​Malmö municipality employees’ relation with nature in the context of flowering plants, pollinators and ecosystem services : An investigation of goals and conflicts within municipality work

Abstract: Cities are facing a loss of green areas that are important for reasons such as the support of pollinators. Pollination of flowering plants is a part of the concept of ecosystem services and is beneficial for humans in providing food security and the upkeep of urban ecosystems. Malmö municipality has the ambition of being a role model for environmental work and has goals within their environmental program such as increasing biodiversity that is deemed crucial for the ecosystems’ ability to provide benefits to humans. The environmental program also clarifies the term ecosystem services in relation to the benefits gained from ecosystems. The purpose of this thesis was therefore to investigate factors affecting Malmö municipality employees' work with nature, their relation with the concept of ecosystem services and pollinators, and how these concepts and goals are expressed in relation to work with flowering plants. To achieve this, an abductive and qualitative approach was used, with semi-structured interviews as the data collection method. The analysis was performed by applying the chosen theoretical framework: goal-framing theory, the Planner's Triangle and two moral status theories; anthropocentrism and biocentrism. This study showed that planners’ goals cause conflicts in a social climate with an underlying anthropocentric and social perspective that led to work in nature that mainly benefits humans. The study also showed a lack of knowledge regarding the concept of ecosystem services and pollinators that often led to the concepts not being applied within the work of ornamental and aesthetically pleasing flowering plants. The study identified that hedonic, gain and normative goals from an anthropocentric perspective within the Malmö municipality employees led to a perspective on nature that resulted in work with flowers with aesthetic considerations.