Positive Nature Futures for Transformative Change: Visions from Youth in Europe and Central Asia

Axel E. Eriksson , Naomi Bi , Marija Chobanova , Marie Victoire Touchon, Alina Reize , Simon Landauer , Alexandra Mussina, Michael J.A. Ruggeri-Tiritante, Nynke Blömer, Adla Kahric, Aikaterini Christopoulou , Vanik Arakelyan, Abu Bakar Ali, Igli Balla, Glorija Cirkovic, Mara de Pater, Yeliz Ergöl , Borbála Györfy, Ghassen Halouani , Gor Khachatryan , Doruk Karalar, Jan Kuiper, Anita Lazurko , Mane Mkrtchyan, Thomas M. Schmitt, Jutta Stadler , Gabriel Vieira, Emina Zecic, HyeJin Kim

Amid an escalating global crisis for safeguarding nature and its contributions to people, advancing methods to envision and realise transformative change is increasingly urgent. The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) provides a heuristic to co-create visions of positive futures centred on human-nature relationship and diverse values of nature. Despite its potential, the application of the NFF among youth remains limited. To address this gap, visioning was facilitated for young people in Europe and Central Asia during the Regional Youth Workshop on IPBES held in Vilm, Germany. Twenty-five participants (aged 18-30) were introduced to use the NFF and a range of methods – including the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes, Future Wheels, Verge and creative presentations – to co-develop five distinct visions grounded in plural value perspectives on nature. These visions were analysed on their similarities and differences using reflexive thematic analysis and explored for transformative change elements, alongside a pre- and post-visioning sentiment analysis. Our findings indicate that participatory visioning holds strong potential to promote transformative thinking and action towards sustainability. We recommend a wider uptake of the NFF among youth and other relevant actors to embrace diversity and hope, inspire collaboration and action, and contribute to the global vision of living in harmony with nature.