‘Measurementality’ in Biodiversity Governance: Knowledge, Transparency, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ipbes)

Esther Turnhout, Katja Neves and Elisa de Lijster
Additional contact information
Esther Turnhout: Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University, PO box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Katja Neves: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. (H-1125-44), Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Elisa de Lijster: Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University. PO box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands

Environment and Planning A, 2014, vol. 46, issue 3, 581-597

Abstract: Current policies and practices in biodiversity conservation have been increasingly influenced by neoliberal approaches since the 1990s. The authors focus on the principle of transparency as a self-proclaimed basis of neoliberal environmental governance, and on the role of standardized science-based measurements which it purportedly affords. The authors introduce the term ‘measurementality’ to signify the governance logic that emerges when transparency comes to stand next to effectiveness and efficiency as neoliberal principles and to highlight the connections that are forged between economic, managerial, and technocratic discourses. The example of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is used to discuss the role of measurementality in global biodiversity governance. The analysis suggests that IPBES aims to coordinate the science–policy interface in order to optimize the generation of user-friendly knowledge of those elements of biodiversity that are considered politically and economically relevant: At the current economic juncture, these being in essence ecosystem services. Based on these findings, the authors proceed by critically reflecting on the ways in which the measurementality logic of IPBES may not only result in an impoverishment of the biodiversity research agenda, but also in an impoverished understanding of biodiversity itself. To conclude, the authors argue that measurementality is part and parcel of the neoliberal paradigm in which science produces the raw materials for subsequent control and exchange and that, as a result, the intersection of science, discourse, policy, and economics within these governance systems requires sustained critical scrutiny.

Keywords: neoliberal conservation; science–policy interface; global environmental governance; governmentality; new public management; transparency; knowledge; information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:3:p:581-597

DOI: 10.1068/a4629

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