Governing Through Gaia: The Biopolitics of Delivering Nature-Based Solutions with Ecosystem Engineers

Abstract

Earth system science is revealing how animals regulate planetary metabolism and shape landscape dynamics, disclosing a range of ecosystem engineers and geomorphic agents. This science informs a subset of Nature-based solutions (NbSs) that aim to address the risks posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation. This article examines the biopolitics of NbS, introducing the concept of governing through Gaia to describe a mode of governance that targets the life–earth interface by deploying animals as metabolic levers to modulate geomorphic processes and geochemical cycles. It reviews a range of empirical examples and outlines the scientific framework underpinning NbS, introducing concepts from biogeomorphology, biogeochemistry, and the Gaia hypothesis. The analysis presents NbS as a distinct mode of metabolic politics that seeks to repair the metabolic shifts enacted by modern environmental management. It provides a framework to differentiate NbS by the types of repair that they perform, distinguishing between those that maintain and those that transform the status quo. The conclusions identify the potential of NbS and call for further work by a range of environmental geographers to develop just and adaptive approaches to governing through Gaia.