Policies, governance and tools for transformative change to reverse biodiversity loss

The world is losing its wild species and ecosystems at an alarming rate, and Europe is no exception. Biodiversity is the foundation of functioning ecosystems, which provide essential goods and services for humans and all other life forms on Earth. Therefore, we must reverse the trend of biodiversity loss in the foreseeable future. 

This can be achieved by addressing underlying, indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, such as consumption patterns, norms, and values, to achieve double decoupling — decoupling consumption from excessive natural resource use and decoupling satisfaction from consumption. Such transformative change requires social innovation and improved, systemic governance approaches. Additionally, digitalization and emerging technologies offer potential to support biodiversity conservation, increase societal well-being, and enhance economic prosperity. These opportunities should be harnessed while mitigating their existing negative impacts. 

GoDigiBios aims to support biodiversity-relevant transformative change towards a nature-positive economy and society by using new digital and emerging technologies to help reverse biodiversity loss. Specifically, GoDigiBioS will deliver: 

1. a comprehensive understanding, complemented by new insights and operational knowledge of the interactions between biodiversity, social and economic well-being, and technological development; 
2. tools to support biodiversity-relevant decision-making; 
3. improved, systemic policy mixes and governance approaches. 

To co-produce this knowledge, these tools, and governance approaches, GoDigiBioS will leverage the knowledge and experience of both researchers and stakeholders from four peri-urban transformation lab regions across Europe and employ specific approaches to ensure the scalability and replicability of its solutions.