Nature knows no boundaries – but governance does
This text was published in the blog of Priodiversity LIFE. Check out the other blog posts as well (metsa.fi).
2.6.2025
How to mitigate siloed governance to halt nature loss? We address this question in Priodiversity LIFE, a project in which we seek ways to improve the coherence of biodiversity policy in the Finnish government. This task is coordinated by The Prime Minister’s Office, together with the Finnish Environment Institute and Motiva.
As natural biodiversity has crucial effects on food production, health, climate regulation, and economic stability, its loss critically threatens the well-being of humankind. A new report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and its national contextualization by the Finnish Nature panel (luontopaneeli.pdf, in Finnish) states that even though threats and risks related to nature, water, food, health, and climate are connected to each other, decisions are often made in isolation from different sectors. One solution to secure biodiversity is to examine how different policies in the government support – or counteract – commonly agreed biodiversity goals.
Policy coherence means that policies from different policy domains and levels do not conflict but support one another towards mutually set goals. This is challenging because our current governance structure is based on separate governmental departments that prioritize their own core tasks. Improving the coherence of biodiversity policy requires the consideration of nature by all the relevant sectors so that progress within one sector is not undermined by the others.
However, policy integration is not a magic trick that eradicates political conflicts in society. Instead, reconciliation often comes with compromises. A sustainability transformation requires abandoning unsustainable practices, and not everyone will win: for instance, the shift will put pressure on actors relying on fossil fuels.
Consolidating the various societal goals can be supported by considering different perspectives on justice and the effects that actions and decisions will cause, including who they affect. The Polluter Pays Principle is an already established and commonly accepted basis for fairness in the EU. According to the principle, the costs from environmental degradation and its reparation belong to the polluter, as the name indicates.
In Priodiversity LIFE, the starting point for improving policy coherence for nature is the international conventions and policies on biodiversity, especially the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022), which contains targets for 2030 and a vision for 2050. Reaching these targets and vision requires the consideration of nature to become integrated as part of every ministry and authority instead of being confined to environmental governance. This requires the integration of biodiversity policy into the structures, decision-making processes, and daily work within different governmental sectors. In practice, this calls for a shared understanding of the common targets, recognizing the roles of different actors, and a coherent leadership for the work, as well as coordination and reporting.
Securing horizontal coordination of the integration is particularly important, as otherwise biodiversity policy risks fragmentation. Since consideration of nature may conflict with different organizations’ mandates and operational cultures, reconsideration of the institutional arrangements is inevitable.
Climate policy mainstreaming has progressed noticeably further than for biodiversity policy. This means we can learn from the positive experiences. Instead of focusing only on policy objectives, it is essential to promote concrete policy instruments and their effective implementation. In addition, an important aspect of promoting the coherence of biodiversity policy is developing expertise and tools within organizations – for instance, by defining what kinds of competence profiles are needed in different roles. This way we can build skills that support coherent and effective policies for nature across the administrative boundaries.
The message of Priodiversity LIFE is simple: promotion of biodiversity cannot succeed in silos but requires well-coordinated teamwork from the whole government.
Samuli Pitzén, Researcher, Finnish Environment Institute
Kristiina Niikkonen, Specialist, Prime Minister’s Office
Priodiversity LIFE offers solutions to halt nature loss. The project gathers a wide range of committed operators who together have the chance to find the most impactful and cost-efficient ways to stop nature loss in Finland. In the project we will create requirements to make halting the nature loss into a new skill for Finnish entrepreneurs, and to make Finland an expert on international scale. Priodiversity LIFE is coordinated by Metsähallitus Parks and Wildlife Finland.
Priodiversity LIFE – for halting biodiversity loss (metsa.fi)
