BIONEXT newsletter – November 2023

Editorial: “There is so much knowledge in this project we can build on and bring together”

Researching transformative change in the biodiversity nexus can feel like a daunting task at times, but on some days the pieces of the puzzle suddenly come together. It’s then we can see that we are making progress!

This last happened when my colleague Marleen Lodder and me were working on the design of a workshop for next May. The stage will be the Schoorlse Duinen, Netherlands tallest dune ecosystem.

During this workshop, we are going to create pathways for transformations with a diverse group of stakeholders and experts. The group includes, among others, youth advocates, a food policy expert, a health representative of the European Commission.

And while laying this puzzle, I suddenly realized there was so much knowledge in the project we can build on and bring together in the workshop design: we can put our conceptual understandings of transformative change to practice; by including insights from our case studies, we can base our pathways on developments observed in real life; and by inserting pathway developments into our nexus models, we can see the effects they have on the biodiversity nexus.

In this newsletter, we hope to give you some insight into these pieces of the BIONEXT puzzle and show you how we are creating an understanding of the topic from different angles and disciplines.

Mara de Pater is a researcher and advisor with DRIFT, The Dutch Research Institute for Transitions. Ask her about transformative governance for biodiverse landscapes.

Main findings, results and recommendations

This section presents the main findings, results and recommendations from the project over the last six months.

• After scrutinising well over 1000 case studies from around the world, a core of 500 biodiversity case studies indicating transformative change were collated. These are now being analysed (see blog below). An interesting first observation: only a limited number of case studies combine biodiversity with transport or energy nexus elements: there is scope for further research in these areas.

• During our workshop in Greece earlier this year, stakeholders enriched the European Shared Socioeconomic Pathways with considerations of biodiversity and nature. We have analysed these results and are enriching them with more aspects of the biodiversity nexus.
  This process has surfaced the complex interactions between biodiversity and broader society, and the foundational role of nature in securing wellbeing for all. For example, in one scenario, high socio-economic inequality across Europe is both driven by, and perpetuates, ecosystem degradation. Yet, over time, people facing these hardships are bound to turn back to nature to secure a better future.

Learn more

Blog: What can we learn from reviewing over 1,000 biodiversity case studies?

Tash Jacob and her colleague Jemma from Oppla read over 1,000 case studies related to biodiversity. Examples of these case studies range from NAREI’s implementation of Mangrove restoration in Guyana to Interreg’s restoration of peatlands in De Wieden, Netherlands. Here’s what they learnt...

Interview: Unveiling BIONEXT: An EU project grant of €4.1 Million for biodiversity

We asked our project officer Colombe Warin, who works at the European Research Executive Agency, why BIONEXT was funded to shed light on the importance of the project.

“What made BIONEXT especially special, was its way to address the interlinkages between biodiversity, water, food, energy, transport and health in the context of climate change”, explains Warin.

Insight article: From heatwaves to species loss: the global climate-biodiversity crises

2023 has so far been a year dominated by new climate records and extreme weather events globally, such as extreme heat, flash floods, and the highest recorded global monthly average sea surface temperature in August.  The impact of climate change on biodiversity is significant. But did you know that actions to halt biodiversity loss can also often benefit climate mitigation?

News: Understanding and strengthening the concept of transformative change

When discussing major challenges like biodiversity loss, climate change and social injustices, fixing each separately isn’t enough. We need to change how we deal with the natural world altogether – we need transformative change. But what exactly is this change and why is it crucial for our environment and us?

In the spotlight: water

In every newsletter, we give a spotlight on one element from the biodiversity nexus. For the second newsletter, we introduce water.

It’s pretty much impossible for decisionmakers on energy, health or agrifood systems to ignore water in relation to biodiversity. Wetlands and other natural ecosystems, for example, act as the “kidneys” of the landscape due to their ability to capture, store and transform pollutants (think pesticides and pharmaceuticals) – water that flows through a wetland comes out cleaner! And the quality of water directly affects human and animal health.

Water is also used for renewable energy production through hydropower and dams. And employing sustainable green or hybrid grey-green infrastructure may support sustainable urban water drainage and storage. Sustainable practices that value all forms of water lead to resilience in the face of climate change. And biodiversity is an inextricable part of that.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for our project please contact bionext.project@syke.fi! You can also submit your wishes for the next newsletter by sending us an email.

If you enjoyed reading our newsletter, please share it with your networks! Follow us also on social media: