Sustaining insect biodiversity through Action Competence — An educational framework for transformational change

Insect decline, i.e. the rapid loss of insect biodiversity and species abundance, is an imminent crisis that mirrors the global loss of biodiversity and biological annihilation. Conservation scientists have therefore called for effective public education on how to mitigate insect decline. In this paper, we develop the framework “Action Competence for Insect Conservation (ACIC)” as a tool for improving education and citizen action for insect biodiversity conservation. The ACIC is an educational framework to develop peoples' abilities to take actions that sustain insect biodiversity, connecting insect conservation science with social science. This framework is applicable in various contexts and settings in both formal (e.g. schools, universities) and informal (e.g. outreach) education. It can be used to design and improve educational approaches, develop social interventions for insect conservation more generally, and develop instruments to assess such interventions. ACIC builds on the educational concept of Action Competence that goes beyond traditional education, which has focused on theoretical knowledge. Instead, the ACIC aims to foster peoples' action-oriented knowledge, confidence in their actions and willingness to take action. This explicit focus on actions contributes to overcoming gaps between knowledge and action implementation. The ACIC covers not only actions in private greenspaces, but also highlights the importance of actions that address other people in the community along with relevant stakeholders. We believe that the ACIC framework can contribute to identifying and developing effective intervention approaches, which have the potential to support transformational change in sustaining insect biodiversity.