ABSTRACT
Biosphere integrity and securing biodiversity is one of the most important environmental challenges facing the world today and a core problem of sustainability. Starting with an overview of the development of nature conservation and biodiversity protection, this chapter analyses the relationship between democracy and biodiversity. We summarize theoretical arguments and empirical findings on the question of whether democracies perform better than autocracies in biodiversity protection. Additionally, we refer to the discussion of democratic legitimacy in nature conservation projects and possible trade-offs between participation and scientific rigor. We take a look at biodiversity protection in biosphere reserves and outside protected areas. A key finding is that evidence for an impact of democracy on biodiversity protection is contested. Furthermore, there is no consensus on which form of democratic legitimacy is best for nature conservation. We conclude by pointing out several fields of future research on the relationship between democracy and biodiversity protection.
