On the tail of the recent biodiversity conference, COP16 in Calí, Colombia, Global Footprint Network and European Topic Center on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ETC BE) are excited to announce their new publication “Exploring the societal factors enabling to halt and reverse the loss and change of biodiversity”, downloadable directly from here. Other ETC reports can be accessed here.
Starting from the premises that– despite international agreements – progress in halting and reversing biodiversity loss remains limited, the report emphasizes the need to address deeper societal drivers to achieve the EU’s 2030 biodiversity goals and ensure Europe’s ecosystems are on the path to recovery and sustainability.
Here is the report’s summary:
Since the latter half of the 20th century, steady growth in human activities has increasingly impacted Earth’s biophysical systems, contributing to severe biodiversity loss in Europe and the 6th mass extinction globally. This crisis, primarily driven by unsustainable production and consumption and consequent persistent overshoot, is both perpetuated by entrenched political and economic structures and deeply rooted societal behavior.
Despite international agreements like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (BDS 2030), progress remains limited, revealing a need for addressing primary anthropogenic drivers rather than mere symptoms.
This report aims to analyze societal factors that hinder progress in halting biodiversity loss, beyond reviewing the BDS 2030 and its targets. It explores human behavior, psychology, cultural aspects, and governance structures to outline needed collective action for biodiversity conservation. This is needed as this topic remains underexplored in contrast to climate actions. The report addresses guiding questions, such as what motivates collective action, how structural interventions can facilitate change, and maintaining long-term momentum.
Consultations with the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Topic Centre (ETC) experts, alongside literature reviews, identified eight societal barriers:
• knowledge gaps,
• a utilitarian mindset focused on economic growth,
• short-termism,
• governance challenges,
• social norms,
• perception of others, and
• selective information processing.
Five overarching levers for transformative change were highlighted:
• presenting alternative narratives,
• addressing power imbalances,
• enhancing knowledge,
• understanding societal acceptance, and
• equipping governance to handle complexity.
Three case studies further examined how barriers are managed, identifying key success factors for effective action: a shared vision-driven approach, an informed citizenry, sustained momentum, clear collaboration frameworks, broad alliances, evidence-based decision-making, and adequate biodiversity funding.
The report underscores structural interventions at policy and economic levels that can support all levers and success factors, thereby bolstering transformative change. Though exploratory, the findings offer preliminary insights into effective biodiversity strategies, emphasizing the necessity of addressing deeper societal drivers to achieve substantial progress. These insights are intended to aid researchers, policymakers, NGOs, and educators in fostering societal transformation and supporting biodiversity conservation in European and globally.
The authors
This report emerged through work with the European Environmental Agency (EEA) and its 2023-2026 Framework Partnership Agreement between European Topic Center on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ETC BE) and the European Environmental Agency (EEA). Alessandro Galli and Serena Mancini as Global Footprint Network staff lead the task and the writing of the report, in collaboration with Nike Sommerwerk from Fresh Thought Consulting and Sampo Pihlainen from SYKE.
Author and Global Footprint Network scientist Serena Mancini comments: “this report highlights that a bottom-up behavioral change, starting from individuals and groups, focused on reversing and restoring the nature crisis is possible and achievable. But to be effective, we need to first understand the societal barriers that hinder such process, and then identify and put in motion the factors that allow us to overcome those barriers. Clearly, top down policies from institutions addressing overshoot are also necessary. If they take into consideration the enabling factors and conditions for success, they will have a much higher chance to help shape systemic behavioral change.”
The bottom line is: We all can make the change and contribute to shift the societal perceptions from viewing humans as separate from nature to humans as part of nature, and thus continuing live and thrive on our planet.