Biodiversity strategies: effective tools or end-of-pipe solutions?
Abstract
Global and EU biodiversity strategies aim to tackle environmental pressures, which originate from various sectors and lead to the worldwide degradation and loss of ecosystems, in an increasingly integrated way. However, as the international scientific assessments repeatedly show, biodiversity loss continues. This also proves the failure of current biodiversity strategies. The main reason for this failure is that the current biodiversity conservation measures cannot influence the structural, institutional and cultural drivers, which thus continuously regenerate the pressures leading to biodiversity loss. Therefore it would be necessary to thoroughly explore the Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts, Responses (DPSIR model) within the context of biodiversity loss. Although current biodiversity programmes target direct environmental pressures and to a smaller extent some drivers, for halting biodiversity loss there is a need for measures that can tackle the whole range of drivers. For this, however, a change of paradigm is necessary both among nature conservationists and other experts.
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