Perceptions of biodiversity loss among future decision-makers in 37 countries

Abstract The decline of global biodiversity is a major environmental issue with far-reaching consequences for humans and the Earth System. When it comes to biodiversity conservation, university students play an important role because, as future decision makers, they will have an important influence on how society deals with biodiversity loss. Until now, there has been no international research examining how these future decision-makers in society perceive the causes of biodiversity loss. Using a recent method customized for this data, we show here that there are eight distinct response types across the 37 countries studied that differ in their perceptions of the drivers of biodiversity loss. In one of these response types, climate change was underestimated, while in others pollution or invasive species were rated substantially lower compared to the other main drivers. The distribution of the eight response types varied between the countries. Our results demonstrate how future decision-makers around the world evaluate the drivers of biodiversity loss. Country-specific conditions and differences between the surveyed countries were revealed. The findings serve as a starting point for decision-makers around the world to tailor education programs and policy measurements to the circumstances in their countries.