Environment strategy: behaviour changes needed to achieve Scotland's goals for biodiversity

1 Introduction

1.1 Context

The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045 (2024) sets out a vision for the restoration and regeneration of Scotland’s biodiversity across land, freshwaters and seas by 2045, with a milestone of halting biodiversity loss by 2030. It recognises the need for urgent action at scale to address both direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, and the engagement of Scotland’s people and communities in the stewardship of our natural environment. At the same time, the forthcoming Environment Strategy will set out an overarching framework and vision for playing Scotland’s full role in tackling the nature, climate and pollution crises, in ways which support people’s wellbeing and strengthen the economy. The Environment Strategy outcomes also include an ambition to bring Scotland’s international environmental footprint down to fit within planetary boundaries.

Recent research by The Stockholm Environment Institute on how the Scottish Government can promote the socio-economic changes necessary for tackling the climate and nature emergencies emphasises the need for transformative, system-wide change (Lambe et al., 2025). Their recommendations include developing a stronger evidence base on the impacts of lifestyles on biodiversity and natural systems. This recommendation echoes research by The James Hutton Institute on ‘Understanding indirect drivers of biodiversity loss in Scotland’ by Pakeman et al. (2023) for NatureScot. This research took the indirect drivers of biodiversity loss highlighted in the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) Global Assessment Report (IPBES, 2019) and translated them into a Scottish context. Amongst other issues, the research highlighted a need to prioritise understanding the psychology of change and how to promote change within the wider population with respect to the impact of lifestyles on biodiversity. The report highlighted the need for action by a wide range of actors, from private individuals to global institutions in order to deliver change.

Whilst there is a significant body of theoretical and empirical research to draw on concerning pro-environmental, or sustainable, behaviours more generally, there has been relatively little attention paid specifically to those behaviours that have the greatest impact on biodiversity (Nielsen, Marteau, et al., 2021). This is problematic given that facilitating behaviour change requires a clear articulation of what the target behaviours are, who needs to change, and an understanding of the psychological, social and structural factors influencing the specific behaviours targeted. Research analysing the scope of behaviours relevant for biodiversity policy, and the available evidence on their drivers and potential interventions to address them, will therefore make a timely contribution to understanding how to promote behaviour change for biodiversity improvement.

Aims and objectives

The overall aim of the project is to identify and analyse the changes to lifestyles and behaviours in Scotland that are needed to halt and reverse declines in biodiversity. This work was commissioned to strengthen the evidence base to inform and further support development of the Environment Strategy and delivery of the Scottish Biodiversity strategy and public engagement around biodiversity in Scotland more broadly. The research addresses the following objectives:

1. Identify the key behaviours of private citizens that impact on biodiversity (both biodiversity loss and biodiversity improvement).

2. Analyse evidence on the barriers to uptake of key behaviours, the effectiveness of interventions intended to promote the behavioural changes in question, and potential trade-offs and synergies for societal outcomes (e.g. on inequality, health and wellbeing, poverty).

3. Assess the extent to which existing policies encourage the key behaviour changes, identify gaps in current policy, and explore the potential effectiveness and public acceptability of intervention options to address gaps.

4. Develop recommendations on how The Scottish Government can use available policy levers to promote and enable the required behavioural changes.

The project focuses on the behaviours of private citizens (i.e. householders, or the general public) in Scotland, as opposed to those of individuals acting in a professional capacity as part of land management or other business activities. Behaviours impacting on biodiversity both in Scotland and overseas are included within the scope. Following the specification of the project by the Scottish Government, behaviours aligning more closely to circular economy and Net Zero policy were excluded, as these are being covered in detail in existing Scottish Government-funded research programmes.

1.2 Conceptual framework

Behaviour change interventions should be underpinned by theories appropriate to the types of behaviour targeted, the context and target population. In analysing key behaviours through which private citizens can help protect and improve biodiversity we adopt the Behaviour Change Wheel (Figure 1) and COM-B (Capabilities, Opportunities, Motivations – Behaviour) behavioural model (Michie et al., 2011) (Figure 2) as an analytical framework. The COM-B model categorises the broad conditions that are necessary for behaviour change to occur. These include the physical and psychological Capabilities of individuals that enable a behaviour to happen, the Opportunities afforded by an individuals’ social and physical environment, and Motivational factors that energise and direct behaviour (see Table 1 for definitions). The COM-B model sits at the centre of the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW). The outer rings of the BCW set out the types of interventions and policy levers that are available to promote behaviour change by addressing the COM-B factors that can limit or enable target behaviours.

Table 1: Definitions of COM-B components (adapted from West & Michie, 2020).

Capability

Capability is an attribute of a person that together with opportunity makes a behaviour possible or facilitates it. Capability encompasses people’s physical capabilities (e.g. physical abilities) and psychological capabilities (e.g. knowledge, memory).

Opportunity

Opportunity is an attribute of a system that together with capability makes a behaviour possible or facilitates it. Opportunities can consist of physical opportunities (e.g. available infrastructure) and social opportunities (e.g. enabling social norms and social networks).

Motivation

Motivation relates to the mental processes that energise and direct behaviour. The Motivation component of the behaviour system encompasses reflective motivational processes (factors driving conscious intentions and planned behaviour) and automatic motivation (driven by emotions, habits or instincts).

The proposed framework of BCW and COM-B provides a policy-relevant interdisciplinary framework, and aligns the present work to the approaches to behaviour change currently in use within the Scottish Government (e.g. by the Climate Change Behaviours team and in Transport Scotland^[1]), and to Hutton-led behavioural research in the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Strategic Research Programme 2022-27 in the areas of circular economy, air quality and engagement with natural environments (Colley et al, 2025; Colley, Chen et al., 2024; Irvine, Fisher et al., 2024).

Individual action around biodiversity protection and improvement takes place in the context of wider political, economic and social systems which can shape individuals’ capabilities, opportunities and motivations to act. In recognition of the systemic nature of the problem, and the commitment of The Scottish Government’s Environment Strategy to deliver transformative change, it is also important that behavioural approaches to biodiversity improvement avoid taking an overly individualised approach to behaviour. This can result in (perceived or actual) transference of the responsibility onto individuals and away from more powerful actors and institutions. Thus, while the proposed framework takes the individual as the base unit for behavioural analysis, it recognises that individuals act as part of households, social groups, wider communities and are constrained by social, environmental, political, and economic factors at play in the wider socio-ecological system. The research will therefore also be informed by a multi-level perspective on behaviour change as part of sustainability transitions (Kaufman et al., 2021), which considers how change comes about at the micro, meso and macro levels and the interactions between. Part of this involves recognition of the role that different actors across these levels have to play in reversing biodiversity loss and as potential agents of behavioural change, as identified by Pakeman et al. (2023).