Biodiversity knowledge and its use in sustainability transformation

Observations from established and emerging actors in Finland

Abstract

Halting biodiversity loss is an urgent societal challenge. Meeting ambitious biodiversity goals requires significant efforts in conservation and restoration, but also addressing the drivers of biodiversity loss through transforming current systems, practices, and worldviews. Simultaneously, biodiversity knowledge and its use need to be renewed.  Previously, biodiversity knowledge has mainly been applied to nature conservation and natural resource related decision-making, while it is increasingly needed across all sectors, transforming the mandate and power relations within conservation sector. The emerging users of biodiversity knowledge differ significantly from the traditional users, Hence also the ways nature is valued, measured, and assessed is transforming. This article focuses on Finnish biodiversity knowledge users and producers based on extensive empirical interview and workshop material. We analyze how and why the use of biodiversity knowledge changes with sustainability transformation. This research outlines how roles and responsibilities regarding knowledge production, interpretation and use vary. We categorize the meanings given to biodiversity knowledge, describe knowledge use contexts and their characteristics and explore the features of societally impactful knowledge. This article outlines how biodiversity knowledge becomes politicized and the need for broader discussion regarding the aims of knowledge use, and the inherent subjectivity stemming from knowledge application.