A growing world population and rapid expansion of cities increase the pressure on basic resources such as water, food and energy. To safeguard the provision of these resources, restoration and sustainable management of landscapes is pivotal, including sustainable forest and water management. Sustainable forest management includes forest conservation, restoration, forestry and agroforestry practices. Interlinkages between forests and water are fundamental to moderate water budgets, stabilize runoff, reduce erosion and improve biodiversity and water quality. Sweden has gained substantial experience in sustainable forest management in the past century. Through significant restoration efforts, a largely depleted Swedish forest has transformed into a well-managed production forest within a century, leading to sustainable economic growth through the provision of forest products. More recently, ecosystem services are also included in management decisions. Such a transformation depends on broad stakeholder dialog, combined with an enabling institutional and policy environment. Based on seminars and workshops with a wide range of key stakeholders managing Sweden’s forests and waters, this article draws lessons from the history of forest management in Sweden. These lessons are particularly relevant for countries in the Global South that currently experience similar challenges in forest and landscape management. The authors argue that an integrated landscape approach involving a broad array of sectors and stakeholders is needed to achieve sustainable forest and water management. Sustainable landscape management—integrating water, agriculture and forests—is imperative to achieving resilient socio-economic systems and landscapes.

Landscape-wide approaches integrating agriculture, forestry, energy, and water are considered key to address complex environmental problems and to avoid trade-offs. The objective of this paper is to analyse how knowledge production through multi-stakeholder dialogues on water, landscapes, forests, and agriculture can inform governance and the management of landscapes. Multi-stakeholder learning dialogues and platforms (MSPs) were established related to water and natural resources management, complemented by targeted reviews, to establish a shared understanding of the drivers of change and impacts on the hydrology of landscapes and ecosystem services. The MSP dialogues illustrate the need to address water as an integral part of landscape management and governance to achieve the wide range of the Sustainable Development Goals related to water and food security, climate action, life on land, as well as sustainable production and consumption, equality, and strong institutions. The co-production of knowledge through MSPs contributes to continuous learning that informs adaptive management of water flows in landscapes, above and below ground, as well as in the atmosphere. It helps to build a shared understanding of system dynamics and integrate knowledge about hydrology and water flows into policy recommendations. Co-production of knowledge also contributes to stakeholder participation at different levels, inclusiveness, and transparency, and to water stewardship.