HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-06: Governing Global Commons Sustainably

Global biodiversity governance faces mounting pressure from geopolitical fragmentation, weakened multilateral cooperation, and the growing influence of non-state commercial actors. As multilateral frameworks face contestation, the strategies of multinational enterprises, commercial groups, and other private actors increasingly shape — and in some cases undermine — prospects for sustainable governance. Declining trust across states, corporations, communities, and citizens risks eroding the rules-based order that biodiversity protection depends upon.

This project addresses the governance gap at this intersection: how commercial actors leverage geopolitical fragmentation and technological capabilities to advance private interests in biodiversity governance, and what institutional mechanisms can counteract these dynamics. Through multi-regional analysis of actor behaviors, examination of how governance gaps contribute to injustice, and development of evidence-based tools that integrate civil society participation, the project aims to generate concepts, methods, and policy recommendations that strengthen rules-based multilateralism in biodiversity governance.