Biodiversity finance as a technology of power: Discourses of innovation and regulation in an Australian case study

Neoliberal conservation is enjoying its latest zenith in the form of ‘biodiversity finance’. The endurance of neoliberal conservation is rooted in often unseen negotiations of knowledge and power; hence it is crucial to understand how material futures are being shaped by discourse. Analysis of interviews with biodiversity finance professionals in Australia revealed novel discursive mechanisms centred on innovation and regulation. Commodification of nature is seen as impossible, but inevitable – with tradeable biodiversity units being the primary object of innovation. The complexity of biodiversity markets elevates the power of the “innovators”, whose expert knowledge and elite networks reshape the material world. These discourses risk entrenching biodiversity loss, particularly for threatened components, and further subordinating the role of government. The data also revealed fear, risk and the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures as potential loci for disruption – highlighting one of several opportunities to chart materially better pathways for biodiversity.