A biodiversity-employment framework to protect biodiversity

Abstract Protecting biodiversity matters for the sustainability transition, but nothing yet seems to be able to halt the rate of biodiversity loss. The promotion of green jobs fuels questionable ideas, among which that there are green vs non-green jobs, and that the latter can be progressively replaced by green jobs. The option of developing jobs that could act to offset environmental damage is also attractive. Based on a social-ecological approach and the “strong sustainability” paradigm, the paper develops and tests a three-dimensional framework to highlight the complex and multifaceted relationship between employment growth and biodiversity enhancement. Three case studies are investigated using field expertise: slope revegetation, soil bioengineering and guided nature tours. The framework includes direct impacts of jobs on biodiversity, indirect impacts on biodiversity and ecological feedback on employment growth with two types of insights. First, it serves a reflexive analysis on the way these jobs, supposedly green, support and respond to biodiversity enhancement. Second, it helps tailor policy instruments adapted to each ideal-type of biodiversity-employment relationship towards a low biodiversity impacting economy. It highlights the various possible actions – from regulations to communication instruments – along with the types of biodiversity-employment relationships they address the best.