Surviving in Europe: geopolitics of biodiversity conservation illustrated by a proxy species Viola uliginosa

Building strategies for continental‐scale conservation is challenging due to evolutionary and geopolitical problems. How do policy choices arise from this setting? In this study, we integrate ecological research with policy analysis to examine the problem field with a case study research. We use a violet species endemic to Europe, Viola uliginosa , as a proxy for a significant European Union ( EU )–Russian biodiversity pattern and its conservation. The violet's core populations locate in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, and all populations in the EU are peripheral. The species is endangered in 12 EU member states and in decline in many places elsewhere. To analyze the choices of conservation, we gathered data on its ecology, distribution, and conservation mechanisms across Europe, putting additional emphasis on the EU enlargement and long‐term site histories in Finland. We found that the survival of the species in the EU depends on the enlargement negotiations, conflicts between the EU biodiversity and agricultural policies, selection of the species to national Red Lists and the Habitats Directive, and contingent site histories depending on the conservation activities by civic actors and the member states. While the evolutionary aspect emphasizes the genetic differentiation potential of peripheral populations, the geopolitical aspect characterizes the EU as simultaneous spaces of a monotopia, borderlands, and polycentric development. We conclude that intersections between these geopolitical spaces can be used with evolutionary perspectives to identify local, European, and network‐driven policy choices of conservation.