Systemic bio-inequity links poverty to biodiversity and induces a conservation paradox

Abstract Biodiversity is declining globally while inequity is growing, and poverty rates are not improving. Global sustainable development and conservation initiatives aim to address biodiversity loss and poverty simultaneously. Through text analysis of global biodiversity policies, we identified a consistent narrative that countries with high biodiversity are expected to use this natural capital to reduce poverty. Theoretically then, should higher biodiversity lead to higher prosperity? Clearly countries with higher biodiversity often experience higher poverty rates, so we explore how this paradox emerges using a path analysis integrating multiple mediating factors represented in biological, historical, and socio-economic data. We find that historical colonial exploitation was directed towards biodiversity rich regions, and through socio-economic legacies, continues to influence present-day poverty. At a country-scale, biodiversity is associated with higher poverty rates through increasing the likelihood of historical colonisation. Colonisation drove colonised countries towards natural resource exportation with weakened governance and increased poverty rates. We find no statistical support that country-scale biodiversity levels directly influence poverty, either positively or negatively. Moreover, we find that conservation investments did not align with countries’ biodiversity or their economic capacity to protect nature, indicating a conservation paradox. Our work uncovers that conservation initiatives to protect biodiversity ignore that biodiversity is strongly associated as a historical catalyst for modern global inequalities. Our findings quantitatively support the “systemic bio-inequity” hypothesis proposed here. This hypothesis argues that modern biodiversity-poverty linkages are, at least partly, attributed to historical legacies of unequal exploitation of the natural resources provided by biodiversity. This hypothesis aligns with the theory of ecologically unequal exchange. Our findings highlight the problematics of the narrative that natural wealth, and its conservation, will underpin future economic prosperity of countries. This assumption overlooks systemic, historical and institutional drivers of modern poverty. Recognizing that colonial and neoliberal structures have created inverted poverty-biodiversity relationships fundamentally changes how we should approach conservation. A decolonial approach is needed in conservation to address this legacy, whereby conservationists must not only recognise but challenge and replace damaging narratives that overlook past and present inequalities in access to the benefits of biodiversity.