Understanding the causes of biodiversity change is central to improving our predictions of and responses to future changes. While causal attribution has progressed in fields such as epidemiology and economics, ecology has remained cautious, often avoiding causal claims or conflating predictive models with causal inference. However, with the rapid growth of and access to spatio-temporal biodiversity data, increased computational capacity, and interdisciplinary collaboration, there is renewed momentum to strengthen causal reasoning in ecological research.

This session will highlight recent advances in advancing causal inference in biodiversity science, including theoretical approaches, integrating underused and novel modelling perspectives, and applied uses of biodiversity change detection and attribution frameworks. We will highlight the key challenges and opportunities in applying causal approaches to biodiversity change analyses, offering an accessible overview of current methods and decision points for ecologists and applied practitioners.

Our session is aimed at fostering dialogue across disciplines, highlighting pathways towards integrating theory with data-driven approaches to advance robust causal inference in biodiversity science. We particularly welcome contributions on integrating causal and process-based models, as well as novel applications of detection-attribution frameworks, as well as studies addressing the interface of ecological causal monitoring, policy, and conservation planning.

Urban areas are among the fastest growing landscapes on Earth. Once seen mainly as drivers of biodiversity loss, cities are now recognized as complex socio-ecological systems that can harbor significant biodiversity and deliver essential ecosystem services to people. Yet, urban biodiversity remains underexplored compared to other ecosystems, with persistent blind spots in how biodiversity is studied, modeled, and valued by society.
Traditional ecological approaches often struggle to capture the unique dynamics of cities: extreme levels of habitat loss and fragmentation, rapidly shifting land use, and the interplay of ecological and social processes. Knowledge gaps remain around how species adapt to urban areas, how biodiversity contributes to human well-being, and how to scale insights from local case studies into broader conservation frameworks. Moreover, taxonomic biases, limited long-term monitoring, and insufficient integration of social and cultural aspects continue to limit our understanding.
This session highlights novel methods, concepts, and models that expand the frontiers of urban biodiversity research. We welcome contributions that may include:
- Innovative tools for studying urban biodiversity (e.g., predictive biodiversity modelling, eDNA, AI-assisted monitoring, remote sensing, citizen science).
- Urban eco-evolutionary processes and their socio-ecological drivers.
- Integration of social and cultural dimensions of biodiversity in cities.
- Case studies that identify overlooked aspects of urban biodiversity.
By addressing blind spots with new approaches, this session aims to advance a more comprehensive understanding of urban biodiversity and promote resilient, biodiverse cities that support human well-being (Global Biodiversity Framework, Target 12).

We know what causes biodiversity loss, i.e. the human activities resulting in overuse and exploitation of nature, climate change, pollution and invasion of alien species. What we seem to focus less on are the reasons beneath the causes – why did we start and continue those activities? What choices and assumptions led to the development of the trampling juggernaut of our current economic system, where it is impossible for a middle-class Westerner to go through a normal day without causing environmental damage? What alternatives could there have been – and more importantly, what kinds of axioms could underpin the creation of such economic systems that would enable us to co-exist with other species, or at least function within the planetary boundaries?

This session calls for discussion about the philosophical and historical crossroads where we chose to build our advances on assumptions that have turned out to lead to a dead-end. Through highlighting the role of axiomatic choices in the past, the aim is to assess the underpinnings of our current systems and start envisioning alternative axioms onto which we can ground more sustainable futures.

We call for e.g. post-structuralist articles exploring the roots of our current predicament or envisioning alternative pasts, presents or futures. For example, how would the economy look like if humans had been viewed as something other than Homo Economicus in the 19th century? How would our society look like if instead of utilitarianism, we had chosen virtue ethics? We welcome papers not only outlining the need for transformation but going deeper into reflecting the fundamental building blocks of both our current unsustainable systems and possible sustainable ones.

The accelerating impacts of climate change compel conservation biology to rethink traditional approaches, including the rigid dichotomy between native and non-native species. Conservation efforts increasingly require adaptive, forward-looking strategies that acknowledge biotic novelty and prioritize ecosystem function and human well-being.

Non-native species, long viewed primarily as threats, may play vital roles in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services under future climatic regimes. Some are more likely to persist than native species, providing safeguards against extinctions and ensuring continued provisioning of ecosystem functions such as pollination, carbon sequestration, or habitat structure. Novel ecosystems shaped by non-native species may also assist in species survival through processes like hybridization or novel mutualisms.

However, these potential benefits must be carefully weighed against substantial risks. Non-native species can reduce ecosystem resilience, alter trophic dynamics, and contribute to native species decline. The value of nonnative species must be considered alongside common concerns about them such as, the loss of ecological integrity and cultural values.

In this session we seek speakers who advocate for nuanced assessments that incorporate both scientific evidence and diverse societal values. This proposed session will create space for critical discussion of these emerging perspectives, facilitate the sharing of empirical evidence and case studies, and help shape a pragmatic, ethically grounded conservation paradigm. By addressing the dual roles of non-native species as both potential allies and threats, the session will foster more adaptive and inclusive conservation strategies suited to a rapidly changing world.

Addressing the biodiversity crisis requires transformative change. The sustainability research community is responding with applied transdisciplinary and co-created futures research, which aims to define and/or evaluate desirable visions for and pathways to achieve positive futures for people and nature. This research offers insights to decision makers while facilitating learning across diverse disciplines and worldviews. As a rapidly evolving field, transdisciplinary futures research is an exciting domain of methodological innovation, bringing together systems approaches, participatory methods, creative practice and integrated modelling. This session aims to generate shared learning on the research process – how framing and methodological choices were made and with what impact on outcomes – to accelerate advancement of the field. We will assemble presentations from diverse researchers and practitioners who have experimented with novel transdisciplinary methods to develop and evaluate desirable biodiversity-centric scenarios. Presenters will be asked to spotlight and critically reflect on their methods. We invite contributions from the biodiversity research community who have pursued novel transdisciplinary futures methods. We are interested in case studies that are pushing frontiers in three domains: 1) applying systems approaches to explore trade-offs, synergies and complexities across scenario trajectories, 2) incorporating imaginative or inspirational methods to ‘open up’ consideration of novel scenarios and 3) grappling with the challenges in linking rich participant views on ‘desirable’ futures into broader aims including modelling. Through bridging diverse contexts, we hope to steward future directions that can better inform and enable transformation.

SIGN-UP LINK: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CU2TcwNbZo43uieDzZPikz8LSsw2CepMYfUgZ6_jpcs/edit?usp=sharing

Scenarios and models are essential tools to inform actions for effective policy implementation in building ecosystem resilience, mitigating climate change, and enhancing human well-being amidst the unfolding polycrisis. However, whether they can support delivering these actions, depends on their forecasting capabilities to respond to rapid change through the integration of novel systems behaviours and the delivery of policy-relevant output.
In a recent review on the scenario modelling capabilities of biodiversity models, with respect to the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework and the IPBES Natures Futures Framework, we have identified key challenges and significant potentials for linking model-based scenario approaches to tackle the biodiversity-related polycrisis. These fundamental challenges include (i) the lack of causal understanding of biodiversity change across scales estimated from fragmented data, (ii) the limitations of integration of qualitative values with quantitative projections, (iii) the heterogeneity in semantic and data organization across science and policy agencies and (iv) the absence of established links between biodiversity science and the public and private sectors, including the economy and finance.
In this workshop, we will provide an open space to discuss these challenges from science-policy and biodiversity modelling perspectives. Discussions will be facilitated by panel sessions starting with science-policy agencies of change, presenting multiscale perspectives on how biodiversity modelling and scenarios are utilized in decision making. This session will be complemented by two panel discussions highlighting global to local scientific innovations from the modelling and scenarios sphere introducing collaborative inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches from biodiversity to finance.
The panel discussions will be followed by interactive exercises to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration with the aim to improve biodiversity models and scenario forecasts for their relevance to multiscale policy reporting and decision-making (e.g. CBD NBSAPs and NRs, corporate disclosure) through scientific advancements and science-policy interfaces (e.g. national biodiversity and ecosystem assessment). Breakout groups will discuss topics around (i) enhancing communication and uptake of biodiversity data, models and scenarios among diverse science and policy agencies, (ii) improving biodiversity representation in integrated assessment models and sectoral models, (iii) linking national biodiversity indicators to detection and attribution capabilities of models and scenarios, and (iv) linking biodiversity to natural capital and the economy understanding the different valuing and measuring systems.
The outcomes of this workshop will provide the basis for a roadmap sketching out needs and essential steps addressing the fundamental challenges and explicitly highlighting synergistic priority actions supporting the development and uptake of societally relevant models and scenarios across scientific and policy spaces.

- Background report on model review: https://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/ProjectDetails?ProjectId=21822
- Four pre-workshop webinars: https://km-gbf-model-review.github.io/resources/

Global agreements have set ambitious targets to stem the decline of biodiversity. However, the pathway from agreement to action is still unclear and often neglects forward-looking models to facilitate effective and efficient strategies to reach global and national targets. Reaching desired biodiversity outcomes at national and global scales will require predictive models to assess progress towards targets, guide actions, provide cost-effective solutions, and integrate local and national efforts that scale up to attain cohesive global outcomes.

In this session, we aim to highlight case studies that have applied innovative predictive models to facilitate the transformation of conservation ambitions into effective actions, with an emphasis on examples with demonstrated policy relevance. Examples might include population models that suggest the best mitigation methods to prevent the extinction of endangered species, models supporting corridor placement between protected areas, national to global models that indicate priority regions and species for conservation under varying policy-relevant scenarios, and novel cutting-edge mechanistic models such as supporting adaptive evolution to environmental change.

Overall, our session will demonstrate the value of predictive models in facilitating actions that best support biodiversity protection and facilitate discussions among policymakers, conservation practitioners, scientists, and modelers. The session would be supported by the GEO BON EcoCode collaborative. We foresee the development of a high-profile journal article summarizing and synthesizing case studies and a companion white paper for the UNEP for distribution to GBF parties.

As climate change and socio-economic transformations accelerate, the global distribution of biodiversity is undergoing rapid and often unpredictable shifts. These changes present a challenge for conventional approaches to planning area-based conservation instruments (e.g. protected areas and spatial zoning) which remain limited to relatively static representations of environmental conditions and often overlook diverse social perspectives on the goals and priorities of conservation.

This session addresses the urgent need to rethink prevailing static spatial planning instruments to make them more responsive, flexible, and forward-looking. We welcome submissions that examine innovative approaches, models, and governance frameworks that can help define area-based conservation strategies that better respond to future climate and socio-economic changes and reflect alternative conceptions of what constitutes desirable conservation outcomes. The goal of this session is to support efforts to make spatial conservation planning more dynamic, equitable, and robust under uncertainty with a view to informing international processes such as the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. In this regard, the contributions of this session will be synthesized into a set of actionable recommendations aimed at guiding planners and decision-makers in aligning biodiversity strategies with a future characterized by climate and socio-economic changes.

Envisioning desirable futures for biodiversity requires not only compelling narratives but also rigorous and operational frameworks that can be applied across contexts and scales. This session highlights the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) as a methodological foundation for developing biodiversity-centric scenarios and translating them into actionable strategies for sustainability and governance. Presentations will demonstrate how the NFF has been, or could be, employed to construct scenarios that connect local realities with global drivers, integrate social, ecological, and governance dimensions across scales, and embed plural knowledge systems—including Indigenous and local perspectives—into the scenario development process. A key focus will be on translating these scenarios into practical pathways for policy and decision-making. By concentrating on methodological innovation, the session will illuminate both the analytical strengths and the practical challenges of applying nature-focused perspectives, including the treatment of uncertainty, the integration of diverse disciplinary approaches and knowledge systems, and the challenge of scaling from local case studies to national strategies. Through critical reflection on ongoing applications, the session aims to provide concrete insights into the use of the NFF across scales, clarify its methodological strengths and limitations, foster exchange on integrating plural knowledge systems into scenario work, and identify opportunities for embedding the NFF into governance and policy frameworks. In doing so, it will strengthen collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers while inspiring methodological advances for biodiversity futures research.

Addressing biodiversity loss and navigating toward more resilient futures requires knowledge that is not only scientifically robust but also grounded in long-term engagement with people and places. Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platforms are vital infrastructures for producing such knowledge. They enable a deeper understanding of the dynamic interactions between biodiversity, land use, and societal change. Across diverse regions and contexts, LTSER initiatives integrate ecological monitoring with social science perspectives, working with stakeholders to generate insights that support transformation toward sustainability.

This session invites contributions from researchers and practitioners involved in long-term, integrative biodiversity research, particularly those exploring how such knowledge can inform future-oriented thinking and action. We are interested in approaches that explicitly engage with questions of desired futures, scenario development, or pathways for social-ecological transformation. Of particular interest are cases that highlight how embedded, inter- and transdisciplinary research can help anticipate developments, navigate uncertainty, and support adaptive governance.

Examples from platforms such as the Kili-SES project in Tanzania and the Biodiversity Exploratories in Germany will serve as starting points to discuss how long-term, place-based research can contribute to collective narratives and informed decision-making for biodiversity. We welcome submissions from other LTSER sites and comparable initiatives that combine ecological and societal dimensions to co-create knowledge for sustainable futures.

The human capacity to imagine alternative futures—and thereby enable transformation—is deeply connected to our nature as homo narrans. Narratives and stories play a central role in shaping how we envision desirable futures for both biodiversity and people.
They are also crucial tools in the societal discourse and negotiation processes that decides which futures are realised and how.
In recent years, narratives have increasingly come into focus within biodiversity research (cf. Louder/Wyborn 2020), with various disciplines across the social sciences and humanities approaching the topic from diverse perspectives and with varying conceptual and terminological understandings. This session aims to pursue three interconnected goals:
First, we seek to foster an inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue on how narratives and stories are used in different research disciplines and in biodiversity communication. What roles do they play in shaping public discourse, policy, or conservation practice?
Second, we are particularly interested in the relationship between narrative and ethics: How do environmental narratives reveal the values people attribute to biodiversity? How do they engage with the 'rough edges' of nature—the disvalues or conflicting aspects of biodiversity? And to what extent can narratives help to shape and strengthen the psychological, cultural and moral values associated with biodiversity?
Third, we aim to discuss concrete case studies that showcase environmental narratives which imagine desirable futures for biodiversity—and pathways to reach them.
We invite contributions from scholars across the social sciences and humanities, as well as practitioners engaged in biodiversity communication, who work with or critically reflect on environmental narratives.

Societies are experiencing an extinction of direct nature experiences, leading to a deepened disconnect from biodiversity. At the same time, more of our shared meaning-making, knowledge formation, and agency creation now happens in digital spaces – nature values not being an exception. While digital media are often portrayed as part of the problem, they also hold untapped potential to foster new forms of reconnection and care for nature.

This session takes Digital Relational Nature Values and Digital Environmental Stewardship as an entry point to explore the broader social–ecological digital interface (Langemeyer & Calcagni, 2022). Drawing on insights from the BIG-5 project (Fostering Internet-based Values of the Environment, www.big-5.eu), we invite external contributions that investigate how digital media shape people’s relationships with nature, and how these can be mobilized to support biodiversity protection. We welcome contributions that share conceptual, methodological, empirical, or practical insights, including (but not limited to):

• Digital mediation of nature experiences and value creation
• Digital-physical conservation and restoration interactions (e.g. value-action gap)
• Innovative approaches at the intersection of social–ecological systems and digital technologies
• Opportunities and risks of digital engagement for representing the needs of humans and other species in biodiversity restoration planning

Intended Outcome
The session discussion aims at an advanced understanding of how to turn digital media influence into tangible biodiversity benefits. By sharing diverse perspectives, the session aims to build a community of researchers and practitioners engaging with the amphibious realm of social–ecological digital realities.

SIGN-UP LINK: https://forms.gle/TL8YTvDphdtvyDdw7

We are now more than halfway to the 2030 deadline of the Global Biodiversity Framework, and yet global biodiversity indicators continue to decline, and we are not on track to meet its objectives. Progress is further complicated by several challenges, including:

- Partial reporting that highlight positive actions while masking negative impacts.
- Incomplete integration of non-governmental data that could help track real-world progress.
- A lack of tools to inform forward-looking policy choices that prioritise long-term global benefits over short-term national gains.

To begin addressing these challenges, we propose a new initiative: ‘NATURE Impacts’, which aims to assess national progress towards achieving the Global Biodiversity Framework’s mission of halting and reversing nature loss by 2030.

By leveraging existing datasets and engaging a broad range of stakeholders with expertise in national-level conservation contexts, NATURE Impacts will evaluate national commitments and actions contribute to global biodiversity recovery, aiming to provide civil society with the information needed to prioritise actions that can deliver the greatest positive impacts for nature. Over time, the project seeks to develop an evidence-based, dynamic picture of opportunities to accelerate progress and increase ambition for global nature recovery.

This workshop will begin with a short framing session introducing the NATURE Impacts initiative and outlining the framework. This will be followed by two breakout discussions designed to generate insights to inform the next phase of the project.

Participants will be invited to reflect on the following questions:
- What information is needed to prioritise actions in your country for maximum global benefit?
- Is it possible to assess fair allocation of effort between countries, and how might this be done?

Insights generated during the breakout sessions will be used to:
- Identify priority indicators for assessing national contributions to global biodiversity recovery.
- Highlight key data gaps and practical challenges in measuring and monitoring biodiversity status, policy actions, and cross-border environmental impacts.
- Explore approaches for assessing fair allocation of effort between nations, including metrics such as economic capacity, development level, population, and consumption footprints.
- Identify opportunities for pilot applications, partnerships, and further collaboration to advance the NATURE Impacts initiative.
- Identify information to inform a phase of modelling to underpin a policy tool.

Healthy soils are the foundation of sustainable agricultural production. The importance of soil biodiversity for a resource-efficient and stress-resilient agriculture is increasingly being recognized, with initiatives like the EU's Horizon Soil Missions leading the way. However, the best farming practices that enhance soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in specific contexts and under future climate conditions – including those targeting aboveground diversification – remain to be determined.

In this 180 min workshop, we aim to bridge this gap by bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders involved in past and current European research projects – including agronomists, biologists, soil scientists, social scientists, agricultural advisors, and policymakers. Together, we will identify the most efficient and context-specific practices for enhancing biodiversity and the functioning of agroecosystems without compromising agricultural production. We plan to invite participants from ongoing and completed EU projects working at the intersection of sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and soil health, as well as anyone interested in contributing to this important dialogue.

Workshop structure:
1) 4-6 presentations from invited EU projects highlighting key insights and challenges (60 + 10 min break).
2) Group discussions to share and reflect on best practices for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (50 + 10 min break).
3) Plenary session to synthesize discussions into a draft roadmap for future research and policy (50 min).

Expected outcomes:
1) A strong expert network across biodiversity realms to support future sustainable agroecosystem projects.
2) A roadmap paper consolidating current knowledge and outlining key research gaps and policy priorities.

In recent years, the ongoing climate crisis has powerfully shaped public discourse, activism, and policy priorities worldwide. However, the equally urgent biodiversity crisis receives less attention, despite its relevance for our planet’s future. How can we ensure that addressing climate change does not come at the expense of awareness and action on biodiversity loss? What role do shared narratives play in making biodiversity issues more salient and actionable, and how can these narratives be designed to resonate with diverse audiences?
This participatory workshop aims to foster dialogue and creativity among researchers, practitioners, and communicators from across disciplines. After a brief input on the power of narratives in science communication, participants will divide into small groups to collaboratively develop innovative, integrative narratives on biodiversity communication. Through guided discussion, groups will identify strengths and weaknesses in climate and biodiversity discourses – such as the climate movement’s strong public visibility versus the often overlooked importance of biodiversity – and experiment with ways to use the strengths of one to address the weaknesses of the other.
The 90 min. workshop will also engage participants in critical reflection on the role of emotionality in science communication: What kinds and degrees of emotions are both appropriate and effective in the current situation? How can we strike a balance between mobilizing concern and fostering constructive engagement?
The session will conclude with a plenary exchange of developed narratives and a discussion on how these can be applied in practice to spark new collaborations and strategies for communicating the urgency and relevance of biodiversity change in a warming world.

Novel ecosystems—assemblages that diverge from historical baselines in composition, function, and dynamics—are increasingly widespread, yet their role in biodiversity futures remains contested. Some view novelty as a loss of ecological integrity, while others emphasize its potential to sustain biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and human well-being under accelerating global change. This session seeks to advance conceptual clarity by critically examining what constitutes novelty, how it differs across ecological and cultural contexts, and how these definitions shape scientific, management, and policy responses.

We will explore implications for biodiversity futures, recognising how novel ecosystems both challenge conservation targets based on historical reference conditions and open opportunities for resilience, ecosystem service provision, and adaptive governance. The session will also showcase emerging methods for anticipating novelty, including detection frameworks, scenario modelling, and early-warning indicators that can identify thresholds, forecast trajectories, and assess trade-offs between resisting, guiding, or accepting novelty.

Finally, contributors will examine governance and ethical dimensions of ecological novelty. Central to this discussion are questions of when, and under what conditions, acceptance of novelty is ecologically, socially, or ethically legitimate. By engaging diverse disciplinary and practice-based perspectives, the session will provide critical insights into how we define, anticipate, and govern novel ecosystems, and how these choices shape pathways to biodiversity futures.

As over 190 countries commit to the Global Biodiversity Framework’s call for transformative change, cities emerge as critical arenas for action. Urban areas concentrate people, infrastructure, and governance—making them powerful leverage points to reverse biodiversity loss, mitigate climate change, and enhance quality of life.

This session explores how cities can be reimagined as biodiversity-positive, climate-resilient, and socially inclusive spaces, where nature is not just conserved, but reintegrated into daily urban life. We ask: what does it mean to “live in harmony with nature” in urban contexts and how can this vision be realized?

Achieving this vision requires more than technical fixes: it demands for systemic approaches that address both biophysical and social drivers of change, rethinking cities as entangled systems of built and living elements. We invite contributions that integrate ecological, climatic, and social dimensions of urban transformation, and highlight how diverse values, preferences, and knowledges can guide equitable and adaptive planning. We especially welcome inter- and transdisciplinary work linking biotic and abiotic components (plants, animals, soil, water, climate) and community well-being (human and non-human life).

Key themes include:
- Pathways to biodiversity-positive and multispecies urban futures
- Urban green space design under climate and social pressures
- Intersections of plant traits, community assembly, and microclimate regulation
- Social and ecological drivers of urban vegetation selection and care
- Strategies aligning biodiversity, resilience, and human well-being
- Inclusive governance, relational values, and cross-sector collaboration

In order to achieve transformative futures, it is helpful to contemplate what is meant by ‘transformative change’. IPBES’s (2019: XVIII) definition of transformative change as a “fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values” is now widely used. At the same time, it is interpreted in many different ways, leading to some uses that are decidedly not transformative. So, what exactly is transformative change? In this 90-minute workshop, we present a tool from our project “Translating transformations: Improving transdisciplinary transformative change initiatives by promoting critical social science literacy” that was designed to answer such a question. Grounded in critical social theory on societal power dynamics, the goal of the tool/workshop is to assist participants with learning how to critically assess (proposed) solutions to societal and environmental problems, and whether they could be considered transformative change. Specifically, participants will learn from the tool, and from each other, to categorize solutions as mitigation, adaption, or transformation. The workshop consists of a brief introduction followed by a dynamic mixture of individual and small group activities. Intended outcomes include improved capacity for differentiating types of change with practical generalized examples, as well as examples from participants’ own fields. Additionally, participants will gain experience with our open access tool, which they may use in their own work/contexts.

SIGN-UP LINK: https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/x/GnQR1twW

Globally, there is a growing interest from the younger or present future generation, commonly known as the early-career researchers (ECRs), in engaging in SPPIs. This is driven by several factors, including but not limited to the need to contribute to positive societal change, understand policy processes, and career development, among others (Filyushkina et al., 2022). In most regions, such as Africa, the barriers among the Next Gen of Leaders to effectively contribute to and strengthen SPPI include a lack of adequate understanding about involvement channels, limited knowledge of engagement platforms and opportunities, funding constraints, inadequate and/or sometimes inappropriate training, and, many times, low credibility perceptions of emerging capacity by other actors across the SPPI.

Despite the ongoing efforts to address the drivers of change and achieve the biodiversity-climate-society connectivity goal, little attention is placed on bringing together inter-generational think-tanks, policy-actors, and grassroots players from various disciplines and spaces. Africa is experiencing a deficit or lack of deliberate programs that are designed to leverage the inter-generational SPPI research talents and skills, expertise, innovation, and lived experiences to help upend the curves of change and achieve biodiversity-climate-society connectivity. The NextGen of SPPI Leaders on Biodiversity, Climate, and Society seeks to consolidate and transfer, through a regional stock-take, inter-generational SPPI capacity and leadership in Africa. It will co-create, implement, and evaluate SPPI initiatives that seek to address, through fostering partnerships and collaborations, the triple-challenge of biodiversity loss, climate crisis, and the need to meet socio-economic needs.  

This workshop will present latest developments in nature-related scenarios; connect research, finance and policy; identify scaling opportunities:

• Explore the latest developments in nature-related scenario design and modeling approaches, including new frameworks, indicators, and data integration methods.
• Discuss how nature risk scenarios can inform regional or corporate planning and both micro- and macroprudential risk assessment, supervision, and central bank mandates.
• Identify challenges and opportunities for financial institutions, regulators, and supervisors in integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services risks into their assessment and decision-making processes.
• Highlight the role of international collaboration in advancing science-based, forward-looking tools for managing financial risks from biodiversity loss or ecosystem services degradation.
• Reflect on biodiversity and ecosystem services risk assessment – what data, models, and partnerships are still needed to mainstream nature-related scenarios from the local to the global level.

Speakers: Maria J. Santos (University of Zurich), Benjamin S. Black (ZALF/ ETH Zurich), Fernando Resende (IIS Brazil), Elise Kremer (NGFS, Banque de France).
Chair: Florian Altermatt (University of Zurich and EAWAG).
Conveners: Maud Abdelli (WWF International), Oliver Schelske (Swiss Re Foundation), Eloi Astier (AXA Foundation for Human Progress), Claudio Nuber (EY), Adrien Portafaix (EY)

A common approach to transformative change centers on rethinking human-nature relations. While some Transdisciplinary Transformative Change Initiatives (TTCIs) succeed with this, they often stress ‘reconnection’ as a starting point (Abson et al. 2017), assuming that human-human relations are inconsequential and nature is something we can ‘disconnect’ from – contrasting with holistic worldviews. Other TTCIs have engaged Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives but often without addressing how power prioritizes certain forms of knowledge. As a result, these efforts can lead to problematic knowledge extraction or subordination of such perspectives (Latulippe & Klenk 2020).
We aimed to address these issues by interweaving experiences and knowledges of Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics and practitioners; inviting Indigenous Peoples’ intervention in Western lands rather than the reverse; and centering holistic understandings in Swiss nature conservation. Using adaptations of the Three Horizons Framework (3H) and Two-Eyed Seeing, we co-developed protocols, practices, and methods (PPMs) to re-visibilize human-human/-nature connections.
This 3-hour workshop facilitates mutual knowledge exchange by drawing on our experiences and working with participants’ projects. It combines short conceptual inputs with individual and small-group activities. In the first half, participants will work with 3H and Two-Eyed Seeing using one of their own projects. In the second half, they will experiment with our PPMs.
Intended outcomes include improved capacity to work with multiple knowledge systems and to ‘re-visibilize’ relations, supported by practical examples from participants’ projects. Participants will also gain hands-on experience with our methods and tools to apply in their contexts.