BIODIVERSITY AND TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE FOR PLURAL AND NATURE-POSITIVE SOCIETIES

BIOTraCes develops knowledge, tools and novel approaches that enable transformative changes (TC), necessary for achieving a nature positive society. We aim to contribute to more inclusive, effective and just public policies, local strategies and corporate concerns on biodiversity aligned with the European Green Deal and SDGs.

To this end, we will engage with diverse stakeholder networks around 9 transformative biodiversity innovations in high-impact sectors - agriculture & food, forestry, water, and urbanisation. These local case studies across Europe will help understand in context how plural and often marginalized values, identities (intersectionality), and knowledge systems, concerning living with and caring for nature, can shape behaviour. The case studies will create a portfolio of good and failed examples by discerning power lock-ins, leverage opportunities and enabling actors, and by testing co-produced interventions. Also, we will analyse indirect drivers of biodiversity loss: structural factors and lock-ins that constitute barriers to sustainable decisions and behaviour. A Theory of Transformative Change (ToTC) will synthesise our findings, showing steps on the path to biodiversity recovery and informing public and private strategies and approaches for initiating, accelerating and (up)scaling TC.

BIOTraCes’ originality is threefold: 1) An approach of transdisciplinary collaboration, based on action research, co-production and co-learning. 2) Operationalising in research and action principles of pluralising (acknowledging variety in values), empowering (enhancing agency of marginalised groups), politicising (unveiling the political dimension of obstacles towards TC) and embedding (bringing TC into the economy, social practices and policy). 3) A focus on achieving impact through a ToTC approach, which led us to establish an Influencer & Stakeholder Board. Close alliance with the science-policy interfaces and interproject collaboration suit our vision well.