Transformative change from below? Linking biodiversity governance with the diversity of bottom-up action

Abstract

Individual actors and actor groups are vital catalysts of transformative change as they are able to initiate interventions that nurture and protect biodiversity. This paper analyses biodiversity-focused practices across the civil, market and public spheres to identify the modes of intervention that actors in Europe utilise when they seek to fight biodiversity loss as part of their every-day work or voluntary activism. Studying how actors locate and engage with biodiversity issues allowed us to develop a typology of intervention modes and to unravel interlinkages between biodiversity governance and bottom-up action in a new manner. The seven modes of intervention identified from the rich qualitative data demonstrate how bottom-up practices vary in terms of the tangible issues they seek to address. Practitioners and activists locate options for change in resource management practices, production and consumption systems, market conditions, and land-use, amongst others. The findings enact a Europe in which cohesion policies, land-use pressures and power lobbies controlling resource management generate resistance and spark innovation. The aspirations to affect policymaking and biodiversity governance vary from one mode to another. In some cases, governance is positioned as a target of bottom-up action. Governance can also be assigned an action-conditioning role or regarded as a critical part of the assemblage that can generate transformative change. The typology also grants visibility to potentially unrecognised modes and mediations along which transformative change is and might be further catalysed.