Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

BIODIVERSITY MAINSTREAMING CALL OR FALL? EVIDENCE OF STRATEGIC AND AGRICULTURE-SPECIFIC POLICY IN UKRAINE

Inna Koblianska, Larysa Kalachevska and Jan Grenz

Abstract

Biodiversity mainstreaming (BM) call is a part and parcel of a comprehensive global sustainability policy, and national efforts are to complete its whole puzzle. Assessment of BM progress in a national context discloses country-specific actions towards BM, allowing to identify and generalize sources of fallouts in this field. This paper assesses the BM progress across Ukrainian strategic and agriculture-specific policy. To answer the question about the real ability of emerging legislation to make the BM call viable, we applied quantitative assessment of biodiversity issues inclusion, content analysis and qualitative review. Results testify the failure of the biodiversity mainstreaming when it comes to the clear problem recognition, correspondence of used terminology, and coherence of goals-measures-outcomes- monitoring. Ukrainian evidence lays bare on problems relevant for other developing countries, highlighting the need to rethink the future composition and tools of global biodiversity protection policy with emphasis on developing countries’ progress in this field.