Page - 303 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

303 2009) and on their brain having evolved to prospect the future not just track the past (Seligman et  al. 2013). The small experiment approach supports behavioural inno- vation, maintains local relevance and allows for the rapid dissemination of findings. It contrasts with the large-scale approach that dominates research these days, in that it helps non-scientists systematically discover what works in their community. Small experiments are going on all the time. They are often the basis of stories told by gardeners, teachers, do-it-yourself creators and community organisers. They are present when experts and citizens jointly apply their separate talents and knowledge to an issue of mutual concern. Small experiments are so common that they could be mistaken as inconsequential. In fact, they are a powerful means of behavioural experimentation. 13.4.2 Behavioural Entrepreneurship Clearly, the needed interventions change when addressing the new behavioural con- text. No longer adequate are approaches focused on single and specific behaviours. If this were not challenging enough, even with our current expertise we are unable to know exactly which future behaviours will need promoting. Thus, what we must support is the capacity of future citizens to identify the needed behaviours without our being there. Furthermore, citizens also would need to innovatively execute and maintain those behaviours in that future. Taken together, such capacities constitute entrepreneurial thought, craft and action. In the present, this calls for a unique form of intervention. We need to support behavioural entrepreneurs by creating condi- tions today under which individuals develop the capacity to anticipate, envision and prospect a future context. Then, when later they are in that context, those individuals will be able to craft innovative responses and self-regulate their behaviour to carry out those responses. The shift here is subtle, and perhaps appears academic, but it is a move away from expert-driven, delivery-based interventions toward the facilita- tion of citizen-developed interventions occurring in a partially unknowable future context. This is neither a radical nor an unfamiliar approach although it is rarely used in the current  rush to promote behaviour change. It is derived from Lewin’s (1952) pioneering work using citizen groups to affect fundamental change by first honestly presenting people with the situation being faced and then giving them the trust, time and support needed to craft their own responses. Programs based on Lewin’s approach are being developed to promote environmental stewardship (Fisher and Irvine 2016; Matthies and Kromker 2000) including the community-based initia- tives called Ecoteams (Davidson 2011; Nye and Burgess 2008; Staats and Harland 1995; Staats et  al. 2004). There are also larger-scale examples including eco- housing and ecovillages (Litfin 2013; Nelson 2018) and transition towns (Hopkins 2008). It is significant that the larger-scale examples were neither initiated nor supported by corporations, governments or major environmental organisations, instead they self- 13 Supporting Behavioural Entrepreneurs: Using the  Biodiversity-Health Relationship…