BioGoValues

Biodiversity Governance and Values

The project BIOdiversity GOvernance and VALUES (BioGoValues) investigates types of biodiversity governance and their connection to a whole spectrum of ethical values. It is funded by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg Support Fund for integrative Biodiversity Research in Saxony-Anhalt (MLU|BioDivFund). As Foucault’s term “Governmentality” suggests, there is a strong connection between collective governance and personal mentality. Since biodiversity mainstreaming advanced by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and others is aiming for a very fundamental shift of human-nature relationships in politics and ethics, the project will discuss chances and risks of such an endeavour within 1) real-world politics in Saxony-Anhalt (e.g. agriculture), 2) the global discourse of transformative governance (e.g. Transformative Change Assessment, Earth System Governance Project) and 3) the important role of values in human-nature relationships (e.g. environmental ethics, sociology).