The Biodiversity Nexus: transformative change for sustainability

Project Information

BIONEXT

Grant agreement ID: 101059662

DOI

10.3030/101059662

EC signature date 2 June 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 4 109 910,00

EU contribution

€ 4 109 910,00

Coordinated by

SUOMEN YMPARISTOKESKUS
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BIONEXT (The Biodiversity Nexus: transformative change for sustainability)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BIONEXT will develop knowledge, tools, and guidance for mainstreaming biodiversity into policy-making and provide concrete options on how to initiate, accelerate and upscale biodiversity-friendly and just transformative change in society. It will integrate nature positive scenarios and pathways in a co-production process with core stakeholders, and develop a science-based modelling on interlinkages between biodiversity, water, food, energy, transport, climate, and health (the Nexus Modelling Framework).

BIONEXT compiles a database which contains real life cases of transformative change illustrating options to have biodiversity recovery in the focus of societal change and solutions. BIONEXT will involve various stakeholders enabling them to explore the concept of just transformative change. Plausible futures and desirable, nature-positive visions and multiple transition pathways will be co-created in workshops and focus groups. Finally, BIONEXT Pathways App, a novel decision support tool, allowing users to explore transformational building blocks, formulating policies, and implementation pathways on how to facilitate just transformative change which enables recovery of biodiversity. The results will contribute to science brokerage, capacity building and networking to IPBES, EU policymakers, and civil society.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Project carried out an extensive literature review (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171692) which highlights the complexity and context-dependency of interlinkages within the biodiversity nexus, but also clearly demonstrates the importance of biodiversity in underpinning resilient ecosystems and human well-being in ensuring a sustainable future for people and the planet. One-third of the interlinkages show positive impacts on biodiversity: for example, agroecological practices, sustainable management of bioenergy cropping systems, integrated management of water landscapes and management of road verge and railway embankments habitats, ecosystem restorations, urban green and blue infrastructures, and dietary change involving reducing meat consumption. Second review of scientific lieterature was done for mapping, analysing, and understanding transformative change across the nexus elements and on identifying how they relate to biodiversity. The literature shows that transformation efforts often lack concrete ideas and future visions how humans and nature would interact in a nexus context. The knowledge compiled in these two reviews is fundamental for policymakers and citizens to understand how to accelerate the transformative change and increase its acceptance in society. The development for the nexus modeling framework and the BIONEXT Pathways App, based on the compilation of the database of transformative change case studies, were started.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Three visions underpinned by different value perspectives from the IPBES Nature Futures Framework have been developed with the core-stakeholders. Those are: 1) 'Dough Nadair: The way of nature’. in which the European society has a pluralistic, balanced, and reciprocal relationship with nature. Mainstream society has a deep spiritual connection to the natural world. Europe has thriving and culturally embedded landscapes, with more localised and ruralised society. 2) 'NaturAll’.in which the European society values and recognises the importance of natural ecological processes, and adapts to nature. People have high ecological literacy and the majority of land is allocated for nature exclusively, so most people live in denser urban settlements. 3) 'Return to nature’. in which European society has a balanced and practical approach to managing nature, by sparing space for nature restoration and minimising ecological impact through nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, and rewilding.

A graph describing biodiversity at the center of 6 nexus elements