BioTraces

BIOTraCes is a Horizon Europe project that strives for a nature-inclusive society. The Consortium is composed of 9 Research partners, each collaborating with local societal partners, 1 Communication partner and 1 NGO. Duration is from December 2022 to November 2026. BIOTraCes develops knowledge, tools and new approaches that enable transformative changes towards a nature-inclusive society. BIOTraCes focuses on transformative biodiversity innovations in four high-impact sectors through nine cases: agriculture and food, forestry, water and urbanisation. These local case studies are spread across Europe and will help to understand how plural and often marginalised values, identities (intersectionality) and knowledge systems, related to living with and caring for nature, can shape behaviour.

In the case studies, interventions will be tested in collaboration with social partners and we will analyse indirect causes of biodiversity loss: structural factors, such as power lock-ins, that form barriers to sustainable decisions and behaviour. We also study the levers to overcome these obstacles. Following the four principles of BIOTraCes for transformative actions – pluralisation, empowerment, politicisation and anchoring – the project aims to contribute to a nature-positive society by developing knowledge, tools and new approaches. A Theory of Transformative Change (ToTC) will summarise our findings, show steps towards biodiversity restoration and inform public and private strategies and approaches for initiating, accelerating and scaling up transformative change.

Other characteristics:

• ‘practice what you preach’ – Reflexivity and learning as a team, being transformative ourselves
• impact – various levels, but also crossing domains -> Influencer and Stakeholder Board
• interested in working together with other projects – Interproject collaboration