Workshop on transformative change in the global post-2020 Biodiversity Framework

Transformative change across the economic, social, political and technological sectors has been identified as a crucial precondition for bending the curve of biodiversity loss (IPBES, 2019). This is echoed in similar calls from the European Environment Agency's report on Sustainability transitions (2019), or the Convention on Biological Diversity's fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook (2020).

However, there is little understanding of how transformative change can be leveraged at the level of global governance for biodiversity policies. In other words: what transformative change could consist of and how it could be integrated into, and be facilitated by, the upcoming post-2020 global biodiversity framework has yet to be discussed in the necessary, concrete detail.

In this context, the European Commission’s Directorates-General for Research & Innovation and Environment, together with the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union organised a 3-days virtual workshop, supported by Eklipse, the EU science-policy mechanism on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and Expertise France.

The main objective of this workshop was to bring together and engage scientists and policy makers in a transparent dialogue on transformative change.  Building on the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity on the process towards the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, participants discussed options on how to translate principles of transformative change into actions, goals, targets and pathways for the new global biodiversity framework. More than 150 participants from 48 different countries took part in the workshop. The conversation was facilitated by Estelle Balian FEAL (Lead Facilitator), Karl Danskin CollectivityNow (Technical facilitator), Todd Erickson Co-creative Consulting (Collaborative platform facilitator).

The report with the outcomes of the workshop is available here.

Watch the video on transformative change and the outcomes of the workshop.

Background information

Background document: Harnessing the Potential of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (EKLIPSE Expert Working Group on Transformative Change)

The key ingredients, principles and actions, critical issues, finance and governance of Transformative Change reflected in this report were used as a basis for discussion during the workshop.

This background document looks into how transformative change can be embedded within the Global Biodiversity Framework as a whole. Its aim is to identify how transformative change can be made more tangible and to illustrate how this might be done in practice in order to seize the opportunities for enabling action on the ground. Drawing on the conclusions of the IPBES Global Assessment, UNEP, EEA and others, the report seeks to identify how transformative change can be leveraged at the level of global governance.

In preparation for the workshop, participants were involved in an online consultation. The objective was to inform participants on possible topics of the workshop, to ask for their suggestions on themes for the breakout groups, and to make them acquainted with, and request their comments on, the background document.

The consultation report provides a summary of answers received.

Documents

• Workshop outcome report
• Workshop agenda
• Harriet Bulkeley and Marcel Kok: Transformative change for biodiversity – harnessing the potential of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework
• Basile van Havre and Francis Ogwal (OEWG, Co-Chairs)
• Ingrid Visseren: Transformative change workshop
• Jiska van Dijk: Introduction to transformative change principles and actions
• Hesiquio Benítez (SBSTTA, Chair): Outlook on transformative change in SBSTTA-24
• Marcel Kok: Enabling factors for transformative change in the background document
• Tim Hirsch: Fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook
• Summary Slides
• During the workshop, a drawnalist captured the discussions with graphic recordings

Presentations

Ingrid Visseren Hamakers presentation: Transformative change in the IPBES Global and Nexus assessments

Hans Bruyninckx presentation: EEA perspective on transformative change