The question of sustainable development is becoming a more and more prominent issue on national and international agendas. This is happening against the backdrop of growing pressures and problems in the three dimensions of sustainability: ecology, economics and social affairs. Therefore a huge variety of actors deal with questions of sustainability. Parts of the civil society like non-governmental organisations (NGOs), companies or individuals take part in the effort to shape sustainable societies. Political actors from all levels are participating in this attempt as well. The importance of the concept of sustainability for the creation of a steady society and for building resilient societal structures for the future is highlighted especially in the realm of politics. Consequently, it is important to ask whether or not sustainability is in fact integrated on the political level. Using the example of biodiversity, the dissertation project shall examine to what extent the different dimensions of sustainability are in fact integrated into work, ideas and the outcome of different political actors such as parties or administrative authorities. In this process, the institutionalization as well as the used instruments (for example laws, cooperation with other actors, subsidies, informational campaigns…) will have to be looked upon.
Biodiversity – which includes the variety of species, the variety of ecosystems and the genetic variety – seems to be a useful example to illustrate sustainability in all its dimensions. The main reason is the fact that biodiversity is affected by and affects the two other dimensions of sustainability. For example, social factors such as social patterns of preferred ways of living (“living in the countryside”) contribute to land consumption and the sealing of the soil surface – which can foster the loss of biodiversity. An example for the correlation of biodiversity and economic factors is fishery. Industrial fishing contributes to overfishing and loss of biodiversity if the amount of harvested fish exceeds the rate of fish regeneration or when it affects the food chain in a negative way. In turn, if the variety and the amount of fish is declining, the security of supply for people dependent on fish stocks may become endangered – with severe social and humanitarian consequences.
Aim of the project is not only to describe the status quo of the integration of biodiversity as a cross-cutting issue on the federal level in Germany, but at the same time to develop proposals which could foster further integration and a coherent establishment of the topic on the different levels and areas of politics. Another goal is to contribute to a better interaction and coordination of affected policy areas and to participate in the creation of a comprehensive strategic perspective.