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What does nature mean to you?

What do you want to protect?

Laÿna Droz

www.laynadroz.com & layna.droz@edu.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Project Assistant Professor, Sustainable Society Design Centre

Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, Tokyo University

東京大学大学院新領域創成科学研究科特任助教

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Understand �each other’s cultures �to avoid counterproductive global environmental policies

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Email: layna.droz@edu.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp

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Sciences

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IPBES & IPCC

https://www.ipbes.net/

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Descriptive - Normative - Prescriptive

In our mind, our daily life, the practice of sciences and the socio-cultural-political reality, these types of statements are intertwined.
But in research, we need to distinguish between them.

Descriptive	Describes what there is	Facts & generalizations	Sciences	Scientific papers
Normative	Judges what I think is better or good, what should be	Normative judgements, beliefs, values	Ethics Economy (?)	Treaties, worldviews, religions, etc.
Prescriptive	Defends what you should do	Political order or advice	Policy-making	Policy brief

Descriptive statements about normative beliefs (social sciences)
Evidence-based policy-making

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https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1333419337156337672/vid/1200x674/wLSD503M5VNiQq7N.mp4?tag=13

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The environmental crisis

Globally, human activities have directly altered

77% of the land (excluding Antarctica) and
87% of the oceans,

at an overwhelming cost to wildlife.

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Environmental management: Science & knowledge

Environmental policies are usually designed on the basis of the "best available evidence" from the sciences.

What are the sources of these data?

Environmental impact assessments (legally required in various forms in many countries, either before or during the establishment of new projects)
Field studies (localised and often mandated, costly and time-consuming)
Reports by international organisations, which provide syntheses, e.g. on biodiversity loss (IPBES) or climate change (IPCC), and draw up policy options.

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Intergovernmental report process

Written by teams of experts appointed and/or mandated by the Member States, each in charge of parts or chapters.
Each proposition in the Summary for Policy-makers (SPMs) is subject to an indication of its degree of confidence.
Each draft version of a report is negotiated during several peer reviews (i.e. the various scientific communities worldwide), as well as reviews by the Member States.
The revised text (SPMs) is then validated point by point by the General Assemblies of the Member States.
The final reports to which the public and journalists have access are the result of a "scientific consensus" already largely filtered through the interests and political positions of the Member States.

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Time from sciences to policy, and to litigation

The "best available data" for decision-makers is often at least 5 years “out of date”.

How to reduce this time?

~10 years from data to reparative actions

1-3 years

Implementation

6 months - 3 years

Policy design

3-6 years

Synthesis in international reports

6 months - 2 years

Data collection and publication

2-3 years?

Litigation

3-10 years ?

Reparative actions?

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Examples of questions facing scientists

What are the relevant indicators for assessing an issue?

Where and when should water samples be taken from a river to establish the level of pollution?

What time scale is the most relevant for modelling the impact of a project on local biodiversity?

When advising on which areas to protect, is it better to model the potential movement of threatened species due to climate change over 5 or 50 years?

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Cultures

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“We must end these relentless and senseless wars on nature.” (23^rd April 2023)

“Conscious of the intrinsic value of biological diversity”

Preamble of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992

“We need to get rid of anthropocentrism to save nature.”

UN

Secretary

General

Antonio

Guterres

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Narrow understanding of nature

tears off humans and their doings from the rest of reality (natural/artificial, nature/culture).

focuses on wildlife that exists independently and needs to be protected from human activities.

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What is included in nature?

Animals (wild & domesticated)

Rocks

Plants (wild & domesticated)

Villages

Rivers & ricefields

Ancestors, spirits & gods

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3 online workshops in 2021 involving 15 participants from 12 different countries.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01186-5

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Mirrors

We cannot think separately of either nature (worlds, plants, animals…) or humans (“we”, “others”…).

We

The

Other

Nature

The idea of nature as an abstract and global whole opposed to “humans” is associated to the idea of “humanity” as a uniformized group.

Eco-orientalism
Ecological nationalism

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Multilingualism

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10468

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How do we go from sciences to societal changes?

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Natural and social sciences

Cultures

Worldviews

Ethics and policy-making

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What does nature�mean to you?

What do you want to protect?

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Thank you for your attention!