Université de Montréal
Ph.D. candidate
Supervisor: Sara Teitelbaum
Stéphane Moulin, Université de Montréal
Start: 2023-09-05

Project

Biodiversity indicators in Quebec: actors and challenges of quantification between science and policy
The aim of this study is to directly observe the issues of negotiation, translation and compromise between scientific and political players, as they play out in the choice of biodiversity indicators for two programs: the Nature 2030 Plan, and the Quebec Biodiversity Monitoring Network (the first large-scale biodiversity monitoring project in the province, in a context where biodiversity indicators have been encouraged by international agreements since the 1990s). Thanks to the fact that Quebec is only just beginning to implement indicators on a territorial scale, this fieldwork was intended to re-establish the political dimension of these quantification tools. To this end, the fieldwork will involve observing meetings of these two programs, as well as semi-structured interviews. The aim is to compare these programs (one for monitoring public policy, the other for monitoring the state of biodiversity), because although they both stem from an initiative of the French Ministry of the Environment, the PN2030 brings together biologists who are civil servants of the Ministry, whereas the RSBQ brings together academic scientists. The interviews will make it possible to study the posture that the actors defend in light of the tension at the individual level, since they operate at the interface of two spheres with divergent interests, but also because they have their own interests related to their careers. This is all the more interesting given that in Quebec, the PN2030 experts have a “hybrid” identity: they come from academic science and are civil servants at the Ministry. They blur the well-established boundary studied in Europe between scientific experts and political decision-makers. This study will add to the literature on the institutionalization of biodiversity in Canada, and re-establish the political dimension of quantification tools often presented as neutral and objective. The specific case of Quebec will shed light on the jurisdictional issues surrounding the question of biodiversity in a federal context, as well as focusing on a phenomenon not often encountered in Europe, where the literature on indicators abounds: the hybridity of expert-civil servant actors. It is all the more interesting to study given that in Quebec, the PN2030 experts have a “hybrid” identity: they come from academic science and are civil servants at the Ministry. They blur the well-established boundary studied in Europe between scientific experts and political decision-makers. This study will add to the literature on the institutionalization of biodiversity in Canada, and re-establish the political dimension of quantification tools often presented as neutral and objective. The specific case of Quebec will shed light on the jurisdictional issues surrounding the question of biodiversity in a federal context, as well as focusing on a phenomenon not often encountered in Europe, where the literature on indicators abounds: the hybridity of expert-civil servant actors.

Keywords

Biodiversité, expertise, quantification, indicateurs, interface science/politique