What has gone wrong with nature conservation and how do we bring about transformative change to create a more sustainable future? Which types of knowledge, ethics, principles and actions are needed to reverse the decline of biodiversity? And given the urgency to act, how can we harness them to sustain a just and diverse future for life on Earth?
These are the questions underlying Seeds of Change – provocations for a new research agenda, a compilation of expert reviews and essays generated by the Biodiversity Revisited initiative, led by the Luc Hoffmann Institute in collaboration with WWF, Future Earth, ETH Zürich Department of Environmental Systems Science, University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, and the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research at University College London. The essays offer diverse, innovative insights and perspectives on biodiversity conservation from around the world from the political, legal, economic and ecological to the moral, social, aesthetic and cultural.
Covering six themes: concepts, narratives, science, governance, systems and futures, the 30 essays and six reviews were written ahead of a Biodiversity Revisited symposium held in Vienna in September 2019 which brought together 74 researchers and practitioners from 23 countries.
Biodiversity Revisited is the first extensive review of the biodiversity concept since the term was coined in the 1980s, looking at why it has not been compelling enough to stop the degradation of the diversity of life on Earth. Seeds of Change underpins the debate about how different types of research practices, knowledge and processes could play a more effective role in setting the foundations and directions for a biodiverse world by 2030.
The initiative aims to raise new awareness about biodiversity and how to conserve it, and will culminate in a five-year research and action agenda.
