Exploring pathways to democratizing data for global biodiversity decision-making

Decision-making in biodiversity conservation is guided by globally-agreed targets, frameworks and indicators, including through the UN Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD). Ecological goals are accompanied by social targets and principles for pursuing them, including equitable governance and recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Data gaps persist, however, particularly regarding social and political aspects and the influence of citizens in governance. This undermines the transparency and accountability of conservation actions .
The importance of ‘alternative data sources’, including traditional, local, and grassroots knowledge, can be part of the solution. This aligns with calls for more inclusion of citizen science in relation to both global biodiversity monitoring and the Sustainable Development Goals. Local-level measurement and monitoring does exist, often with a focus on the social and political dimensions of biodiversity conservation such as economic impacts, justice, and rights. However, there are currently no systems or processes for inclusion of this data in the GBF and global decision-making3. This undermines democratic participation, devalues grassroots knowledge and community-led forms of conservation, and exacerbates existing forms of marginalization.
This projects aims to examine which biodiversity conservation data are being generated, how and by whom. We do so from the perspective of ‘data justice’, defined as “fairness in the way people are made visible, represented and treated as a result of their production of digital data”.