Tracking the Progress Towards Preferable Biodiversity and Climate Futures in the Barotse Cultural Landscape of Zambia
Abstract
Dominant narratives persist in conservation efforts that nature is an external force with little recognition of the relationships people have with it. This has led to poorly thought-through interventions and contributed to the slowing down of efforts to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change in complex social ecological systems. Inspiring visions based on diverse approaches and knowledges can inform more transformative actions in these systems. The aim of this article is to explore how visions of desirable relationships between people and nature can inform actions towards transformative change and how progress towards these nature futures can be tracked in the Barotse Cultural Landscape of Zambia. A futures visioning workshop was held with diverse biodiversity and climate actors. Three narratives based on the three value perspectives of the Nature Futures Framework were developed. The actions were deductively clustered into 10 themes based on existing literature on the Nature Futures Framework. An additional theme centred on indigenous spiritual practice emerged. Proxy outcomes and indicators for each proposed action were identified based on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Transformative Change Assessment. Two actions had no corresponding indicators. We propose a human–nature communication index as a novel way to track progress. This work contributes to filling the continent-sized gap on aspirational African futures in global discourse on biodiversity and climate futures. The produced narratives provide actionable knowledge towards what diverse approaches towards meeting these aspirations look like when they are informed by diverse values.
Abstract
Section titled “Abstract”Abstract Dominant narratives persist in conservation efforts that nature is an external force with little recognition of the relationships people have with it. This has led to poorly thought-through interventions and contributed to the slowing down of efforts to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change in complex social ecological systems. Inspiring visions based on diverse approaches and knowledges can inform more transformative actions in these systems. The aim of this article is to explore how visions of desirable relationships between people and nature can inform actions towards transformative change and how progress towards these nature futures can be tracked in the Barotse Cultural Landscape of Zambia. A futures visioning workshop was held with diverse biodiversity and climate actors. Three narratives based on the three value perspectives of the Nature Futures Framework were developed. The actions were deductively clustered into 10 themes based on existing literature on the Nature Futures Framework. An additional theme centred on indigenous spiritual practice emerged. Proxy outcomes and indicators for each proposed action were identified based on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Transformative Change Assessment. Two actions had no corresponding indicators. We propose a human–nature communication index as a novel way to track progress. This work contributes to filling the continent-sized gap on aspirational African futures in global discourse on biodiversity and climate futures. The produced narratives provide actionable knowledge towards what diverse approaches towards meeting these aspirations look like when they are informed by diverse values.