CiBioGo

Citizen Participation in Biodiversity Governance

Project summary

CIBioGo aims to engage communities in biodiversity governance to help resolve conflicts, foster dialogue among decision-makers, overcome financial hurdles, and raise awareness of the true value of our ecosystems.

The effective involvement and support of stakeholders and citizens for the protection of biodiversity is hampered by user conflicts, opposing economic interests, scarce dialogue among decision-makers & stakeholders, financial constraints and a lack of awareness of the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services. CIBioGO partners thus share the need to incorporate participatory methods into biodiversity governance and empower their citizens to participate in public decision-making in their respective policy instruments.

This process is structured around an ‘interests/competences matrix,’ which matches effective participation tools with key biodiversity governance areas. A series of interregional peer review visits serves as the backbone of this initiative, providing a platform for sharing best practices. These visits are complemented by regional stakeholder exchanges and capacity-building sessions to ensure that policy improvements are well-integrated and impactful.

A monitoring protocol will help all participants track and evaluate the success of these efforts, ensuring continuous improvement and learning at both individual and organizational levels.

BURST Role

General:

facilitating the interregional learning process
supporting partners in improving policy instruments
providing expertise in multi-stakeholder engagement

Specific:

developing a joint methodology for the comprehensive analysis of partners’ biodiversity contexts
developing a thematic matrix of relevant tools and methods of participatory governance
creating a benchmark of good practices existing beyond the partnership
preparing a framework for the interregional learning process and peer reviews
preparing framework for the modules for organisational capacity-building
creating a digital Practical Guide for establishing policy environments nurturing participatory biodiversity governance practices
elaborating a monitoring guide

Partnership

Province of Potenza Harghita County Council Commonwealth of l’Horta-Sud Vidzeme Planning Region Slovenia Forest Service Public Service of Wallonia – Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment Center for research and policy making CRPM Skopje Cantonal administration for civil protection Middle Bosnia Canton/Central Bosnia Canton