Social Awareness of Bio-diversity (2015)

The Nationale Strategie zur biologischen Vielfalt (NBS) (National Strategy on Biological Diversity) adopted by the German government in 2007 formulates: “The aim of the strategy is to mobilize and bundle all social forces so that the threat to biological diversity in Germany is significantly reduced, eventually stopped altogether and, as a long-term goal, biological diversity, including its regionally typical features, increases again.” An important role is attributed to social awareness about biological diversity.

Social awareness of biodiversity has been surveyed every two years since 2009. The studies comprise, on the one hand, the observation and analysis of societal awareness of biodiversity and, on the other hand, take a look at knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral readiness to protect biodiversity. Within the framework of a societal indicator developed by BfN (Federal Agency for Nature Conservation) and BMU (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety), the following three sub-indicators are therefore surveyed at two-year intervals to provide information on the state of awareness.