Research

ActSustainably is an international research project that supports the sustainable and just use, protection, and restoration of semi-natural grasslands. The project works in Austria and South Tyrol, Denmark, Hungary, and Kazakhstan. It combines research with close collaboration on the ground. Across Eurasia, many grasslands have become fragmented, lost ecological quality, or disappeared entirely due to changes in land use or abandonment. Even where protection measures exist, the condition is often poor, and sometimes it keeps declining. ActSustainably works with local communities, farmers, and decision-makers to understand how land is used, what matters to people, and what changes could help both nature and society. Together, we take stock of the current state, imagine possible futures, and plan practical steps that can actually be carried out locally. One of the main goals of the Biodiversa+ program is transformation. This isn’t just about improving daily practices. It also means addressing deeper issues—values, rules, and local institutions. Small, well-targeted changes can have lasting impact: we look at how formal laws, regulations, and local customs and norms interact. We also explore where adaptation can strengthen what already works, without putting extra pressure on local actors. When local values and nature-positive rules are included in management, protection, and restoration, decisions tend to serve both people and biodiversity better. Our work follows four guiding principles from the IPBES report on transformative change: justice, including diverse perspectives, respectful relationships between people and nature, and shared learning. These principles shape how we collaborate and guide how solutions are developed and tested. A key tool we use is the Three Horizons approach: it helps us to link short-term, practical steps to long-term, broader societal goals. ActSustainably develops solutions together with farmers, citizens and other actors. This includes shared actions, cooperative rules, and tools for more sustainable management of vulnerable grasslands at local, regional, and national levels. The aim is to find clear ways forward and provide advice that can help stop biodiversity loss, improve ecological quality, strengthen local responsibility, and keep grasslands rich and diverse for future generations. Through ongoing exchange and learning together, long-term change can take root—change that communities themselves carry forward and shape over time.

Democracy thrives on the participation of as many people as possible. However, more and more people living in Vienna are not allowed to vote because of their citizenship (City of Vienna 2023). Vienna is on its way to becoming a ‘majority-minority city’ (Lazëri 2023). This goes hand in hand with a democratic deficit and a loss of legitimacy. One way to address these problems is to involve as many people as possible in their local communities (Kohlbacher et al. 2015). The City of Vienna has so far focused primarily on information and consultation (Arnstein 1969). Bottom-up formats that go beyond these proto-participatory stages and demand participation in decision-making have always found it difficult to gain a hearing among political representatives. In Vienna's Sonnwendviertel district, city citizens (Baubock 2003) have been developing a new form of participation for a year now: the sociocratic neighbourhood council (SNR). Around 100 city residents have contributed their knowledge and skills, mostly on a voluntary basis, in two different formats to improve their living environment. This deliberation (Arendt 2018, Habermas 2015) was organised according to the principles of sociocracy, which appears to have had several positive effects for citizens and politicians. This project aims to investigate the extent to which sociocratic neighbourhood councils are a needs-oriented, legitimate and strategically relevant form of participation and what qualities they bring to the table through their local roots and continuity, in addition to the already tried and tested forms of participation. What are the effects for politics and city residents? Following an evaluation of the Sonnwendviertel neighbourhood council prototype and a comparison with citizens' and neighbourhood councils, the SNR will be optimised and researched during a new implementation.

Biodiversity loss is considered the next big global crisis, overshadowing the COVID‐19 pandemic and climate change. Biodiversity loss and climate change are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. However, many people perceive both biodiversity loss and climate change as abstract and psychologically distant threats. Citizens and farmers may struggle with translating these global crises into imminent concerns they can identify and act on in their local livelihood. BIODIVERCITI engages citizens and farmers to reflect on the interrelation between biodiversity loss and climate change and the role they personally play in these crises in a familiar environment – their own garden and cropland. The project analyses how beliefs and behaviours may transfer from biodiversity to climate action in order to transform mindsets and practices. BIODIVERCITI aims to close the gap how to leverage engagement with biodiversity to simultaneously advance engagement with climate action. Therein, the project pursues four research questions: - Which improvements in biodiversity indicators can be achieved? - How do individual climate action and efficacy beliefs change? - How may citizens and farmers collaborate for combating biodiversity loss and climate change? - How may gardens and farmland provide conjunctive elements in habitats? BIODIVERCITI is a multi‐stakeholder citizen science project. The project involves and observes citizens and farmers and their respective gardens and cropland over the timeframe of two vegetation periods. Citizens and farmers receive personal advice on enhancing biodiversity, observe their garden/cropland and are evaluated how their attitudes and beliefs change. Each participating citizen is supported and trained in biodiversity‐enhancing elements and techniques suitable for their garden, which species may benefit, and how to identify and monitor these species. Farmers are grouped by their participation in the Austrian agri‐environmental programme ÖPUL and supplementary organic farming certification.