Conference Agenda

Bending the curve of biodiversity loss requires transformative changes to societies and economies. Catalysing such transformative changes requires addressing the underlying drivers that cause biodiversity loss, including structural factors such as policies, institutions (i.e., social conventions, norms and rules), and strong vested interests. These structural factors reflect and legitimise certain values and knowledge systems, which maintain unsustainable practices and behaviours in society. What are the values that lock in unsustainable practices and behaviours? How can these values be shifted and governed towards more equitable and just transformative pathways to sustainability? And how to engage with potential ethical dilemmas raised by governance deliberately aiming to change values?

This innovative session explores transdisciplinary perspectives on how researchers can better engage with and understand processes of value-oriented governance. The session takes the form of a fishbowl dialogue, allowing exchange between listeners in an ‘outer circle’, and a smaller group of speakers in the ‘inner circle’. Four speakers will provide five minute inspirations/provocations from their own disciplinary perspective. They are drawn from a set of 11 Horizon Europe projects, launched 2022-2023 to support research on ‘enabling transformative change’ in relation to biodiversity and climate change. The session ends with a de-briefing to synthesise commonalities and differences that will be discussed further in European Commission organized events that bring together the set of Horizon Europe projects.

Proposed format: 10 min opening; 60 min fishbowl (4 speaker inspirations interspersed among participant speakers), 20 min synthesis. We are aiming for a dialogue on that surfaces many different perspectives and modes of working on value-oriented governance for biodiversity.