One million of the world’s estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction. Human actions have significantly altered 75% of land and 66% of ocean areas. Nature plays a critical role in providing food and feed, fresh water, energy, medicines and genetic resources fundamental for people’s physical well-being, yet it is harmfully impacted by urbanisation, global trade, land use, and industrialisation.
To address the growing global challenges of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, 94 governments adopted a resolution in 2012 to establish the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The main purpose of the international body is to provide policymakers with scientific assessments of the state of biodiversity and ecosystems.
The eleventh session of the Plenary of the IPBES takes place in Windhoek, Namibia, from 10 December to 16 December 2024. As part of the agenda governments will aim to approve the Nexus Assessment on biodiversity, water, food and health and the Transformative Change Assessment.
Transformative change - the art of doing things differently
Transformative change refers to deep, systemic shifts in the way societies function, including changes in economic systems, governance, culture, and societal values. To achieve such change, governments, business, civil society, and individuals should work together at a local, national, and global levels.
The European Grean Deal and The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 will also enable transformative change by creating a new European biodiversity governance framework, stepping up the implementation and enforcement of EU environmental legislation, and building on an integrated and whole-of-society approach in collaboration with other sectors.
16 EU-funded research projects deliver scientific knowledge, solutions, and case studies on transformative change. Some of the participants in these projects have also been involved as authors or reviewers of the IPBES Transformative Change assessment. Find out more about their focus and advancements.
Innovative tools at the heart of positive change
BIOTraCes engages a variety of stakeholders to develop knowledge, tools, and approaches to enable the changes needed to achieve a nature-positive society. The project focuses on biodiversity innovations across a range sectors - from agriculture and food to forestry, water, and urbanisation.
Change happens when everyone is equally involved - this is the core idea behind TRANSPATH, which identifies leverage points and interventions for triggering transformative changes at consumer, producer, and organisational level.
BIOTRAILS is another EU-funded project that aims to generate knowledge and develop tools that will inspire and accelerate biodiversity-relevant transformative change in our societies.
Find out more about BIOTraCes, TRANSPATH and BIOTRAILS.
The balance between protected biodiversity and flourishing trade
The tools available to policymakers, retailers, and other stakeholders for assessing the impacts of land and sea trade on biodiversity are limited and incomplete. By focusing on non-food biomass, BAMBOO aims to develop a set of freely available models to quantify biodiversity impacts.
CLEVER identifies new leverage points for sustainable transformation, informed by a novel holistic approach to quantify biodiversity and other impacts of trade in major raw and processed non-food biomass value chains.
RAINFOREST aims to enable, upscale and accelerate transformative change to reduce the biodiversity impacts of major food and biomass value chains.
Find out more about BAMBOO, CLEVER and RAINFOREST.
Transforming the agri-food systems and land use
Focusing on biodiversity loss due to land use and land cover change, BioValue intends to contribute to invert this trend and explore the transformative potential of spatial policy and planning.
TC4BE supports transdisciplinary research on telecoupled (concept of distant connections and interactions between geographically separated places) agri-food systems, engaging stakeholders, including EU and producer-country policymakers and indigenous peoples and local communities.
Find out more about BioValue and TC4BE.
Nature-based solutions for resilient communities
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are inspired and supported by nature, they are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience. NbS must benefit biodiversity and support the delivery of a range of ecosystem services.
COEVOLVERS investigates how marginal and vulnerable groups, as well as non-human actors can benefit from NbS. The project emphasises the role of NbS at the interface of technological and biological domains, proposing a new view for NbS design.
TRANS-Lighthouses collects evidence on the tangible and intangible outcomes of NbS. This information is intended to help grasp the complexity of designing NbS that are socially and ecologically just.
NATURESCAPES aims to understand how NbS across interconnected urban, rural, and coastal landscapes can benefit diverse communities facing socio-economic challenges, inequity, and risk, focusing on case studies in Europe, Latin America, the US, and the Caribbean.
Despite the potential for economic opportunities through nature restoration, the concept of a nature-positive economy remains poorly understood. In this context, GoNaturePositive champions NbS and nature-based enterprises to redefine our economic landscape.
Find out more about COEVOLVERS, TRANS-Lighthouses, NATURESCAPES and GoNaturePositive.
Policymakers, business, and local communities as key actors in a transformative change
BIONEXT develops knowledge, tools, and guidance for mainstreaming biodiversity into policymaking and provides concrete options on how to initiate, accelerate and upscale biodiversity relevant nexus and transformative change in society.
PLANET4B collects and analyses theories, methods, and good practices to bridge the gaps in knowledge and effective decision making on biodiversity.
SUSTAIN brings together a multistakeholder and multidisciplinary team to create a database of business dependencies and impacts. The project aims to develop methods to reduce biodiversity-related risks, and a toolbox to support their application.
The vision of PRO-COAST is to inspire and empower local communities and civil society to support the restoration and maintenance of European coastal ecosystems, and thus to involve local actors more actively in environmental governance.
Find out more about PLANET4B, BIONEXT, SUSTAIN and PRO-COAST.
Read more
Details
- Publication date
- 9 December 2024
- Author
- European Research Executive Agency