The most recent assessments have raised social awareness about the current global biodiversity crisis. Biodiversity loss is a planetary boundary far surpassed as a result of human action, while the current species extinction rate is the highest on average at any time of human history (IPBES, 2019). Given the complete reliance of societies and economic systems upon biodiversity and the failure of previous interventions, transformative change and governance seems to be necessary. We agree that this governance should start from biodiversity prioritisation, i.e., positioning biodiversity concerns as first order problems within policymaking and academic agendas and define them beyond economic utility and compromise rationales (Visseren-Hamakers et al., 2022). Moreover, biodiversity governance should address anthropogenic indirect drivers and contribute to a fundamental, society-wide reorganization including paradigms, goals and values (Leventon et al., 2021). This requires understanding biodiversity impacts, dependencies, and governance arrangements in specific contexts and their relationship with society-wide dynamics. In this research, part of the EU funded PLANET4B project, we contribute to this task by studying how the governance of Tuscany’s fashion system (including rules and actor networks) is enabling and can enable transformative change towards biodiversity prioritisation. Fashion is an enormous industrial sector in Tuscany, including yarns, woollen fabrics, and leather production. Textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industries are potential significant contributors to biodiversity loss across the different stages of their global supply chains (i.e., production, processing, consumption, product end life) through processes such as climate change, land-use change, or chemical pollution (Granskog et al., 2020). We apply a mixed qualitative research approach to understand the connections between the fashion system and biodiversity, the rules and actor networks involved in Tuscany’s fashion, how the actors frame the problem of biodiversity loss, and how their practices and decisions are connected to goals, values, and paradigms with potential to enhance biodiversity prioritisation. In the first exploratory phase, we conducted a narrative literature review about sustainable fashion with a focus on biodiversity, interviews with experts, and a stakeholder mapping to choose which actors will be part of the next research stages. Our preliminary results show that, although the environmental impacts of TAF industries have been widely studied, research with explicit focus on biodiversity is scant. Similarly, just a few stakeholders involved in Tuscany’s fashion system have prioritised biodiversity (e.g., some NGOs and luxury brands), while local and regional public policies address environmental sustainability in general. In this context, the results of our research seem specially useful to inform relevant stakeholders and contribute to the design and development of their biodiversity policies. Furthermore, our research will provide insights into how the governance of specific sub-systems (e.g., fashion) can enable systemic change, which could be used in different contexts to understand how biodiversity can be prioritised and, therefore, could modestly contribute to tackle the current global biodiversity crisis.
Towards transformative change through biodiversity prioritisation in governance: insights from the case of Tuscany’s fashion system
Navarro Gambín, Pedro
Primo
2023-01-01
Abstract
The most recent assessments have raised social awareness about the current global biodiversity crisis. Biodiversity loss is a planetary boundary far surpassed as a result of human action, while the current species extinction rate is the highest on average at any time of human history (IPBES, 2019). Given the complete reliance of societies and economic systems upon biodiversity and the failure of previous interventions, transformative change and governance seems to be necessary. We agree that this governance should start from biodiversity prioritisation, i.e., positioning biodiversity concerns as first order problems within policymaking and academic agendas and define them beyond economic utility and compromise rationales (Visseren-Hamakers et al., 2022). Moreover, biodiversity governance should address anthropogenic indirect drivers and contribute to a fundamental, society-wide reorganization including paradigms, goals and values (Leventon et al., 2021). This requires understanding biodiversity impacts, dependencies, and governance arrangements in specific contexts and their relationship with society-wide dynamics. In this research, part of the EU funded PLANET4B project, we contribute to this task by studying how the governance of Tuscany’s fashion system (including rules and actor networks) is enabling and can enable transformative change towards biodiversity prioritisation. Fashion is an enormous industrial sector in Tuscany, including yarns, woollen fabrics, and leather production. Textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industries are potential significant contributors to biodiversity loss across the different stages of their global supply chains (i.e., production, processing, consumption, product end life) through processes such as climate change, land-use change, or chemical pollution (Granskog et al., 2020). We apply a mixed qualitative research approach to understand the connections between the fashion system and biodiversity, the rules and actor networks involved in Tuscany’s fashion, how the actors frame the problem of biodiversity loss, and how their practices and decisions are connected to goals, values, and paradigms with potential to enhance biodiversity prioritisation. In the first exploratory phase, we conducted a narrative literature review about sustainable fashion with a focus on biodiversity, interviews with experts, and a stakeholder mapping to choose which actors will be part of the next research stages. Our preliminary results show that, although the environmental impacts of TAF industries have been widely studied, research with explicit focus on biodiversity is scant. Similarly, just a few stakeholders involved in Tuscany’s fashion system have prioritised biodiversity (e.g., some NGOs and luxury brands), while local and regional public policies address environmental sustainability in general. In this context, the results of our research seem specially useful to inform relevant stakeholders and contribute to the design and development of their biodiversity policies. Furthermore, our research will provide insights into how the governance of specific sub-systems (e.g., fashion) can enable systemic change, which could be used in different contexts to understand how biodiversity can be prioritised and, therefore, could modestly contribute to tackle the current global biodiversity crisis.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
