Motivations for committed nature conservation action in Europe.

Despite ongoing efforts to motivate politicians andpublics in Europe regarding nature conservation,biodiversity continues to decline. Monetary valuationof ecosystem services appears to be insufficient tomotivate people, suggesting that non-monetary valueshave a crucial role to play. There is insufficientinformation about the motivations of actors who havebeen instrumental in successful conservation projects.We investigated the motivations underlying thesebiodiversity actors using the ranking of cards andcompared the results with the rankings of motivationsof a second group of actors with more socially relatedinterests. Forboth groups of actors, their action relatingto biodiversity was supported in general by two groupsof motivations related to living a meaningful life andmoral values. The non-biodiversity actors also notedthat their action relating to biodiversity rested moreon beauty, place attachment and intrinsic values incomparison with their main non-biodiversity interests.Our results have implications for environmental policyand biodiversity conservation in that the currenttendency of focusing on the economic valuationof biodiversity fails to address the motivations ofsuccessful actors, thereby failing to motivate natureconservation on an individual level.