Integrating biodiversity: a longitudinal and cross-sectoral analysis of Swiss politics

Ueli Reber (), Manuel Fischer, Karin Ingold, Felix Kienast, Anna M. Hersperger, Rolf Grütter and Robin Benz
Additional contact information
Ueli Reber: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL)
Manuel Fischer: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)
Karin Ingold: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)
Felix Kienast: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL)
Anna M. Hersperger: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL)
Rolf Grütter: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL)
Robin Benz: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research (WSL)

Policy Sciences, 2022, vol. 55, issue 2, No 5, 335 pages

Abstract: Abstract The effective conservation and promotion of biodiversity requires its integration into a wide range of sectoral policies. For this to happen, the issue must receive attention across policy sectors. Yet, we know little about how attention to the issue evolves over time and across sectors. Drawing from the literature on environmental policy integration/mainstreaming and policy process theories, we develop competing hypotheses, expecting either increasing or fluctuating attention to the biodiversity issue. We tested the hypotheses using the case of Swiss politics between 1999 and 2018. Applying a combination of computational methods, we analyze the content of a comprehensive collection of policy documents (n ≈ 440,000) attributed to 20 policy sectors. Comparing the sectors, we find that (1) a persistent increase in attention is the exception, (2) if there is an increase in attention, it is likely to be temporary, and (3) the most common pattern is that of invariant attention over time. Biodiversity integration—if it does happen at all—tends to occur in cycles rather than in steady long-term shifts. This implies that the conservation of biodiversity does not follow the cross-sectoral nature of the problem, but is subject to the dynamics of "politics," where actors, because of limited resources, engage with (aspects of) an issue only for a certain amount of time.

Keywords: Policy integration; Mainstreaming; Biodiversity; Issue attention; Quantitative text analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11077-022-09456-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:policy:v:55:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11077-022-09456-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ce/journal/11077/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11077-022-09456-4

Access Statistics for this article

Policy Sciences is currently edited by Michael Howlett

More articles in Policy Sciences from Springer, Society of Policy Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().