The Biodiversity Nexus: transformative change for sustainability

Informations projet

BIONEXT

N° de convention de subvention: 101059662

DOI

10.3030/101059662

Date de signature de la CE 2 Juin 2022

Date de début 1 Septembre 2022

Date de fin 31 Août 2026

Financé au titre de

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Coût total

€ 4 109 910,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 4 109 910,00

Coordonné par

SUOMEN YMPARISTOKESKUS
Finland

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

Période du rapport: 2024-03-01 au 2025-08-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

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.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

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.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

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