Positive Nature Futures for Transformative Change: Visions from Youth in Europe and Central Asia
Abstract
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.
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BibTeX
@misc{eriksson2026positive,
title = {{Positive Nature Futures for Transformative Change: Visions from Youth in Europe and Central Asia}},
author = {Axel E. Eriksson and Naomi Bi and Marija Chobanova and Marie Victoire Touchon and Alina Reize and Simon Landauer and Alexandra Mussina and Michael J.A. Ruggeri-Tiritante and Nynke Blömer and Adla Kahric and Aikaterini Christopoulou and Vanik Arakelyan and Abu Bakar Ali and Igli Balla and Glorija Cirkovic and Mara de Pater and Yeliz Ergöl and Borbála Györfy and Ghassen Halouani and Gor Khachatryan and Doruk Karalar and Jan Kuiper and Anita Lazurko and Mane Mkrtchyan and Thomas M. Schmitt and Jutta Stadler and Gabriel Vieira and Emina Zecic and HyeJin Kim},
howpublished = {EarthArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31223/x5w22x},
url = {https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/14852/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Positive Nature Futures for Transformative Change: Visions from Youth in Europe and Central Asia
AU - Axel E. Eriksson
AU - Naomi Bi
AU - Marija Chobanova
AU - Marie Victoire Touchon
AU - Alina Reize
AU - Simon Landauer
AU - Alexandra Mussina
AU - Michael J.A. Ruggeri-Tiritante
AU - Nynke Blömer
AU - Adla Kahric
AU - Aikaterini Christopoulou
AU - Vanik Arakelyan
AU - Abu Bakar Ali
AU - Igli Balla
AU - Glorija Cirkovic
AU - Mara de Pater
AU - Yeliz Ergöl
AU - Borbála Györfy
AU - Ghassen Halouani
AU - Gor Khachatryan
AU - Doruk Karalar
AU - Jan Kuiper
AU - Anita Lazurko
AU - Mane Mkrtchyan
AU - Thomas M. Schmitt
AU - Jutta Stadler
AU - Gabriel Vieira
AU - Emina Zecic
AU - HyeJin Kim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
PB - EarthArXiv
DO - 10.31223/x5w22x
UR - https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/14852/
AB - 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.
ER -