Saving the Woodpeckers

Abstract

This article investigates if higher levels of social capital, better governance structures, and a more ambitious conservation policy are positively linked to the ability of states to address biodiversity loss. Serving this purpose is a data set containing estimates of woodpecker diversity in 20 European countries. These data are argued to be a more valid indicator of biodiversity than most other available cross-national measures of environmental quality. A seemingly unrelated regression analysis reveals that none of the indicators are linked to higher levels of woodpecker diversity, which in turn leads to the conclusion that present institutions, environmental policies, and social structures have negligible effects on biodiversity compared to long-term landscape transformations.