Project Contact

Ayele Gelan

Project Summary

This project aims at identifying the relevant socio-economic drivers of biodiversity change, analysing their social, political and economic dynamics, and to identifying policy options to mitigate the negative impacts. It focuses on the socio-economic component of the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model*.

The relevant socio-economic drivers incorporate the demographic, economic and cultural/technological forces of human society which create various anthropogenic environmental pressures affecting biodiversity. Understanding how such forces influence environmental pressures, which again affect biodiversity, is of key importance for appropriate understanding and management of biodiversity change.

This project constitutes a strand of research by AlterNet, a Network of Excellence funded by Sixth Framework Programme on Global Change and Ecosystems. More information can be found here and at the main ALTER-NET website

*More information about the DPSIR model, and how it is used in Europe.