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Transforming Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene:
An Action Research in the Field of ABS
TEGA is a transdisciplinary action research project that fosters transformative change in international biodiversity governance, with a topical focus on Access and Benefit-Saring (ABS) and a regional anchor in Southern Africa. The project is conducted by a scientific team from the University of Bonn, the University of Namibia, the University of the Western Cape, and the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, in close collaboration with key ABS stakeholders. TEGA is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation under its Pioneer Programme on Societal Transformations.
Transformation beyond sustainable development
Objectives of global sustainable development, which were institutionalised in the post-Cold War era of the early 1990s, are increasingly overridden by the destructive realities of inequitable and unsustainable modernisation.
Confronted with this failure, environmental governance actors - including policy makers, Indigenous leaders, experts, civil society organisations, and business representatives - openly recognise the urgent need for transformative change.
To a large extent, transformation remains lip service: behind ambitious policy objectives and consensual value statements, approaches and practices of environmental governance are largely trapped in established assumptions, narratives, and institutional designs.
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However, under the pressure of ecological disasters - climate catastrophes, biodiversity loss... - and the rise of populist and authoritarian backlash, trust in environmental governance institutions is crumbling. These disruptions present critical entry points for TEGA's transformative work.
Devil's claw (Harpagophytum):
The thorny and multifaceted task of doing transformation beyond sustainable development.
Pluriversal action research
Honeybush (Cyclopia):
A natural ingredient for beverages and an actor in TEGA's more-than-human action research.
Social theories and empirical research have produced a wealth of knowledge about the roots of persistent unsustainability and articulated powerful ideas to inspire deep transformative change.
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However, the more radical (= addressing the roots) the critique of the status quo, the harder it becomes for dominant actors and institutions to take it into account. Similarly, the more transformative the ideas, the greater the discrepancy between them and the conventional categories and assumptions that inform environmental governance.
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In the lively landscape of transformative change initiatives, TEGA's distinct aim is to address these obstacles through a pluriversal action research method that brings critical observations and transformative ideas into the collaborative re-design of environmental governance.
Access and Benefit-Sharing
TEGA's action research is conducted in a field of international biodiversity governance known as 'Access and Benefit-Sharing' (ABS), with a regional focus on Namibia and South Africa.
ABS was introduced in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992 to prevent postcolonial biopiracy, in conjunction with the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. According to ABS law and procedures, commercial and scientific users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge must obtain prior informed consent from the resource and knowledge holders (states, Indigenous Peoples and local communities), and give them a 'fair and equitable' share of the benefits arising from resource utilisation.
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Like in many areas of environmental governance, notwithstanding achievements, there are significant discrepancies between the goals and regulatory frameworks of ABS and ground realities, where ABS is often characterised by shortcomings and dysfunctions.
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In collaboration with key ABS stakeholders, TEGA's scientific team is tackling these deficiencies through activities that integrate research, science communication, and the collective practice of transformative change.​
ABS assembles biodiversity politics, environmental and intellectual property laws, Indigenous Peoples' rights, bioprospecting, biotrade value chains, the ecology of plants, animals and microorganisms, and much more.
TEGA's Community of Purpose
TEGA's Community of Purpose meeting at our first Plenary Workshop in November 2024
TEGA's action research is conducted by a transdisciplinary Community of Purpose (CoP) which includes the core team and a diverse group of ABS stakeholders.
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The team comprises Dr Damien Krichewsky (University of Bonn, Principal Investigator), Prof Ahmad Cheikhyoussef and Dr Michael Shirungu (University of Namibia), Prof William Ellis (University of the Western Cape), Ulrike Tröger (Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research), and Tobias Dierks (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) as non-academic advisor.
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The ABS stakeholders involved in TEGA's action research include international and national policy makers, development actors, indigenous leaders, local community members, biotrade business actors, and representatives of scientific users of genetic resources.
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TEGA's community exchanges and collaborates with a number of transformative change-makers, ABS experts, and scholars whose research resonates with ours.