Isabelle Mauz - Anke Fischer - Fransje Langers - Juliette Young - Birgit Bednar-Friedl - Sigrid Grünberger - Oana Musceleanu
Abstract:
Environmental problems are often constructed globally and through sophisticated instruments and methods. However, it is often unclear to what extent these globally constructed problems correspond to ordinary citizens perceptions of the environment. We concentrate here on biodiversity changes: are they perceived in daily life? If so, do the views derived from these perceptions coincide with the discourse about global biodiversity loss? We carried out an exploratory survey in 8 sites across Europe, targeted at ordinary citizens. Our results indicate that while respondents acknowledged global biodiversity loss a process that as such they cannot observe their own experiences with changes in animal and plant numbers in their local environment were much more diverse. Their own observations mainly concerned animals and plants which were part of their lifeworld, and occurred in places familiar to them and during everyday activities not necessarily targeted at observing nature. These observations drew a complex picture of changes, not easy to match with the discourse of global biodiversity loss.
Perceiving biodiversity changes in daily life – insights from an exploratory survey across Europe |