Kronenberg, J., Andersson, E., & Sandbrook, C. (2025). If a swift could fight for their existence with words: Nonhuman interests and politics. Npj Urban Sustainability, 5(1), 70.

[Multispecies sustainability and justice can serve as narratives to support and transform nature conservation. Using discourse analysis, we study whether and how three major stakeholders engaged with such narratives to address the representation and agency of swifts (Apus apus). We focus on a debate on mandating ‘swift bricks’ to mitigate the loss of their nesting sites in the UK. Representation refers to acknowledging and articulating the diversity of human and swift interests. Agency refers to recognising and positioning nonhuman actors as subjects of justice. The activist-conservationist gave an imaginary voice to swifts and thus attempted to focus public attention on what these birds demand. The policymakers did not relate to realities other than human and remained impervious to nonhuman rights. We suggest creatively addressing the multispecies perspective in the standard political debates on infrastructural improvements and biodiversity net gain by rethinking the role of built infrastructures for nature conservation and restoration.]

While waiting for more BirdEcon research outputs to be published, please have a look at our previous work, thematically related to the new project:

Czajkowski, M., Giergiczny, M., Kronenberg, J., & Tryjanowski, P. (2014). The economic recreational value of a white stork nesting colony: A case of ‘stork village’ in Poland. Tourism Management, 40, 352–360.

Kronenberg, J. (2014a). Environmental impacts of the use of ecosystem services: Case study of birdwatching. Environmental Management, 54(3), 617–630.

Kronenberg, J. (2014b). What can the current debate on ecosystem services learn from the past? Lessons from economic ornithology. Geoforum, 55, 164–177.

Kronenberg, J. (2015). Betting against human ingenuity: The perils of the economic valuation of nature’s services. BioScience, 65(11), 1096–1099.

Kronenberg, J. (2016). Birdwatchers’ wonderland? Prospects for the development of birdwatching tourism in Poland. Journal of Ecotourism, 15(1), 78–94.

Kronenberg, J., & Andersson, E. (2019). Integrating social values with other value dimensions: Parallel use vs. combination vs. full integration. Sustainability Science, 14(5), 1283–1295.

Kronenberg, J., Andersson, E., & Tryjanowski, P. (2017). Connecting the social and the ecological in the focal species concept: Case study of White Stork. Nature Conservation, 22, 79–105.