Celebrating Biodiversity Governance

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Celebrating Biodiversity Governance (BioGov) uses participatory governance to improve natural and cultural heritage policies. Participatory governance focuses on stakeholder cooperation; governance structure, size and scope of the multistakeholder partnership, and number of stakeholders influencing policies varies according to regional context. Stakeholders include nature organization staff, land owners, citizens and government staff. Stakeholder cooperation includes information sharing, dialogue, deliberation and exploring new models of shared decision-making. This involves formal and informal rules for decision-making and how to enforce those rules. These models are described in our action plans for policy improvement. BioGov focuses on Operational Programmes that include Thematic Objective 6 - Environment and Resource Efficiency - Biodiversity, Green Infrastructure, Ecosystem Services and Natura 2000 and other regional policies that deal with biodiversity conservation. Expected changes include more effective policies due to improved governance and broad stakeholder support, projects using participatory governance and/or policy instruments that actively encourage participatory governance as a new priority. Interregional meetings and peer reviews complement online meetings. As outcomes, partners will increase their capacity to facilitate Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in their region, to engage in interregional learning, to learn to produce and communicate best practice narratives. Study visits - as part of interregional partner meetings - enable project staff to meet regional stakeholders and dialogue about policy improvement. Biodiversity and cultural landscapes are at the core of our regional identities. In our view, effective natural and cultural heritage policies are rooted in deliberation about, as well as care for and celebration of nature that sustains us.

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