Publication
An agenda for research and action toward diverse and just futures for life on Earth
Publisher:
Wiley
Date:
03-03-2021
DOI:
10.1111/COBI.13671
Abstract: Decades of research and policy interventions on bio ersity have insufficiently addressed the dual issues of bio ersity degradation and social justice. New approaches are therefore needed. We devised a research and action agenda that calls for a collective task of revisiting bio ersity toward the goal of sustaining erse and just futures for life on Earth. Revisiting bio ersity involves critically reflecting on past and present research, policy, and practice concerning bio ersity to inspire creative thinking about the future. The agenda was developed through a 2‐year dialogue process that involved close to 300 experts from erse disciplines and locations. This process was informed by social science insights that show bio ersity research and action is underpinned by choices about how problems are conceptualized. Recognizing knowledge, action, and ethics as inseparable, we synthesized a set of principles that help navigate the task of revisiting bio ersity. The agenda articulates 4 thematic areas for future research. First, researchers need to revisit bio ersity narratives by challenging conceptualizations that exclude ersity and entrench the separation of humans, cultures, economies, and societies from nature. Second, researchers should focus on the relationships between the Anthropocene, bio ersity, and culture by considering humanity and bio ersity as tied together in specific contexts. Third, researchers should focus on nature and economies by better accounting for the interacting structures of economic and financial systems as core drivers of bio ersity loss. Finally, researchers should enable transformative bio ersity research and action by reconfiguring relationships between human and nonhuman communities in and through science, policy, and practice. Revisiting bio ersity necessitates a renewed focus on dialogue among bio ersity communities and beyond that critically reflects on the past to channel research and action toward fostering just and erse futures for human and nonhuman life on Earth.