic impact of US $600 billion. Globally, more than 5000 animal species and 29,000 plant species are traded across country borders, and the wildlife trade has arguably contributed to zoonotic disease worldwide, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We synthesized 22 cases of tourism and wildlife translocations across six continents and found 33 synergies and 14 trade-offs among 10 SDGs within focal systems and across spillover systems. Our study provides an empirical demonstration of SDG interactions across spillover systems and insights for holistic sustainability governance, contributing to fostering synergies and reducing trade-offs to achieve global sustainable development in the metacoupled Anthropocene.