Abstract for:Reaching for global change through local level interventions that support an environmental sense of place

Ecosystems around the world have experienced significant loss of biodiversity due to human activity. To address this problem, representatives from 190 countries at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development committed to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 (Balmford et al. 2005).  It did not happen. In 2010 representatives developed the Convention of Biological Diversity Aichi 2020 Targets. In 2015, a mid-term analysis found that despite the policy and management fixes, biodiversity was continuing to trend downward, with 18 of the 20 Aichi targets not on track. We hypothesize that the downward trend and lack of goal achievement is because the system is currently an eroding goal archetype at the global level. We argue there are multiple eroding goal archetypes independently operating at each human scale; global, national, community, and individual. This means that there are four ‘levels’ of separation from the global biodiversity targets and the individuals that need to implement them. Although the goals we set at a global level to fix the problem are necessary (Balmford et al 2002; Parmesan & Yohe, 2003; Toth, 2003; Balmford et al 2002; Change, 2007) change must happen on the ground, at a local and individual level to offset this tragedy of the commons.