Towards biodiversity conservation in natural resource-intensive sectors: Understanding dynamics of social-ecological transformations

Abstract

Transformative changes in societal systems are needed to halt ongoing ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. Particularly in natural resource-intensive sectors, such as agriculture, forestry and mining, such shifts are essential as these sectors contribute substantially to biodiversity loss. At the same time, these sectors could also play a central role in the required shifts towards sustainability, if the associated production and consumption patterns are altered. The aim of this thesis is to better understand transformations towards biodiversity conservation in these sectors, by studying processes and factors that stimulate or hinder change. Transformations towards sustainability within these sectors are highly complex. On the one hand, it requires major changes in the landscape itself to conserve biodiversity, through new collaborations, institutions and different management practices. On the other hand, different organization of value chains and new business models are needed, as changes in the local landscape are strongly externally driven by global value chains, markets and policies. To understand change on these various levels, this thesis uses and combines various theoretical perspectives: (1) sustainability transitions, (2) socio-ecological systems and landscape approaches, and (3) sustainable business models. Various cases are studied, including the transition towards nature-inclusive agriculture in the Dutch dairy sector, and the circular economy in the Netherlands.