Motivating government action on threatened species through electoral systems

Abstract

Many of the proposed solutions to the global biodiversity crisis rely on national governments to act. The conservation movement needs to motivate governments or face an ongoing extinction crisis. Here we explore how linking biodiversity to electoral systems may assist in motivating government action. Using Australia as a case study, we analyze the intersection of 151 electoral districts and 1,651 threatened species. We show all districts contain at least 14 threatened species. Half of the species analyzed (n=801, 49%) are confined to one district (n=44), with 1345 (81%) species intersecting with less than five. This geographical information shows that alongside local social and economic issues, the threatened species crisis can be made relevant to all Australian elected representatives. Locally relevant information can encourage integration of species needs into the scope of political representation. As such, linking biodiversity to political geography offers a potential pathway to creating transformative change.

Educating and empowering Australians through a digital approach to biodiversity conservation

“…Emphasizing the local occurrence of species may decrease the tendency of individuals to discount species or declines that are spatially distant (Kindler et al, 2023;van der Linden et al, 2015). A study by Mittermeier et al (2021) found the opportunity to encounter birds in the wild by them being local to the user's country was a significant correlate of why some species attract more online interest.…”

“…A foundation of democratic systems like Australia's is that constituents can affect the political process. A constituency is the primary collective context and social system for influencing elected representatives of a government through information exchange and electoral accountability (Han & Barnett-Loro, 2018;Kindler et al, 2023;Pande, 2011). The challenge in Australian constituencies is awareness of the extent of the problem (e.g.…”