Getting out of our comfort zones to build Soulful Partnerships: Exploring Human-Nature Relations for a People-and Nature Positive Future

Session abstract
In times of accelerating ecological and social crises, the concept of ecosystem services often risks being framed in purely instrumental, human-centered terms. This is a risk, as this approach is also less likely to garner broader support for such measures. Based on our experience, there is an urgent need for approaches that recognize nature as a partner, kin, and co-creator of thriving futures (i.e., humans working together with nature). This interactive session explores how pluralistic values, inner transformations, and soulful connections can enrich the discourse on ecosystem services, contributing to people- and nature-positive futures.

Drawing on our journey of engaging with posthuman city visions (i.e., urban acupuncture, urban human-nature resonance, buen vivir), Indigenous and ecocentric worldviews, and practices of human–nature partnership, we will share our personal and professional story that illustrates both the challenges and the transformative potential of rethinking human–nature relations. Participants will then be invited into an experiential, embodied human-nature partnership practice —through meditation and ritual-inspired exercises, such as stone reading—to approach nature as soulful kin. The session continues with a creative reflection, where participants express their experiences through journaling, poetry, or drawing. We will conclude by jointly reflecting on the implications of these experiences for the scientific and policy-oriented discourse on ecosystem services, and how to integrate inner and outer transformations into the pathway toward a people- and nature-positive future.

Goals and objectives of the session

• To bring experiential and relational dimensions into the ecosystem services discourse.
• To explore how Indigenous, ecocentric, and posthuman perspectives can inform people- and nature-positive futures in cities and beyond.
• To engage participants in embodied and creative practices that foster relational capacities with nature.
• To generate ideas on how to integrate inner transformations and soulful partnerships into ecosystem services research, practice, and education.
• To identify actionable steps for advancing the ecosystem services community’s engagement with values, worldviews, and practices that honor nature as partner and kin.