The focus of this year’s action tank was how tounleash the power of culture to mobilize millions to act on the rampantbiodiversity crisis. But why biodiversity?

The biodiversity crises

In 2010, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets thought thatby 2020 people would be aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps theycould take to conserve and use nature sustainably.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. The underlyingcauses of biodiversity loss have been addressed. But biodiversity action hashardly become mainstream across society. 

For instance, if you google "SEEA" - theSystem for Environmental Economic Accouting – you’re as likely to end up on awomen's surfwear page as on a page about SEEA.

And while SEEA is probably the best tool presently athand, it speaks the language of governing bodies - not the language of ordinarypeople, businesses or schools who want to take part in this importantfight. 

Each of us can contribute to the preservation ofbiodiversity. But what concrete measures should we and could weundertake? 

The six actions

The participants in the biodiversity action tank – VanessaNakate, Thomas W. Crowther, Sir ParthaDasgupta, Molly Fannon, Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio, Johannes Vogel, Alexander Holm, Filip Engel, Sebastian Nielsen and James Hassell – took theopportunity to discuss, listen and learn from each other’s experience, beforeengaging in group work identifying key actions for the urgent restoration ofbiodiversity.

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The meeting spurred the following actions:

1) Develop a scientific measurement system that canmonitor the changes in biodiversity and quantify the progress (or lackthereof).

2) Help people understand the choices they make whenthey inadvertently destroy biodiversity through their patterns of consumption -and why that is against their best interests.

3) Offer people the opportunity to purchase land allover the world and place camera traps in the field allowing for a directconnection to the preserved biodiversity. 

4) Introduce ecosystem services taxes, levied atdifferent weights around the world, depending on income level. 

5) Launch a massive awareness-raising campaignglobally, including hacking popular culture in relation to local customs orneeds (not everyone watches Hollywood).

6) Teach holistic and systemic thinking, highlightingthe need to respect planetary boundaries, in school curricula globally, butespecially in the Northern Hemisphere. 

The group actions will now be passed on to the publicand politicians. It will also be handed over to the next Imagine Tomorrowgathering in Copenhagen, which will take place on the 25th of August 2022.

During the live action tank, the actions will bedeveloped further by experts, leaders and cultural icons, expanding ImagineTomorrow's global action network.

Although unknown to many, we’re officially two yearsinto the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. We only have eight years to go.Let’s make them matter – through the most impactful actions imaginable.

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