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Applying the Concept of Voluntariness to Explain Behavior Towards Environmental Conservation

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Biodiversity Offsets Between Regulation and Voluntary Commitment

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Abstract

An in-depth view and critical analysis of voluntary biodiversity require the operationalization and qualification of what voluntariness means under different contexts. In practice, voluntariness has a long tradition, i.e., it is anchored in societal and ethical discourses, with regard to solidarity, the provision of common goods and voluntary commitment. However, voluntariness is a relatively new phenomenon in a scientific context.

Therefore, this study aims to define and understand voluntariness and its prerequisites. This includes defining the term voluntariness and when an action is considered voluntary. Furthermore, voluntariness is a normative concept. This implies asking why humans act voluntarily, and specifically why businesses and others implement biodiversity offsets voluntarily. While the ultimate goal of voluntary commitment is the contribution to public goods, it may also create added value. Voluntary biodiversity can thus be driven by both altruistic and selfish motivations, and these motivations need to be examined carefully in every individual case.

Building on this, different theoretical concepts were explored with regard to their suitability to operationalize and explain voluntariness of biodiversity offsets and ultimately derive criteria that can be used as attributes for building a typology of biodiversity offsets. On the one hand, this includes more general theories, i.e., altruism, economic theories and willingness to pay. On the other hand, the theoretical concept of voluntariness is transferred and examined as to its application in the scope of nature conservation and care for the environment, i.e., with regard to voluntary environmental approaches and corporate (environmental) responsibility.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    see Sect. 5.2 and refer to corresponding numbers in Table 5.1.

  2. 2.

    Public goods are those that create generally and publicly accessible use and benefits (Siegenthaler 2008).

  3. 3.

    According to Kotchen (2006), individuals typically have three relevant choices: a conventional (pure private) good, a direct donation to an environmental (pure public) good, and a green (impure public) version of the good, whereas the latter is the result of a joint production of a private good and an environmental public good and thus combines characteristics of the other two.

  4. 4.

    see Sect. 5.2 and refer to corresponding numbers in Table 5.1.

  5. 5.

    see Sect. 5.2 and refer to corresponding numbers in Table 5.1.

  6. 6.

    see Sect. 5.2 and refer to corresponding numbers in Table 5.1.

  7. 7.

    see Sect. 5.2 and refer to corresponding numbers in Table 5.1.

  8. 8.

    He defines voluntary pollution constraints as declarations of a group of polluters to achieve a certain environmental policy goal in a fixed period of time.

  9. 9.

    see Sect. 5.2 and refer to corresponding numbers in Table 5.1.

  10. 10.

    see Sect. 5.2 and refer to corresponding numbers in Table 5.1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany

    Marianne Darbi

  2. Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER), Dresden, Germany

    Marianne Darbi

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  1. Marianne Darbi
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Darbi, M. (2020). Applying the Concept of Voluntariness to Explain Behavior Towards Environmental Conservation. In: Biodiversity Offsets Between Regulation and Voluntary Commitment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25594-7_3

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