Here, we are interested in all the plural forms that youngsters used to talk about nature, biodiversity, fauna, flora, and so on. Looking for these elements in the narratives helped us understand how young people might view the future relationships between humans and the rest of the living world.
We initially expected nature, animals and plants to figure prominently in young people’s images of the future. We were wrong. Biodiversity is present in the projects, but apart from 7 projects, it is rarely the core topic.
Nonetheless, the projects yielded really interesting insights on how young people were looking at this issue.
Nature as greening
The first layer of integration of nature in the narratives is the idea of adding more plants, flowers and trees to human-made environments such as cities. For example, the young citizens of Nitra in Message Towards the Region want to plant more trees around their schools. In Paris, the students involved in Défis Résilience imagined political incentives to bring more green, hoping it would bring more biodiversity in the city, and help cool down the streets.
“From courtyard to balcony
Biodiversity in condominiums
The first axis is the compulsory greening of condominiums, with a target of 50% of the surface area within 5 years.”
Défis Résilience
Nature as experience: a renewed relationship
In some initiatives, the importance of gardening and revegetation is a sign of renewed attention to nature. Pedagogías del Mañana developed pedagogical modules to overcome “vegetation blindness” with the help of the visual artist Seila Fernández Arconada. The children first learned how “plant blindness1” tends to erase flora in human history and perception. Then they reconnected with plants, learning to name them and care for them.
Bagmati River Youth Project enabled the local youth to change their perception of the local river. Even though Bagmati is a sacred river, it was full of waste and pollution. Changing how young people perceived the river and its ecosystem became the precondition for them to begin caring for it in tangible ways.
“Clean, green, magical, beautiful Bagmati in ten years, where people can meditate, exercise or simply view the scenic beauty of nature along with different flora and fauna in the water and basin area.”
Bagmati River Youth Project
Nature as milieu
Further reflecting about humans’ relationship to nature, many narratives question the numerous interactions we have with other living beings. Crafting Change through Natural Dye-making proposes during their workshops a collective reflection on humans’ connections to land and waters. It invites participants to reflect on how colonial relationships transformed ecosystems, and to draw inspiration from indigenous knowledge.
The narrative that emerged from Aubervilliers 2124’s workshops completely reimagined the place of nature in the city, turning one-third of the urban territory into forests and/or agricultural production spaces. It completely transforms how we imagine everyday urban features, with for example a cemetery-orchard. Human societies and nature are so intertwined that it is no longer possible to say where one begins and the other ends.
The scenario also relies on collaboration with natural processes in order to properly decontaminate polluted areas of the city. Several techniques were used, from mycoremediation (fungi) to phycoremediation (algae), as well as planting flax and hemp which also provided material for building construction or isolation.
For the relationship with the fauna, we can look at the tribe of the Fénicy coming out of Générations F. The citizens in this community of 2225 have a special connection with animals, even capable of communicating with them and collaborating in an ethical way for some tasks like shipping goods.
Nature under attack : rights of natural entities
Some young participants advocated for ecosystems’ or nature’s rights.
It was at the center of the experience of the Théâtre des Négociations where the students enacted a COP negotiation while representing delegations outside the current UN model such as oceans, soil, forests, atmosphere, polar regions and so on.
We can not know to what extent it influenced the result of these complex negotiations, but a great place is given to nature in the 30 pages-long document containing their common visions for the future.
“Representatives of ecosystems will be recognized as having specific governance competencies for innovative and ambitious climate-related actions. An international legal framework shall be established for each major and unique ecosystem that addresses transboundary environmental and climate change issues.”
Théâtre des Négociations
Christine Ro, “Why ‘plant blindness’ matters — and what you can do about it”, BBC, 2022