Transforming Biodiversity Governance

Abstract

Over fifty years of global conservation has failed to bend the curve of biodiversity loss, so we need to transform the ways we govern biodiversity. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity aims to develop and implement a transformative framework for the coming decades. However, the question of what transformative biodiversity governance entails and how it can be implemented is complex. This book argues that transformative biodiversity governance means prioritizing ecocentric, compassionate and just sustainable development. This involves implementing five governance approaches - integrative, inclusive, adaptive, transdisciplinary and anticipatory governance - in conjunction and focused on the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and unsustainability. Transforming Biodiversity Governance is an invaluable source for academics, policy makers and practitioners working in biodiversity and sustainability governance. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Transdisciplinary transformative change: an analysis of some best practices and barriers, and the potential of critical social science in getting us there

“…Other scholars have noted that, once initiated, TTCIs often fail to achieve the paradigmatic outcomes they aspire to, and there is much debate in the literature on why this is the case (Bennett et al 2019;Fazey et al 2018;Klenk and Meehan 2015;Visseren-Hamakers and Kok 2022). One dominant argument points to a lack of coherent problem-framing, which inevitably leads to disorganized and incoherent application of solutions (Brandt et al 2013;Fisher et al 2022;Fougères et al 2022).…”

“…Any formulated solutions that ignore these structural causes are therefore inevitably doomed to reproduce the status quo and exacerbate the crises (Büscher et al 2022;Massarella et al 2021). Moreover, while many different connotations of transformative change have been operationalized in various contexts, certain voices and perspectives are often muted or completely absent (Martin et al 2020;Visseren-Hamakers and Kok 2022). As a result, the debate on possible paradigm-shifting alternatives is foreclosed before such solutions can even be considered (Klenk and Meehan 2015;Theriault et al 2020), despite research pointing to unconventional approaches being more successful (Etzion et al 2017).…”

“…While such 'transformative change' offers new hope for the trajectory of human-driven planetary modifications, it necessarily requires a level of complexity equal to that of the crises it aims to address (Fougères et al 2022). For many biodiversity and climate change experts, transdisciplinary collaborations (TCs) on transformative change initiatives are the best, if not the only, way to fulfil this need (Caniglia et al 2021;Fisher et al 2022;Visseren-Hamakers and Kok 2022).…”

Transdisciplinary transformative change: An analysis of some best practices and barriers and the role of critical social science in getting us there

“…Any formulated solutions that ignore these structural causes are therefore inevitably doomed to reproduce the status quo and exacerbate the crises (Büscher et al, 2022;Massarella et al, 2021). Moreover, while many different connotations of transformative change have been operationalized in various contexts, certain voices and perspectives are often muted or completely absent (Martin et al, 2020;Visseren-Hamakers and Kok, 2022). As a result, the debate on possible paradigmshifting alternatives is foreclosed before such solutions can even be considered (Klenk and Meehan, 2015;Theriault et al, 2020), despite research pointing to unconventional approaches being more successful (Etzion et al, 2017) (Klein and Morreo, 2019), to highlight just a few.…”

Evaluation of grain yield performance and its stability in various spring barley accessions under condition of different agroclimatic zones of Ukraine

“…At the current rate of population growth, this problem may become much more complicated (Simkin et al, 2022). Therefore, significant attention is paid to various measures aimed at preserving biodiversity all over the world (Visseren-Hamakers & Kok, 2022). Successfully solving this problem requires a deep understanding of many complex processes and systemic approaches (Gavin et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2022).…”