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

Appendix C: Framework of pro-biodiversity behaviours

Behaviours excluded from the framework

The literature highlighted several additional behaviours which may be considered to impact on biodiversity but were excluded from the framework:

1) Circular economy and low carbon behaviours

As noted in section 1.2, behaviours that impact on biodiversity through resource/material consumption more generally were excluded. Examples mentioned in the literature included use of single-use/disposable items (Hofman et al., 2020; Veríssimo et al., 2024), reducing consumption of consumer goods (Dasgupta, 2021), and food waste related behaviours (Dasgupta, 2021). Behaviours excluded on the basis that they act on biodiversity primarily through climate change impacts included behaviours to reduce energy consumption, switching to green energy suppliers and using sustainable transport modes (Esfandiar et al., 2022a; Hofman et al., 2020; Selinske et al., 2020; Veríssimo et al., 2024) (Hofman et al., 2020; Veríssimo et al., 2024).

2) Nature engagement behaviours and educational activities

These include spending more time in nature/visiting natural environments (Aota & Soga, 2024; Borg et al., 2024; Selinske et al., 2020); taking other people to visit nature (Aota & Soga, 2024; Soga & Gaston, 2023); learning about nature by visiting zoos, botanic gardens, aquariums etc. (Aota & Soga, 2024; Hofman et al., 2020; Verissimo et al., 2024); and educating oneself about biodiversity conservation (Hofman et al., 2020). These behaviours have been excluded because they do not directly or indirectly contribute to biodiversity enhancement per se, and visiting sensitive natural environments may actually have negative impacts on biodiversity. Instead, we consider nature engagement activities in light of drivers of pro-biodiversity behaviours, and potential interventions to support them through fostering connections to the natural world (to be discussed further in Chapter 5).

3) Behaviours that are not (or less) relevant in the Scottish context

Several behaviours mentioned in the literature were excluded from the table on the basis of relevance to the general population in Scotland. These include illegal hunting and wild meat consumption (Balmford et al., 2021), retaliatory killings of predators (Brown et al., 2024); keeping protected species as pets (Brown et al., 2024); avoiding feeding wild dogs (Selinske et al., 2020); family planning in the context of rapid population growth in certain regions (Byerly et al., 2018; Dasgupta, 2021).